TUCKER AND DALE VS. EVIL (2010) ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
D: Eli Craig
Tyler Labine, Alan Tudyk, Katrina Bowden,
Jesse Moss. Chelan Simmons, Philip Granger,
Brandon Jay McLaren, Christie Laing
So you start watching this slasher movie where a vanload of college kids head out into the woods for a little camping and partying, and they stop at the local redneck store to buy beer, and there are these two guys in there who look like backwoods psychos right out of "Deliverance" or "I Spit On Your Grave", only maybe worse. Then after they get their tents set up, some of the college kids decide to go swimming, and one of the girls disappears in the water, and the others all see the same two rednecks from the store taking her away in their boat. Then, one by one, the college kids start dying in violent, horrible ways. So you figure you know what's going on here, right? Wrong. What's cool about this movie is how it takes every slasher-movie convention you can think of and turns it upside down, and the funny, knowing way it does that. The runaway chainsaw scene is a highlight, and Tyler Labine as the rough-looking, big-hearted Dale gives the kind of performance you'd never expect to find in a slasher movie. There's no nudity and only moderate gore, but for fans of the genre, at least those with a sense of humor, a good time is pretty much guaranteed.
