Idle Hands
Idle Hands | ||
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Director: | Rodman Flender | Actors: | Devon Sawa (as Anton), Seth Green (as Mick), Elden Henson (as Pnub), Jessica Alba (as Molly), Christopher Hart (I) (as The Hand), Vivica A. Fox (as Debi), Jack Noseworthy (as Randy), Katie Wright (as Tanya), Sean Whalen (as McMacy), Nicholas Sadler (as Ruck (as Nick Sadler)), Fred Willard (as Dad), Connie Ray (as Mom), Steve Van Wormer (as Curtis), Kelly Monaco (as Tiffany), Timothy Stack (I) (as Principal Tidwell) | Country: | USA | Category: | Comedy | Year: | 1999 |
| Description: | Lazy Anton's right hand becomes possessed with murderous intent. | Comments: | When I sat down to preview the new horror film called "Idle Hands," I thought to myself "Wouldn't it be wonderful to finally give a teen slasher movie a positive review for once." I had my soda in one hand, my notepad in the other, I was at the height of my weekend. Then, once I saw the movies premise, I knew all was lost. It starts off great; (except for a few false jump scenes that are beginning to be quite the standard material) two characters were brutally and mysteriously murdered at night in their home a few days before Halloween. Their killer is unknown. But soon after, the film shows signs of weakness. It becomes blunt, bland, lacking suspense and irony. All my hopes went down the deep, dark drain. The film's heroine is a young, fit and strapping teenage boy. In the shape that he is in, however, you probably expect him to spend most of his hours in the school weigh lifting room, when he is not trying out for sports team. But the truth is that he doesn't even go to school. Anton (Devon Sawa) sits around all day, chowing down on junk food, smoking hard core drugs, and watching perverted television with his two friends that do the same, Mick & Pnub. When he finally discovers that his parents have been killed, several days after the occurrence, he also discovers that the psycho killer that has been around is not the neighbor next door, but him! For some reason that is never fully explained, a demon has possessed his right hand and forces him to do things against his will. He then brutally kills his friends, and arranges a date with his would-be girlfriend, Molly. From this point on, none of the story makes any sense, not necessarily because the film is far fetched, but because the movie also tries desperately to be a comedy. Yes, a comedy. Now, I am not saying that I would not call this a horror film, I'm just saying that most audiences will either go to a movie to laugh, or to be scared; the two categories seldom blend together and work. This material would have surly been much more successful if it had been played out straight. Another problem I had with the movie is the fact that I didn't care about any of the characters. All the main characters were either doing drugs, dead, on the verge of dying, or killing someone. All the side characters that didn't have a place in the movie for an instant were predictable future victims of the killer hand. And oh, that hand. It just appears everywhere now, doesn't it. So, lets say that you do buy into the fact that finger walking can take you place from place apparently quicker than any form of transportation. Can you understand that the hand can meltdown in a microwave and still be in perfectly good condition an hour later, that it can fly though the air like a bird, that it can tie a grown person on top of a car in minutes, that it can know exactly where to attack its victim but has no eyes? Lets face it, by the time this movie is over you'll be thinking to yourself "Give me a break." And after all this, the filmmakers still have the audacity to force a recycled high-school love subplot in the movie. One that shows no actual sex, nudity or kissing. If you're going to put this type of element in this type of movie, don't hold back. These bodies are beautiful here, and we don't even see the main characters in an actual love scene. Even after I add in the stylish soundtrack, the realistic gore, the fact that the hand could act better than anyone on screen here, I still come up with a marginal one and one half star rating out of a possible four. However, when you waste two precious hours of your life on a beautiful weekend day in a movie which progressive gets worse, and has an ending this week that even the film's characters complain, you begin to feel charitable. |
Languages: | English | Subtitles: | Length: | 90 | Video format: | DivX 3.11 Low Motion | Audio format: | MPEG Layer 3 (MP3) | Resolution: | 704x416 | Files sizes: | 659 |