On the couch

Tucker and Dale vs Evil may be the most charming slasher movie ever made. In fact, it might be the only one ever made, given the established premise of creepy psycho hunting young attractive folk in woods/forest/catacombs/wherever tends to leave little room for charm what with the time consuming business of slaughter and all…
In this case though all it took was a few brilliant performances, a great script and a clever twist of the genre and hey presto a charming, frightening good time for all!
T’n’DvE tells its tale of terror from the perspective of the titular Tucker and Dale, two hillbilly best buds looking to spend some vacation time fixing up their new holiday home deep in the Appalachian woods.
En route to their recently purchased shack, they meet some clean-cut college kids headed in the same direction looking for some good clean camping fun.
Forgetting their lessons about judging books, the kids are immediately terrified of the pair, their fear setting in motion a series of misunderstandings and misfortune that see them think the hillbillys have kidnapped their friend Alison (Katrina Bowden).
The blood starts to flow when the college kids mount the first of their ill-advised “rescue attempts” and the body count continues to rise from then on.
While the campers are sort of v-neck sweater-wearing oiks that American Psycho was written about, rather than for, Tucker and Dale are two charming sons of the soil whose evil aspirations seem to extend only as far as fishing and possibly squabbling over the last beer. Tucker (Alan Tudyk) is the more outgoing of the two and spends most of the film trying to bolster the confidence of his best mate Dale (Tyler Labine).
Tudyk and Labine are hilarious together and Katrina Bowden’s time on 30 Rock has not gone to waste, as she more than holds her own in the laugh-getting stakes.
In fine slasher movie tradition, the teen cannon fodder is relatively anonymous, filling the requisite stereotype holes – crazy alpha guy, ditsy blonde, nervous fella who runs off screaming – and are just annoying enough to make you smile when a messy fate befalls them.
Funny and frightening in just the right proportions, Tucker and Dale vs Evil is a perfect pre-Hallowe’en treat.
Ryan Reynolds is a tough fella to figure out. While many of his films seem like the output of a cookie cutter himbo perfect for TMZ’s “beefcake of the month” club, he always seems to defy common – non-six-pack-having, secretly jealous – sense by making even the most potentially annoying dross somewhat bearable. And then he does something like Buried, which makes you doubt if he’s an idiot at all.
So, can his considerable charm make a good go of things for the Green Lantern, DC’s latest attempt to follow Batman’s example and launch a lucrative franchise?
The answer is yes and no.
While the story of a intergalactic cop who gets his powers from a ring, a lantern and the power green is fine fodder for a comic book, it claws slightly at the limits of plausibility in a live action setting. Despite this, Martin Campbell’s efforts aren’t entirely in vain, as a lively cast – including the always dependable Mark Strong and Peter Sarsgaard – and a few entertaining action sequences make some of the sillier elements more palatable.
Reynolds plays Hal Jordan, a test pilot jock who flies experimental aircraft. He’s a cocky, obnoxious sonofa… who gets picked by a dying alien to become a member of the Green Lantern Corps and take care of his own little corner of the galaxy.
None too enamoured by the job – a bit of a bootcamp beatdown doesn’t sit well with young Hal – he quits but the rise of a sinister super-villain, Parallax, means he’s barely out of his spandex and eye mask when he’s back fighting evil and facing his responsibilities. Can he learn an important life lesson in time to save the universe?
The Green Lantern suffers a lot due to the weight of context and characters that need introduction for the world to make sense. In many ways it treads the same path as the first X-Men movie which, while successful, was generally considered to be an excellent, extended trailer for its sequel and sure enough there’s more Lantern action planned. At least if the plot-teasing end of credits sequence is to be believed anyway.
Not quite the dazzling spectacle it was expected to be on its release, The Green Lantern is far from the worst comic book flick out there and it’s nice to see some of the less well-know heroes getting some Hollywood love.