The Dukes See a Few More Movies

Once again I find myself slacking when it comes to updating this blog. If I were to receive a grade it would be slacker jerkface (we go by our own, more entertaining grading system). This may shock some of you but we have seen some more movies since our last post. I decided the time for an update was clearly at hand, mainly because I have a ton of free time and access to a computer at my new job. Victory for me and by extension a victory for all of you readers out there.

Fall is usually rife with poorly written and poorly acted movies, but as die-hard movie goers we often overlook that simple fact. This year we took ourselves and our die-hardedness to see several movies including: Tucker and Dale vs Evil, the Three Musketeers, In Time, Immortals and the Muppets. I can tell you now that not all of them were winners, but a surprising number of them were either amazing or at least passable.



Tucker and Dale vs Evil

Man what a great movie. Rarely have I been dazzled so by a low budget fall indie film. I was in love from the get go. this can be attested by two of the dukes and a lady friend of ours. To understand this movie I feel like I need to give you a little bit of background about the genre of which it is poking fun.

In the past few decades there have been many horror films made about random college students heading out to the wild woods and either getting lost and murdered by hillbillies or randomly having hillbilly neighbors and subsequently being murdered by them. It is a staple of horror so in this film they decided to turn this idea on its head. 

As the movie starts we are introduced to a carload of college students heading to the woods to camp. Around the same time we meet Tucker and Dale(Who are excellently played by Alan Tudyk(A Knight's Tale) and Tyler Labine(Reaper)). They are two best friends who have recently acquired a "vacation home" near the college students camp. They have taken time this weekend to work on fixing the place up. Our two groups first meet at a gas station which is considered the last civilization for miles. On seeing the college girls Dale expresses interest in meeting them. After some coaching by Tucker, Dale heads over to make their acquaintance and unwittingly creeps the lot of them out. It was quite understandable since he was holding a giant scythe and had a strange grin on his face(Tucker's advice) as he asked if they were going camping.

Basically this bad first impression leads to a lot of wild and crazy misunderstandings as the story progresses. The next big one happens that first night. Tucker and Dale are just hoping to enjoy some night fishing on the nearby pond. The college students see the pond and decide the time is perfect for some skinny dipping. One of the girls climbs up some rocks and starts undressing. Dale doesn't want her to think they are peeking so they stay quiet. She sees them and completely freaks out. She falls and hits her head as she enters the water. Dale quickly follows in to rescue her. the rest of the girls friends see that she is hurt and in their boat and think she has been kidnapped which is affirmed in their minds when Dale yells out "We have your friend!"

So as the story progresses the college students start to have freak accident deaths that are blamed on Tucker and Dale. The Deaths really are the best part of this movie. They are hilarious and creative. Imagine death by tree impalement, death by wood-chipper, death by nailed board to the face, death by falling in a hole and getting impaled by your own makeshift weapon. How can that not be amazing?

I don't really want to give any more away so I won't. The movie has some more entertaining parts and a tidy conclusion. Ricky has purchased the movie so you can expect that we will be watching it again in the near future. If we like you we will probably give you an invite. If you don't get an invite go ahead and feel bad.

Rating 4.5 Stars

The Three Musketeers

I don't even want to talk about this one so I won't. Boo is the first word that comes to mind when I think back on this movie experience. I love the cast involved but somehow they managed to blow it. they made it way to campy and unrealistic with a lady who inexplicably seems to be a part of the matrix or something based on her wild moves and lack of dying.  If you want to watch the Three Musketeers just watch one of the older classics. If you want a specific recommendation ask me and I will tell you which one you should see. I am
pretty cool like that.

Rating 1.5 Stars

In Time 

I had fairly high hopes for this movie and sadly they were not fully met. the movie wasn't bad per say but is wasn't great. In the movie all currency is based on time. If you work you get paid in time, if you buy food you pay in time and so forth. Once you hit the age of 25 you stop aging but you only have one year of life left to you to be used for everything. If the time on your arm runs out you drop dead at that moment. Justin Timberlake lives in one of the poorer areas where time is hard to come by. He is all sad because he say his mom die right before he was able to give her some time. He later meets a man in a bar that had well over a century of time but he was sick of living and wanted to die. the wanna die man gave all his time to Mr. Timberlake and went off to die. Justin sees this time and decides he is going to take down the system or something.

He goes to Richburbia ( not the real name of the place in the movie but I like it) and tries to live the high life by what else? Gambling. I guess this proves that games of chance are life affirming. He meets a super rich dude and wins a thousand years of time. Take that The Man. Justin is then invited to a party where he it turn seduces the rich guys daughter, is forced to flee the feds and kidnaps the seduced daughter.

Time passes they get sick of hiding and become the Bonnie and Clyde/Robin Hood style time bandits. They are in love and take time and give to poor people. Yay. the movie wasn't bad but it wasn't very action-y and it dragged quite a bit in places.

Rating 3 Stars

The Immortals

Now we are getting into what the Dukes love, some good old fashion blood and violence. This movie seems to try and blend together 300 and Clash of the Titans. It has a lot of shirtless ripped men and gods who need to fight things. That is generally the basic idea. This film decided it needed to try and have and actual story and plot which in our eyes detracted from the movie. The more story it had meant less action. We aren't seeing this movie to feel fulfilled by the plot but rather we want to see people die in epic battle scenes. Don't get me wrong the battle scenes in the movie were sweet but we felt like there just weren't enough of them. IT is really quite easy to make us happy in an action movie. Less plot, more action.

Rating 2.5 Stars

The Muppets

Oh how I love the Muppets. They have brought me many years of joy and entertainment. If you don't like the Muppets you are a fool or you are dead inside ( I am looking at you Emily). It kind of surprised me when I found out that this was the first muppet movie to have been made in 11 years. That is more than half of Danny's girlfriend's age ( Kailey for those of you who don't know). This fact meant that there was a whole generation that had not experienced the joys of this goofy band of characters.

This adaptation was updated and co-written by Jason Segel (Forgetting Sarah Marshal and How I Met Your Mother). I find him to be quite an amusing person and he is a huge muppets fan so he really wanted to do them justice.

the basic story in this movie is that the Muppet Show lot is going to be taken by an oil tycoon and destroyed if the Muppets can't be reunited and raise 10 million dollars. Jason Segel and his brother (who happens to be a muppet) are huge fans and they decide that they will help get the Muppets back together.

In classic muppet style songs are sung and dances spring up out of nowhere. Also it has an amazing number of hilarious cameos by NPH (Niel Patrick Harris Woo woo), Jim Parsons, James Carville and others.
I would recommend this movie to pretty much anyone and everyone. It is a good time Muppet style.

Rating 4.5 Stars