First up, Tucker and Dale Vs Evil,a 2010 Canadian American horror comedy that was directed by Sally Field's youngest son Eli Craig. He co-wrote the thing with Morgan Jurgenson and the script is a hoot. It stars Alan Tudyk whom some might remember as the pilot in Firefly, Taylor Labine whom some might remember as Sock in Reapers, and Katrina Bowden whom some might have seen on 30 Rock. Katrina is part of a group of kind of annoying college students who rent a cabin in the woods in hillbilly country. On the way they are scared by a couple of rednecks in a truck but those guys are the stars of the show. Alan and Tyler play Tucker and Dale who are on their way to Tucker's new holiday cabin. He's always wanted one and even though it's a bit run down all the guys can see is a great cabin. The place reminds me of the cabin in Evil Dead and that just one of many references to your typical horror movie. The college students decide to go skinny dipping in the same lake as Tucker and Dale. Katrina, startled, falls into the lake and hits her head. Our heros rescue her but the college student who saw them assumed they are up to no good and that starts the ball rolling. One kid after another is killed in some pretty entertaining ways as they heap one bit of stupidity on top of another. One kid seeing Tucker waving a chainsaw runs right into the forest and empales himself on a branch. Tucker wasn't doing anything except cutting some brush. He cut into a bee nest and tried to outrun the angry bees. Katrina wakes up in the cabin ad assumes she was kidnapped but she soon learns that Dale is a sweetheart that can't even kill fish. The college students assume Katrina was kidnapped too, especially when stirred up by the only evil on that mountain one of the more annoying college kids. He's got quite the back story, his mother was raped and killed by hillbillies in that same area 20 years ago and he's got a grudge. He riles up a couple of the other guys and gets them to attack. They are so poor at it that one of them impales himself on his own spear and the other, while jumping Tucker, dives head first into a running wood chipper. Sadly, Woody the Chipper just isn't strong enough to grind that whole kid up and all that's left the lower half of his body. One after another the kids do the wrong thing and it leads them to their doom. Don't worry Dale and Tucker survive and there is even a bit of romance between Dale and Katrina. They really are a couple of sweet kids. Tucker doesn't fare as well but he's still alive at the end of the movie. He's even got his two severed fingers back and at least one of them might be his. Definately worth a look for the horror fan who likes abit of comedy with his killin'. I know we laughed a lot and outloud.
Not quite as funny was Guy Ritchie's 2008 film RocknRolla but we still got a few good chuckles out of it. It a crime story in the same vein as Ritchie's Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. We follow the lives of some London criminals, dirty politicians, and crooked land developers. Bribes and special favors will get you far in the city. Gerard Butler is part of a small criminal group called the Wild Bunch. He's pals with Thandie Newton and she's this rich Russian's accountant. The Russian needs a bribe to grease the wheels for the new complex he wants to build. The local head criminal, Lenny, wants the bribe to give to the city councilman in his pocket. Thandie arranges to have the money stolen and Gerard is the guy to do it. The Russian gives Lenny a painting. The Russian believes it's his lucky painting and he wants it back after the deal goes through. Of course Lenny's deal rockstar junkie son steals it. He's not a zombie, he's a junkie rockstar who faked his death. Tom Wilkinson plays the evil Lenny and Mark Strong plays his right hand man Archie. There's a lot of dirty dealing and double crossing in the movie and most all the evilest of them suffer nasty dooms. There's humor in the story and plenty of great dialog in the script. The various Brit accents are entertaining to me. Well worth a look and it serves as a good reminder to dig out Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch and watch those again. There was a card at the end of Rocknrolla that mentioned a sequel. Ritchie said recently that there is a script for Rocknrolla 2 but the Sherlock Holmes series and the forthcoming The Man From Uncle film are eating up all his time. I'd watch Rocknrolla agin. I should keep an eye out for a cheap copy.
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