New Release Review: Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil (Eli Craig, 2011)

It’s always great going into a film knowing very little. After hearing some buzz about Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil around Sydney Film Festival time, and having been recommended it on a couple of occasions, I felt I couldn’t waste a limited release opportunity. I was not disappointed. As bloody good fun, this frequently hilarious, self-aware subversion of typical horror tropes and conventions marks the debut of writer/director Eli Craig.

The film opens on a bunch of rowdy college kids from West Virginia embarking on a camping road trip into the backwoods of the Deep South. At a roadside convenience store, they stumble across a pair of bumbling, but well-meaning rednecks, Tucker and Dale (Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine), who are headed to their newly purchased lake-front vacation cabin with the intentions of making it over and doing a little fishing. The college kids, who choose the same area of the forest to camp, soon disrupt their peace.

Monday Links (01/08)

Wow, it's Monday already? It's August already? Time flies, huh? I covered a lot on yesterday's Monthly Round-up so I'll keep this brief. Plus I want to catch a screening of Tucker and Dale vs. Evil later. I don't know about everyone else, but I really enjoyed Captain America this week. Hanna too. That was quite a duo last Friday.

Should I be kicking myself for deciding not to see Tarkovsky's Stalker at the cinema this evening, and for letting a Q+A session with Beginners director Mike Mills on Wednesday sell out? Probably! Oh well, before heading to Melbourne on Friday, I'll have the time to check out L'illusioniste. Actually, we also have Rise of the Planet of the Apes released on Thursday. Talk about an underwhelming sneak-up!

On to the links. Here are ten great articles from this week (after the jump):

Monthly Round-Up: The Best Films I Saw in July

Well July is over, and I am now only days away from my short excursion to Melbourne for the last three days of the Melbourne International Film Festival, which has been running since July 21. Several bloggers have been covering the Festival extensively since day one, and it sounds like everyone is surviving the fatigue and catching some great films. Be sure to check out Movie Reviews by Tom Clift, Cinema Autopsy, The Reel Bits, Quickflix DVD and Movie Blog and Stale Popcorn for great coverage.

I watched a heap of films this month that I had never seen before. Highlights certainly included All About Eve, The Wages of Fear, The Double Life of Veronique, The Player and Talk to Her. Some of these films are by Henri-Georges Clouzot and Krzysztof Kieslowski, the two directors I decided to focus on this month. While it has been slow going, I have caught up with Kieslowski in the last week or so, watching Veronique, and the Troi Couleurs Trilogy: Bleu/Blanc/Rouge. As for Clouzot, in addition to The Wages of Fear, I watched the only film I could find readily available, Les Diaboliques.

On the 'new releases' front, it was a quiet couple of weeks in between the viewings of Transformers: Dark of the Moon and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. I managed only to catch the unspectacular Oranges and Sunshine during that time. But, more recently I caught six films, starting with the mediocre Beautiful Lies and 5 Days of War and ending stronger with Meek's Cutoff and Hanna. I hope to see L'illusionniste and Tucker and Dale vs. Evil this week before going to MIFF.

My next Director of the Month, I have decided, will be Robert Altman. After watching The Player the other day, and having only seen Gosford Park prior, I feel I need to see more of his films. Throughout August I intend to watch M*A*S*H, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Nashville and Short Cuts.

Last week I also surpassed 100,000 page views, which I thought was quite a feat. I would like to thank a bunch of fellow bloggers who frequently visit my blog and comment on my posts:

Sam Fragoso from Duke and the Movies
Castor from Anomalous Material
James Blake Ewing from Cinema Sights 
Steven Flores from Surrender to the Void 
Toby from Blah Blah Blah Gay - A Movie Review Blog 
Ruth from Lets Be Splendid About This 
Nikhat from Being Norma Jean 
Stevee Taylor from Cinematic Paradox
Custard from Front Room Cinema
Bonjour Tristesse from Bonjour Tristesse
Jack from Jack L Film Reviews
Movie Guy Steve from 1001Plus
Tom Clift from Movie Reviews by Tom Clift
Nicholas Prigge from Cinematic Romantico
Anna from Split Reel
Mad Hatter from Dark of the Matinee
Simon Columb from Screen Insight
Courtney Small from Big Thoughts from a Small Mind
Cherokee from Feminising Film
D.R from The Lennox Files


I watched a total of 33 Films in July. Find out my 'Essential Viewing' selections after the jump...

Go, See, Talk's "Double Feature Theatre" Blog-a Thon

This was hastily published as part of Go, See Talk's most recent blog-a-thon, in which we were challenged to come up with a week's worth of double features (with a triple-feature on the Sunday). Check out what the rest of the participants came up with here. 

Monday

 

The Wicker Man / Shutter Island

Two top-notch horror/thrillers that strikingly resemble one another.

