Those ass backwards mountain hillbillies who routinely get the jump on unsuspecting city folk in any number of horror movies? They have feelings too, and perhaps we need to start seeing things from their perspective? Maybe all those murders were a big misunderstanding? Tucker and Dale vs. Evil ingeniously twists the typical horror spoof, taking the genre's usual trappings and presenting them in a believable, albeit comical, way. Throw in two fantastic performances by the underrated Alan Tudyk(Firefly) and Tyler Labine(A Good Old Fashioned Orgy), a shot of scorching hot sexiness in Katrina Bowden(Sex Drive) and you've got the recipe for hilarious horror fun.
Even though I didn't quite have the venom for the little blue runts as some others did, take it's presence here as an indication of the weakness of this week's DVD slate. The magical blue creatures we've all come to know and love from Saturday morning cartoons have been transported into live-action/CGI territory, in a story that sends them into New York City searching for the mysterious Blue Moon that will transport them home. The usually reliable Neil Patrick Harris plays an expectant father receiving parenting tips from Papa Smurf, and Hank Azaria scores the most laughs of the entire film as the bumbling wizard, Gargamel. Adults looking for a nostalgia fix may find a few things worth chuckling about(the Smurfs are kinda creepy when you think about them), but this is really just a flick to distract the kids for awhile.
Two movies with exactly the same premise were duking it out for the last year, racing to see which one would hit theaters first. No Strings Attached won out, with it's gorgeous pairing of Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher. A few months later, the less flashy but no less attractive Friends with Benefits arrived, sporting the sexy duo of Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis. Both flicks earned about the same amount of money worldwide ($148M), but one film was clearly better than the other. Friends with Benefits features a snappy, hip script, and the pairing of Timberlake and Kunis steams up the screen, whereas Portman and Kutcher have all the heat of an old married couple.
Other Notable Releases
Smallville: The Complete 10th Season
Seven Days in Utopia, starring Robert Duvall and Melissa Leo
Cave of Forgotten Dreams, directed by Werner Herzog
One Day, starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess
30 Minutes or Less, starring Jesse Eisenberg and Aziz Ansari
Our Idiot Brother, starring Paul Rudd and Elizabeth Banks
Another Earth, starring Brit Marling
The Art of Getting By, starring Freddie Highmore and Emma Roberts
The Future, written/directed/starring Miranda July
5 Days of War, starring Val Kilmer and Emmanuelle Chriqui
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