I finally got to see Tucker & Dale VS Evil. It played last year at SXSW, and I didn’t have a chance to see it then—even though I interviewed the director Eli Craig following the premiere. The first thing he said to me:

Eli: So, how’d you like the movie?

Me: Uhh. I didn’t have a chance to see it.

Eli: Really? Oh man!

Me: [thinking how bad that sounds and how much of an idiot he must think I am for interviewing him about a movie I haven’t actually seen] Well, everyone who’s seen it seems to have liked it.

Eli: Really! Cool!

The interview picked up from there, thanks to the fact that Eli’s a really nice and enthusiastic guy who was perfectly content to talk horror movies. The fact that it was a gorgeous day in Austin and we were seated on the patio of one of its most pleasant restaurants—I forget the actual name, but it overlooks some water, has the décor of an old saw mill, and I believe has either the word “Tractor” or “Goat” in the title”—helped.

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Tucker & Dale vs Evil is a comedy horror film about two hillbillies on their dream vacation to a cabin in the woods who get mistaken for kidnappers when they try to help out a girl that fell into the lake.  Completed in 2010, this film has had a tough time finding a distributor after it premiered at Sundance.

I sat down with the director, Eli Craig, to talk about his experience with this film.  The conversation started off light, with him telling me about the new trailer that was premiering that weekend at their panel in Hall H.

The Flickast: So are you having a good weekend?  Have you gotten to experience Comic Con at all?

EC: I haven’t.  I’ve just been doing these interviews.  But I do want to go check it out.  My 5 year-old son is in there somewhere running around with a chainsaw and a hillbilly costume.

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When asked about his role in Jaws 4: The Revenge, Michael Caine once said, “I never saw it—but I saw the house it paid for, and it’s fantastic!” I suspect John Turturro’s been saying something similar for the past four years whenever he’s asked about the Transformers movies. Now we can add John Malkovich and Frances McDormand to that group. And maybe Alan Tudyk.

The plot is as labyrinthine as it is unnecessary. Back in the early 1960s, a ship from war-torn Cybertron (if the Transformers spend all their time fighting, how did they ever evolve?) crashed on the moon. Among the cargo were several “Pillars” that have some sort of significance to the war.

Also, a big, tough Autobot named Sentinal Prime. The White House gets wise to this, and thus we have the impetus for the moon landing (apparently, many historical events were due to Transformers; they don’t get around to revealing that car in which Kennedy was shot was an Autobot, but there may be a fourth film).

Fast-forward to the present day, where the Autobots are now working for the Feds to preserve humanity (how did we ever get along without them?). While on a mission to Chernobyl, Optimus Prime discovers some remnant of the Pillars and decides that it’s high time to revive Sentinal. Also, the Pillars are somehow able to teleport things, which means that it can be used to bring an army of invading Decepticons to earth (according to Frances McDormand, National Intelligence Director).

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Beautiful Boy has an undeniably appealing premise—what do the parents of school shooter go through? And it has two very good actors—Michael Sheen and Maria Bello—who fully commit to their roles. Sheen and Bello play Bill and Kate Carroll, the parents of Sam (Kyle Gallner), the freshman who goes on a shooting spree at his college before killing himself.

Director Shawn Ku begins almost in medias res, as it’s only a matter of minutes for the premise to be established before Bill and Kate, and by extension the audience, are confronted with a flurry of television cameras, media pundits, and frustrated parents looking for someone to blame. The couple’s first instinct is to shut themselves up in their house and ignore the rest of the world, but the media hounds are relentless, and the two retreat to the home of Kate’s brother Erik (Alan Tudyk), his wife (Moon Bloodgood), and their small child.

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When you run a website like The Flickcast, you are often lucky enough to see movies in advance of their release to the general public. Or, in the case of the horror comedy Tucker & Dale Versus Evil, way in advance.

I first saw this movie last year during Austin’s South By Southwest Film Festival and reviewed it for the site. Now, over a year later, the film has finally found distribution through Magnolia Pictures Magnet Releasing arm.

To save you the trouble of reading my review I will tell you that at the time I didn’t fall madly in love with the movie. However, it was fun and leads Tyler Labine, Alan Tudyk and Katrina Bowden are likeable and very watchable.

The film has problems, of course, as to many movies these days. I don’t really blame it for its problems, though, as it aspires to do a lot and is mostly limited by its extremely modest budget. I definitely give director Eli Craig points for at least trying to do something.

So, I’m happy more people will get a chance to experience Tucker & Dale Vs Evil. Plus, if the film does well we may be able to see what director Craig does with a larger budget.

Expect Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil to hit VOD on August 26th and then theaters on September 30th. For more info, click through for the full press release.

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Yes fans, the show that most believe was canceled way too early is coming back to TV once again. That show is, of course, Joss Whedon’s Firefly. Sadly, it won’t be for brand new episodes or anything like that.