Quick Film Reviews (July)

There were a couple of films I have seen recently that I couldn't muster up the energy to write about. Here are my slightly-longer-than-140-character reviews.

The Player (5/5) - A masterpiece. A dark, cynical look at show business, masterfully directed by Robert Altman. The infamous opening sequence is truly a marvel, and Tim Robbins has never been better as a slick studio executive whose life becomes tumultuous when he accidentally kills a disgruntled screenwriter. Also features a seemingly endless stream of recognisable cameos. 

Valhalla Rising (3/5) - Set in 1000A.D, this surreal and haunting nightmare of a film from Danish director Nicholas Winding Refn (Bronson and the upcoming Drive), suffers from an all-too-strong first half, before becoming steadily more tedious and laborious. But, the astounding images of this film have remained seared in my brain. With almost no dialogue it's left to the mesmerising colour-drained and hyper-stylized visuals to tell this mysterious tale. You feel like the characters have been dropped into another world. A Godless world, if you like. A world you would never want to find yourself. 

New Release Review: Captain America (Joe Johnston, 2011)

I don’t know about you, but I feel the action blockbuster many have been waiting for, has finally hit screens. While Super 8 was a lot of fun and the recent Harry installment was a fitting finale, Captain America: The First Avenger, directed by Joe Johnston (The Rocketeer), leaves the other superheroes thrown at us this year, in it’s wake. Quite substantially so.

Many will think that this is exactly what we have seen a number of times this summer, and that this film, like Thor and like Iron Man 2 before it, have been built on a production line solely to exist as lengthy prequels for The Avengers in 2012. They would be right. But I think Captain America exists as a uniquely interesting character, and this is undeniably an entertaining film. It is fun and light-hearted when it needs to be, it doesn’t get bogged by trying to squeeze in unnecessary characters and it weaves a genuinely good and concise story that not only deftly handles the limitations of its protagonist as a ‘super-hero’ but plays with it and twists it to create drama and emotion.

I’m not going to dwell on plot here, even though the storytelling is quite strong, because it essentially rests on the forces of good vs. evil. In this case World War II hinges in the balance of two rival scientists who possess the abilities to change the tide of the war. We have Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving), a Nazi whose ambitions even outweigh those of his Fuhrer. Having formulated a cult known as HYDRA and acquiring and harnessing a powerful cube (referred to as 'the Jewell of Odin’s Treasure Room'), he is beset on world domination. The other is Dr Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci) who has formulated a powerful serum, when mixed with ‘vita-rays’, that will build a super-soldier, a hero capable of mustering the strength of their superior enemy.

New Release Review: Hanna (Joe Wright, 2011)

Hanna (Saoirse Ronan) is a 16-year-old girl who lives in the wilds of Finland with her widowed father, Erik Heller (Eric Bana), an ex-CIA man. She is bright, inquisitive and uniquely possesses the strength, the stamina and the smarts of a soldier; the result of her father's intensive training, which includes teaching Hanna self defence and the ability to hunt. Living a life unlike any other teenager, her upbringing and training have been one and the same, all geared to making her the perfect assassin. She has never come into contact with the modern world, with her education coming through Erik's personal teachings from an encyclopaedia and a book of fairytales. She has a number of false back-stories memorised, should the opportunity arise.

Such an opportunity does arise, as Erik reveals to Hanna that he has unfinished business and that flicking a switch on an old transmitter will reveal their whereabouts to a corrupt ex-CIA associate, Marissa Weigler (Cate Blanchett). Hanna ensures him that she is ready and it is with a combination of pride and apprehension that Erik realises that his daughter can no longer be held back. Erik leaves before Weigler's team surrounds the house, captures Hanna and takes her to a CIA facility in Morocco.

There she learns that her father is a target because of his knowledge of a secret, one also involving Hanna's mother who was shot and killed by Weigler. Hanna, who kills the body-double posing as Weigler, breaks free of her cell and escapes the compound. On the run in the desert, she befriends a teenage girl, Sophie (Jessica Barden), and her hippie parents (Jason Flemying and Olivia Williams) and hitches a ride to Berlin. The mercenaries assigned by Weigler to capture Hanna, led by Isaacs (Tom Hollander), eventually catch up to the unawares family and pursue Hanna into Berlin. There she reunites with Erik, who had his own problems, and prepares to put her years of training into full practice.

Poster for 'The Ides of March' and Trailer for 'Drive'

What a great poster for The Ides of March, George Clooney's new film starring Clooney, Ryan Gosling, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Paul Giamatti. I have been trying to resist the trailer. Want to see it in the cinema. 

On the topics of Mr Gosling and resisting trailers, one I caved in and watched was Drive. I am now more excited than ever to see the film on the August 6th Closing Night at MIFF. Check it out. It's badass! 

Certainly two films I am looking forward to. What are your thoughts on these potential Oscar candidates?