On Demand Weekly

On Demand Weekly provides new movie reviews of hot movies on demand and from the POV of watching from the comfort of your home. Today’s review: TUCKER AND DALE VS. EVIL (Magnet Releasing)

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TUCKER AND DALE VS. EVIL On Demand
By Chris Claro

Rare is the truly original idea. With virtually every movie pitched as a mashup of two (or more) established properties – “It’s AMERICAN BEAUTY meets THE BOURNE IDENTITY” – it isn’t often that a film shows a glimmer of originality.

Paradoxically, TUCKER AND DALE VS. EVIL,

a film that takes on the tropes of hillbilly slasher films

and turns them on their bloody ear,

is one of the freshest and funniest films to come along in a while.

Full of all the expected chainsaws, wood chippers, and obnoxious college students, the film mixes gore and comedy to tell a story about how appearances can deceive. Seemingly stereotypical hillbillies Dale (Tyler Labine, RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES) and Tucker (Alan Tudyk, FIREFLY) want nothing more than to fix up Tucker’s cabin in peace and quiet. But a series of misunderstandings and overreactions sets off a chain of bloody slayings that upend expectations and turn the victims into their own worst enemies.

Throughout, director Eli Craig – son of Sally Field – makes the most of what was clearly a shoestring budget to twist the clichés of the form in much the same way that John Landis did thirty years ago with AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON. By casting a knowing eye toward the hoary devices of the rural horror flick – nubile skinny-dippers, campfire ghost stories, graphic deaths – Craig, as Landis had before him, tweaks the genre while maintaining its traditions.

The screenplay, by Craig and Morgan Jurgenson, is predicated on the idea that people – and movies, for that matter – shouldn’t be judged solely on their looks. In subverting the expectations of the audience by inverting the conventions of the film, Craig and Jurgenson offer a kind of meta commentary on thirty years’ worth of slasher flicks.

On Demand Weekly provides new movie reviews of movies on demand from the POV of watching from the comfort of your home. Today’s review: CONCEPTION (Tribeca Film).

CONCEPTION
By Amy Slotnick

Nine romantic couples on the eve of conception. First time, first date. Erotic and neurotic. CONCEPTION shows us vignette-like scenes, immersing its audience into nine separate relationships.

The implications of sex are made relatable and humorous by the a talented cast including Julie Bowen (“Modern Family”),, Sarah Hyland (“Modern Family”), David Arquette (NEVER BEEN KISSED), Connie Britton (“Friday Night Lights”) and Alan Tudyk (DODGEBALL).

We follow these couples in various set ups, one on a blind date, another going through fertility treatments. Pairs are shown in long-standing and dysfunctional relationships. Some sex-deprived, others over-sexed. What they have in common is that all are about to conceive, however not intentionally for all.

It’s a cute concept, but the film is weakened by the limitations of its many sketch-like scenes that provide a lack of feeling for any one story in the ensemble. As a result you never get fully immersed in the story, which breezes by at a fast pace and light, comic tone.