Rubber

Just rollin’ along.

(2010) Horror Spoof (Magnet) Stephen Spinella, Jack Plotnick, Wings Hauser, Roxanne Mesquida, Ethan Cohn, Charlie Koontz, Daniel Quinn, Devin Brochu, Hayley Holmes, Haley Ramm, Cecilia Antoinette, David Bowe, Remy Thorne, Tara Jean O’Brien. Directed by Quentin Dupieux

 

Sometimes things happen for no reason. Never is that more evident than in the movies. Some things just occur because they need to for the plot to advance. If you think about it too much your brain explodes.

In the middle of a desert (I’ve heard tell it’s California) a group of people gather. They are waiting expectantly, for what we don’t know. Suddenly a car roars in, knocking over a bunch of chairs. From the trunk comes Lieutenant Chad (Spinella), ranting about the movies and why people don’t use the bathroom in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the answer? no reason). He then presents for the onlookers a kind of live movie which they watch with binoculars and comment regularly on the goings on.

A tire (named Robert in the credits) stirs to life, half-buried in the sand. It takes halting attempts to rise and roll, often ending with it back on its side but eventually it begins rolling. It discovers it can direct its own travels and then it also finds it can cause things to explode, starting with birds and scorpions and graduating to larger animals…and humans. In the case of humans, it’s the heads that go boom.

It finds its way to a motel where it rolls into bed, watching an exercise video. It watches a maid make up the room. It evades the cops. Why? I’m sure you can guess.

Think of a nihilistic “Seinfeld” with a Dada streak a mile long, only without the standup comedy. The humor here is far more subtle and black. The horror element is more in the gore than suspense or atmosphere. They don’t always mix well.

Dupieux, who also operates under the nom des artes of Mr. Oizo (an electro musician and performance artist) has a twisted vision which I have to give props for. It is unique and unlike any other movie which you’re ever likely to see. Unfortunately, that doesn’t make it necessarily something you would want to see. The constant breaking of the fourth wall by the actors and the audience/chorus gets to be irritating after awhile, plus the constant nihilistic “let’s move the plot in unexpected directions for no reason” is often confusing and also gets annoying.

I don’t have any problem with nihilism. I don’t really have a problem for making a movie about the randomness of life. I do have a problem with stringing together a random sequence of events that takes off willy-nilly just because you can. Actions, believe it or not, have consequences. They don’t occur in a vacuum and the best movies understand that. While I appreciate the sense of silliness and the courage to try something completely different, at the end of the day I wound up not connecting to this and just kind of enduring it as it came to its end. I need a little bit more from my Art.

WHY RENT THIS: Clever idea.

WHY RENT SOMETHING ELSE: Lacks in execution. The black comedy and horror elements don’t mesh well. At the end of the day more pretentious than outrageous.

FAMILY VALUES: There is a good deal of violence, plenty of foul language and some twisted situations that have an underlying sexuality.

TRIVIAL PURSUIT: Quinn, who plays one of the spectators here, also played a Scanner in Scanner Cop who was able to blow up people’s heads with the power of his mind as the tire does here.

NOTABLE HOME VIDEO EXTRAS: There is an interview with Dupieux conducted by a blow-up sex doll. Of course.

BOX OFFICE PERFORMANCE: $100,370 on an unreported production budget; I think it might have made a profit but more likely broke even.

COMPARISON SHOPPING: Howard the Duck (seriously, I couldn’t think of a single movie remotely like this).

FINAL RATING: 4/10

NEXT: Klown

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Tucker and Dale vs. Evil

Katrina Bowen begs Tyler Labin not to snap his own overall strap again.

(2010) Horror Spoof (Magnet) Tyler Labine, Alan Tudyk, Katrina Bowen, Jesse Moss, Philip Granger, Brandon McLaren, Christie Laing, Chelan Simmons, Travis Nelson, Alexander Arsenault, Adam Beauchesne, Joseph Sutherland, Karen Reigh. Directed by Eli Craig

Everything is about perception. Sometimes we look at a person and see a police officer. Someone different will look at that same person and see a thug. It’s all how our experiences guide us.

A group of college students, led by the unctuous Chad (Moss) are taking their spring break in the mountains of West Virginia. They need to make a pit stop for beer and stop off at a Last Chance Gas convenience store. There they stumble on Tucker (Tudyk) and Dale (Labine), a pair of redneck types who are on their way to a vacation of their own. Dale is extremely shy and has a very low self-image, but he takes a shine to Alison (Bowen), a comely co-ed. Tucker encourages his shy friend to approach the girl but his tongue-tied charm fails to impress, possibly because he’s holding a scythe at the time.

The kids go off to their camp and Tucker and Dale find their “vacation home” which resembles the cabin from The Evil Dead somewhat eerily. While the kids go skinny dipping, Tucker and Dale are out fishing. Alison gets separated from the rest of the group and gets startled by the two hillbillies, falling and injuring her head. When the boys try to return her to her friends, they mistake their intentions and run away screaming for the hills.

When Alison awakens, she discovers that far from being homicidal, the two boys are sweet and caring. She begins to see Dale much differently whereas she might not have seen him that way earlier. However, her friends think that she has been made a captive against her will and that the two men plan on doing hideous, horrifying things to her. They mean to rescue her, at any cost.

That cost turns out to be plenty high as the kids attempts to rescue their friend turn out in disaster and accidental death. Tucker and Dale are mystified; they start thinking that Alison’s friends are part of some sort of suicide pact cult. Chad and his friends are growing more and more violent; the boys are growing more and more mystified. What’s a redneck to do?

