Candy and a Movie: Movie #62 Tucker & Dale vs. Evil

Tucker & Dale vs. Evil (2010)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1465522/

A.k.a Tucker & Dale vs. Dwight Howard

I don't know much about this movie but it seems to be pretty highly regarded which is why I'm giving it a watch. It's got an 85% on rottentomatoes and a 7.6 on IMDB. I finally might be watching the first decent movie of the October horror movie extravaganza.

Let's do this, first scene. A guy and a girl are filming themselves when they get attacked and killed. It happens really quick, credits roll (again really quick the way they should be) and the movie really begins with text telling us we've gone back in time to West Virginia three days ago. A carload of frat dudes and the cute Cerie from 30 rock are going camping. They bump into Tucker and Dale at a gas station. Tucker is Wash from Firefly which I do like but I don't think I've seen the guy who plays Dale anywhere. They get pulled over by a cop and tell him that they're going out to their lake house for some relaxing time. The cop responds by telling him that there's nothing but pain and suffering up there. Maybe that's because Keanu and Sandra Bullock are there. Lake House joke.

T & D as I will now call them get to the house and there's a wood chipper. I'm guessing that will come into play later. Inside the house they find bones hanging up from the ceiling and think that an archaeologist must have lived there before. They are both kind of dense and this is going to comedy horror movie kind of like Shaun of the Dead.

In the next scene one of the frat guys with a popped collar tries to hit on the girl from 30 Rock (Allison) but get turned down. Hopefully it's solely because he has a popped collar and that should never be rewarded. That moves into a skinny dipping scene. Tucker and Dale accidentally scare Allison and she falls unconscious into the water. The other campers oversee T&D's rescue of Allison (now Alli) and think that they are abducting her. Tucker yelling "We've got your friend" probably didn't help.

The next day Alli wakes up at T&D's cabin and becomes friends with Dale who has a huge crush on her. That is possibly the least scary sentence I could ever write about a horror movie. While that is going on, Tucker is chopping wood and cuts into a beehive which causes him to chase the campers(but he's really running away from bees). During the chase one of the campers impales himself on a tree and dies. After a little while the campers come back to find Dale and Alli digging an outhouse hole (which they think is her own grave) and Tucker is throwing logs into the wood chipper. One of the campers jumps at Tucker and lands in the wood chipper while another charges at Dale, falls into the hole and impales himself. Now the college kids think T&D are murdering all of them and T&D think the campers have come out to the woods to carry out a suicide pack. Both parties are freaking out.

A cop shows up, sees the body and listens to T&D's story about the suicide. The cop walks into the house, runs into a loose board that's covered in nails and dies. Outside another one of the campers grabs his gun and accidentally shoots himself (there are only four left by the way). Popped collar picks up the gun after a while and chases and catches Tucker.

SPOILER SECTION

By the end of the chase, things have changed. The campers send Dale a note that says they have Tucker along with two of his fingers. After the trap popped collar set fails, Tucker rescues Dale. They all come together back inside the cabin and Alli gets them to stop and talk things out. Popped collar tells a story about how his parents were tortured by rednecks and that's why he hates them. Right after story time, two campers bust into the cabin with one accidentally killing another with a weed whacker. He is then killed by popped collar who throws a lamp and sets the guy on fire. The fire sets off a big explosion killing the remaining campers except for Mr. Collar.

T&D and Alli try to escape but crash into a tree. When Dale wakes up collar has taken Ally and Tucker is badly injured. Dale and his dog go after Ally and find her tied up in a saw mill. He fights with popped collar and manages to rescue Ally. There's another little tussle and and popped collar falls to his death.

Tucker wakes up in a hospital and Dale goes bowling with Ally. There's kissing involved.

BREAK DOWN

Favorite Scene : Definitely Tucker running away from the bees/chasing the campers. Very funny.

Favorite Lines : "He's heavy for half a guy."
"He looks like he's gonna walk it off, he's gonna be fine!"
"[after a spear lands between his legs] I never thought I'd say this, but I'm glad I'm not hung like a bear."

Rating : 8 packs of vanilla flavored dip. Not exactly candy, but it's what rednecks have. I really enjoyed this movie. It's a funny premise that could have been campy (pun) but was done really well. The popped collar guy was pretty annoying but I think that was the point. Wouldn't mind seeing these two characters in another movie at all. Even though the movie was kind of a comedy, there was still a lot of dying. Deaths were pretty gruesome and looked pretty good.

Alternate Ending : Needs a better death at the end. The way I would have finished him off would definitely have been alcohol poisoning. I wonder why it never happens to the frat guy in these movies.

What I would have done if I was the main character : Looked where I was driving at the end for starters. Also I think I would purchase better beer than PBR.

What happens in the sequel : This time Tucker and Dale go on vacation to the beach. Every woman Tucker meets mysteriously dies. We think it's Dale because he doesn't want to lose his best friend but it's really just an unfortunate set of events. Eventually he marries April from Parks and Rec.