TUCKER AND DALE vs EVIL

TUCKER AND DALE vs EVIL

I'm a baby boomer and I, like all other baby boomers still alive grew up on The Beverly Hillbillies in the 60s and early 70s. Hell if I run across them in rerun I still watch them!

Of all the Clampett clan, Jethro Bodine was the one who made us laugh the most. He was the epitome of dumb ass. An we couldn't get enough of him - armed with his sixth grade education - was ready to take on task, whether it was as a double naught spy or big time Hollywood producer feller - Jethro was unafraid to make a first class ass out of himself .

The Beverly Hillbillies antics were popular enough to spawn other Hillbilly comedy such as Petticoat Junction, Green Acres and Hee-Haw; the latter of which went on to run for about 20 years.

This country loved it's mountain mayhem. It ll came to a screeching halt when television executives decided to do what is called the Rural Purge - when the networks dumped all the Hillbilly comedies in one fell swoop.

Now comes Tyler Labine and Alan Tudyk as Dale and Tucker in "Tucker and Dale vs Evil" to remind us that we, as a nation, laughed hard and wholeheartedly at classic mountain folk stereotypes.

These two characters are equally, if not moreso dumber than doo-doo as they fumble their way through the back woods.

They have invested in a vacation home where they can fish and hunt to their hearts content and the film opens with them making the drive to the site. They encounter a group of teenagers who are from the big city simply heading for a weekend in the woods.

When they decide to make a stop to go skinny dipping near Tucker and Dale's vacation one of the girls, Allison (Katrina Bowden) falls and nearly drowns.

She is saved by Tucker and Dale and taken to their cabin for recovery. But the two teen boys espy Tucker and Dale carrying her off and misconstrue it as a hillbilly capture along the lines of "Deliverance".

Now starts a series of rescue attempts and misunderstandings that leave the teenagers getting killed one-by-one completely by accident.

There are serious overtones borrowed from the Coen Brothers "Fargo", Hitchcock's "Psycho", "Friday the 13th" and other slasher stories. Big time fun with a hillbilly slant.

Tyler Labine is quick turning himself into the Canadian Zach Galifianakis and Alan Tudyk demonstrates his comedic chops with ease. This is a first rate first feature for director Eli Craig who has spent most of his career in front of the camera.

"Tucker and Dale vs Eivl" is good old fashioned hee-haw fun. This is what a slasher film would look like if Jethro Bodine were the star. -- GEOFF BURTON

GEOFF BURTON

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