This Canadian film for whatever reason sat on the shelf for nearly two years before getting an American release and even at that, a somewhat excuse-me release at that. It’s a shame too; this is the kind of movie that would attract a big cult audience if people just knew about it.

It’s funny but not in a broad, outlandish sense; rather it takes situations and makes them the star. Each little set piece is a gag that ends with a stupid college student getting killed in a brutal – and funny – way. One kid stumbles into a wood chipper. Another runs headlong into a branch and gets impaled. Another takes off the safety on a gun and blows his own head off.

But this is more than a horror spoof. There are some interesting subtexts here on prejudging, class distinctions and embracing differences. There is also some pretty tight chemistry between Tudyk and Labine, both of whom have serious comic chops but can also act. Those are both good qualities and exceedingly rare together in the same person. The real hero of this movie may well be the casting director.

There are also an homage or two to such movies as the aforementioned Evil Dead as well as Wrong Turn and Friday the 13th as well as non-genre films like Fargo. The writing is clever in places with some unexpected bits that had me in stitches.

I liked this movie a lot and unfortunately it isn’t attracting a lot of attention, either from the mainstream press or from genre blogs. Nonetheless it’s worth seeking out if it is playing near you but never fear; it is already available for as Video on Demand and will be on home video just after Thanksgiving. I suggest you take whatever opportunity you can to check it out; it’s as much fun at the movies as I’ve had this year.

REASONS TO GO: Funny and sweet and plenty of gore and violence to please any horror buff. Hip without trying.

REASONS TO STAY: There were a few sections where things seemed a little flat.

FAMILY VALUES: There is some fairly rough violence, a good deal of blood , a fair amount of foul language and a smidgeon of bare breasts.

TRIVIAL PURSUIT: The two leads are known for supporting roles in cult favorite TV shows; Labine in “Reaper” and Tudyk in “Firefly.” In addition, Bowen is also primarily known for her TV work on “One Life to Live” and in “30 Rock” (whose cast she joined after filming this).

HOME OR THEATER: This will make a fine rental or a nice addition to your DVD library.

FINAL RATING: 7.5/10

TOMORROW: Dolphin Tale

Zombie Strippers

If this is what a zombie looks like then I don't want to be alive.

(2007) Horror Spoof (Triumph) Jenna Jameson, Robert Englund, John Hawkes, Roxy Saint, Penny Drake, Whitney Anderson, Jennifer Holland, Shamron Moore, Jeanette Sousa, Carmit Levite, Brad Milne, Jen Alex Gonzalez, Jessica Custodio. Directed by Jay Lee

Some movies are kind of hard to figure out from their titles. Others tell you right out of the gate what their intentions are. On rare occasions, you’ll get one of the latter that deliver something extra, to your surprise or dismay.

In the near future, George W. Bush is in his fourth term as president and has gotten us into more wars than we have soldiers to fight (that knucklehead!) so it is up to CheyneyCo to develop a chemical enhancement that reanimates dead soldiers so that they can return to the fray over and over again (the depressing thing is that I could see G.W. actually coming up with a strategy like that).

Of course, as such things always do in horror movies, the virus escapes the lab and makes its way into Rhino’s,  an underground strip club (in G.W.’s dystopian future, all strip clubs are illegal) and of course lead stripper Kat (Jameson) is the first to be infected. Ian (Englund), the club’s sleazy and greedy owner, is at first appalled but when Kat proves to be more popular than ever as an undead stripper, he quickly determines ways to keep his strippers dancing after death. This leads to the mother of all cat fights.

It’s not often you get a movie that mashes up zombie gore, softcore titillation, political commentary and philosophical undertones but Jay Lee does so here. This is a movie that references Eugene Ionesco unreservedly (England’s character is even named Ian Nessco and his club named for Ionesco’s most well-known absurdist play Rhinoceros) and has a wonderful moment when Kat is found reading Nitzsche post-zombification and exclaims “Now it all makes sense!”

The movie also delivers on the breasts and gore, surprisingly effectively in both departments which is a good reason why it got almost no release in the U.S. which has become effectively paranoid about both. Utilizing a number of adult film actresses, models and actual strippers, the dance scenes have at least some authenticity to them.

So what if the acting is ham-fisted and the story begins to peter out (no pun intended) towards the end? If you’re looking for more than that in a movie entitled Zombie Strippers you are clearly in the wrong aisle of your preferred rental venue, my friend.

WHY RENT THIS: Boobs and gore – the two staples of a horror fanboy’s diet.  At least makes an attempt to be a little different.

WHY RENT SOMETHING ELSE: The acting is not so good and the movie runs out of steam by the end.

FAMILY VALUES: As you’d expect, there’s plenty of nudity, sexuality and gore not to mention filthy foul nasty language and a whole lot of violence.

TRIVIAL PURSUIT: The bouncer at Rhino’s is played by MMA legend Tito Ortiz who was also Jameson’s boyfriend at the time of filming.

NOTABLE DVD EXTRAS: There’s a featurette on all the nods to French existentialism and in particular the Eugene Ionesco play Rhinoceros (no, I’m not kidding). The Blu-Ray has a trivia track which is actually surprisingly better than most.

BOX OFFICE PERFORMANCE: Not available.

FINAL RATING: 4.5/10

TOMORROW: Saw V