Rating: 

The Info

Directed by: Rodman Flender
Written by: Terri Hughes & Ron Milbauer
Starring: Devon Sawa, Seth Green, Elden Henson, Jessica Alba, Vivica A. Fox
Produced by: Andrew Licht, Jeffrey A. Mueller, Jennifer Todd, Suzanne Todd

The Nutshell

A slacker's hand gets possessed and starts killing people.

The Review

    There is a film genre that never earns its own section in the aisles of Blockbuster. It is a well-known genre, one that most filmgoers have encountered at one time in their lives, either intentionally or not. It is the B-movie, or cheese film. On MuchMusic, Canada's main music video station, at each year's end, they have a show called Fromage (French for cheese) that highlights the year's most godawful videos. Similarly, cheesy films are so bad they are good. Examples for me would be Showgirls and Anaconda. The beauty of cheesy films, unlike action films, is that they change for each of us. One person's cheese is another's crap. Child's Play 4: Bride of Chucky was one of my favourite films of 1998, even though it was cheesy as hell. These films either know they are poor examples of film, and revel in it (Bride of Chucky), or the filmmakers actually don't realize how bad their film is (Showgirls).

    Director Rodman Flender and writers Terri Hughes and Ron Milbauer deliberately set out to make the cheesiest, tongue-firmly-in-cheek, funniest film of the year. the problem is, they tried too hard. Everyone overacts to the point of idiocy, especially Viviva A. Fox as a religious demonhunter, that it turns you off. There is a subtlety to the finer cheese films that is lacking here. You don't make cheesy films. You make films and then realize afterwards that they were cheesy all along.

    Devon Sawa is king slacker Anton, whose only ambition is to spend his life watching TV and smoking up. His friends Mick (Green) and Pnub (Henson) are only slightly more mature about their futures, joining Anton in smoking up frequently, but realizing that eventually they will have to get jobs etc. A rash of mysterious bloody murders in town is soon solved when it is discovered that Anton's right hand is the killer. Anton fights against his hand, yet unavoidably winds up killing many people close to him. The first half of the film has Anton gyrating around as his hand pulls him everywhere, while the second half resembles an Addam's Family episode. Naturally, as with all teen films, the film ends with the prom, and atypical bloodbath. Throw in a beautiful, curvaceous love interest who seems clueless to the fact that Anton is screwed up, and some friends who enjoy life more after they die, and you've got a memorably bad film.

    I've no doubt that Idle Hands will find an audience out there. It will be a small audience, but there is a certain portion of the male teen filmgoing population who will see this film as comic genius. The rest of us have to be content to suffer through it, wondering how the filmmakers could have ever thought that this obvious, tired style of humour would be a hit.

Copyright - Tim Chandler

Press "back" to return to your previous page, or click on a link:

Adventures in Cinema front page - Max'd On Movies - The O.F.C.S.