Not much has made me laugh this year. There’s been an onslaught of R rated comedies and nothing has hit the spot quite like “Tucker and Dale vs. Evil.” Eli Craig’s horror comedy is a film that works more so as a comedy film and it had me laughing non-stop for ninety minutes with a premise so clever it’s shocking that this is the first time we’ve seen it accomplished before. The premise is tricky, but Craig handles the material with enough finesse and creativity to where nothing feels forced or drawn out to fill time. The film is a merciful ninety minutes and that’s all it needs to tell its story. You’d think with a movie featuring such morbid dark humor that Craig’s creative work would be mean spirited, but surprisingly, he opts for unbelievable dark humor that works in ways that will leave audiences slapping their knees with laughter.
Tag Archives: Dark Comedy
Horrible Bosses (2011)
“Horrible Bosses” has an interesting premise. It’s about three men, all with three variously demented and wicked bosses, who decide one night to murder them each. Do they dare live out the American Dream? But within the good intentions and sharp casting (Colin Farrell with a comb over is hysterical, nevertheless) lies a fairly unpleasant movie that tries to be about as outrageous as your humdrum Farrelly Brothers film and fails to even remotely funny or laugh inducing. Three men with three different bosses decide enough is enough begin planning, with the help of a hit man, their untimely demises.
Bad Teacher (2011)
Assholes are just a part of life. They’re there when we wake up and they’re there when we go to sleep, the only consolation we can take in this revelation is that they’ll likely never learn their lessons and will continue being assholes until the day they die. That’s the moral behind “Bad Teacher,” a veritable “Bad Santa” clone that takes a misanthropic bombshell and plants her in the middle of All American suburbia where she’s forced to interact with kids and positive role models on a daily basis when she seeks only to gratify her own base needs and nothing more.
Super (2010)
Why wasn’t “Kick Ass” this kind of movie? I mean granted I loved the comic book from Mark Millar, but “Kick Ass” the movie was not what I originally envisioned. “Super” from director James Gunn is what a movie about a regular man fighting crime should be. Funny, original, inventive, and dark, “Super” is that movie the big budget spectacle should have been, a story about a demented individual who tracks his sheer insanity with the use of his red costume and monkey wrench, fighting crime, and inevitably coming across real evil in pursuit of his own form of identity.
Rubber (2010)
Robert is a tire. Robert is in the ground. Robert gains a consciousness and decides he doesn’t want to be rubble. Robert gets up and starts rolling down the road. He blows things up with its will. It squashes bugs. Now that it’s caught the eye (?) of a gorgeous young traveler, Robert is rolling down after her and is intent on garnering her attention.
Why? No reason.
Does there have to be a reason?
Insecticidal (2005)
“Maggoty cannibal girls don’t get dates!”
Bitchy (but hot) Josi is throwing the party of the week at her sorority house, where booze runs heavy and gorgeous women scamper around. The only sister not having fun is her own. Young Cami is a scientist and geeky (but hot) aspiring entomologist who worships bugs and garners her own bug zoo in her room. On a bitchy tirade, Josi storms in to Cami’s room and kills all of her bugs with spray. Unfortunately the spray has counteracted with the chemicals Cami has fed them and now the bugs are alive, the size of Buick’s and ready to munch on some busty party goers!
Bitter Feast (2010) (DVD)
It’s not uncommon for artists of any kind to go off the rails or be driven mad by critics. Vincent Gallo is famous for lashing out at Roger Ebert for his bashing of “Brown Bunny,” producers like Avi Arad and studios are known for bashing critics that bash their work, and in 2010, Kevin Smith just sank in to the deep end after the critical destruction of “Cop Out.” But while “Bitter Feast” is a commentary on pushing people too far, it’s also a look at what happens when two bitter absolutely pretentious men meet and decide they’re going to make each other suffer for their lives’ miseries. While many will be quick to deem this as a satire of the critical world, director Joe Maggio actually spoofs both sides of the field, the artist and the critic. Or in this film, the pompous pretentious artist who takes his work much too seriously, and the critic who refuses to be honest and or kind and just wants to purposely play a heel for the sake of publicity and readership.