Tucker & Dale vs Evil and Getting Your Wires Crossed: A Movie Review

Director: Eli Craig.

Writers: Morgan Jurgenson, Eli Craig.

First-time director Eli Craig takes the college kids syndrome to new heights in his film, Tucker & Dale vs. Evil. What he does to the slasher genre is to turn it into one massive TV sitcom with some very good results. Craig gives these college kids their just desserts that is inspiring, and it's about time that happened in a movie universe.

In many a film, they are often young adults who are in over their heads when they're trapped. In this film, they have a built-in paranoia about those who don't fit into their cozy world. All they want to do is party. After encountering some locals, they think there's a terror hiding in their midst. And these adults find themselves in a different kind of trouble when they let their own imagination run wild in the untamed woods in West Virginia.

Tucker (Alan Tudyk of Firefly fame) and Dale (Tyler Labine of Invasion) are simply two vacationing hillbillies trying to live a simple life. But when the pair sees the sexy Alli (Katrina Bowden) and surprises her, she plummets into the river and doesn’t surface. Her college buddies fear the worse when they see the hillbillies drag her out. What happens next sets up the rest of the film.

And the misunderstandings that develop seem to only get worse. That's what classic sitcoms do. Watching this film is almost like watching Wile E. Coyote, trying to catch and stuff the Roadrunner. It's not going to happen, and the damage Wile E. inflicts on himself is the stuff of comedic hilarity.

These college kids, as Tucker and Dale likes to refer them as, only needed to stop and think, rather than to jump headstrong into a rescue mission. The focus is all on the hillbillies and it's funny to see how they respond to rampant threats. The chemistry between Labine and Tudyk is genuine. They're like brothers who are there to look out for one another and that stays consistent throughout the film. Unfortunately, the plot has to move on and the tale reverts back to its roots—a bad-guy has to exist in this mix, and the interest in who this person is not implemented that well.

There is a fair bit of story to reveal, but to see those 'meddling kids' behave quite the opposite of what one would expect shows that there is hope for the rest of humanity. The satire that is being built up is great and at least the tale dispenses with the need to develop the romantic subplot. It advances very slowly on its own without being overt. If anything, this film does a great job in making a commentary about the need to develop an intellectual maturity, than to focus on people trying to develop survival instincts. That is where this film scores.

Overall: 4 out of 5.

The film's homepage is here:

Tucker and Dale's Official Website

This film will be made available at a later date:



Advertise Here - Contact me Michael Allen at 28DLA

| | | | |

Subscribe to 28 Days Later: An Analysis by Email

Posted in: 2011,comedy,hillbillies,hillbilly,horror movie review,movie review,slasher,tucker and dale vs. evil