Instead, the Science Channel will air the series in its entirety, plus some new and pretty cool extras. The channel will wrap each episode of the show with interstitial segments starring renowned physicist Dr. Michio Kaku (who you might remember form the days of Leo Laporte’s Screen Savers show on Tech TV), who will discuss the science behind the show’s sci-fi concepts.

According to 20th Century Fox, the studio that originally produced the show and also killed it early, this will be the first time Firefly has aired on basic cable channel since 2008, when it ran on USA Network. Firefly premieres on Science Channel on March 6 at 8 p.m., with the two hour pilot, followed by the first episode at 10 p.m.

Following that, Firefly episodes will air every Sunday. Don’t worry, they will be their original intended order and upgraded to high definition. At least they got that part right.

With the fan reaction being as negative as it could have been for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, it was expected that the studio and Michael Bay would be very careful in choosing a title for the third film. Fans felt alienated with the way Revenge of the Fallen went down, between the racist robots and robot balls, and now that creeping feeling is returning as the title for the third film has been announced.

It isn’t confirmed just yet, but according to a reliable Transformers fan site, marketing has started for the title Transformers: Dark of The Moon.

Some upcoming books listed at the Amazon revealed what might possibly be, the Title of the 3rd Transformers Movie.
The books are to be released (May 17, 2011) very near the release date of Transformer 3 (July 1, 2011). The author of the books is official and has written books for the 2007 Movie and ROTF. The publisher is none other than HarperColins, which produced similar books for both movies.

So it may sound like a high school adaptation of a Pink Floyd film, but this could bring new depth to Bay’s Transformers universe. It has been confirmed that Megan Fox is not returning, while LaBeouf, Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, and Turturro are all coming back. Joining the cast for the first time is Malkovich, Patrick Dempsey, Ken Jeong, Alan Tudyk, and Frances McDormand.

The film is slated to hit on July 1st of 2011, so expect to see a big trailer by year’s end, hopefully along with a confirmed title.

Tucker & Dale Vs Evil is a film I went into with low expectations and, for the most part, I was not disappointed. Showing at midnight on the first day of SXSW, it was a perfect way to start off the late night screenings. However, the film works best and can be most enjoyed if you don’t take it too seriously or expect too much from it.

While the two leads, Tucker (played by Firefly and Dollhouse‘s Alan Tudyk) and Dale (Tyler Labine, recently of Reaper and the upcoming Sons of Tucson), are immensely likable and have good chemistry and banter, the film falls short and doesn’t live up to their potential. This is unfortunate on many levels because given more effort and time, it probably would have turned out a lot better and been a more fitting vehicle for these two actors.

The premise of Tucker & Dale is very simple and in most cases when it comes to filmmaking, simple is a good thing. Sadly, a simple premise alone does not a complete movie make and as the movie progresses, the slender thread of that premise starts to unravel. This is where this film chiefly falls in that while it does have a simple premise, it doesn’t expand much beyond it and instead offers a string of somewhat uninspired and progressively repetitive “accidents” that go along, leading the film to its inevitable conclusion.

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In the first installment of TV Digest: Canceled, I talked about shows such as Moonlight, Jerico and Studio 60 that were gone too soon. This time I’ve got more shows that were canceled way before their time, and are a testament to both how amazing television can be but also how nearsighted executives can be when making the decision to cancel a show.

While these shows may no longer grace our television sets with shiny, fresh new episodes, they live on in our hearts and on our DVD shelves. These are what I consider to be the most beloved canceled TV shows of our time.

Arrested Development

Produced by brilliant filmmaker Ron Howard and starring a slew of incredible actors, Arrested Development ran for three seasons from 2003-2006. Shot in a documentary style fashion, like The Office, the show is about the wealthy but seriously crazy Bluth family after their father gets arrested and their company faces bankruptcy.

Oldest son Michael Bluth (Jason Bateman) is the glue that holds everyone together while siblings Gob (Will Arnett), Lindsay (Portia de Rossi) and her husband Tobias (David Cross), and Buster (Tony Hale) do their best to make a mess of things. I really can’t say enough about how good this show was.

Other than the incredible casting, this show has some of the best writing and comedic timing I’ve ever seen on television. I have watched all three seasons multiple times and I can watch an episode now and still find something brand new to laugh about, because of how well the writers reference old jokes and spin new ones in their wake.

But the show also can have these incredibly heartfelt moments, in between the insanity, that remind us how important it is to be a family despite how much money you have in the bank. And as the economy continues its slump, this crazy family in the midst of financial turmoil is looking far less eccentric and just plain average. As this show ages it becomes more and more relevant, and it becomes clearer and clearer just how great it is.

Despite all that, as well as numerous Emmy nominations and wins, the show was canceled. Luckily we’ll see more of the Bluth family soon, in a feature length movie that begins shooting this year.

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2010 might be the year for unexpected comedy successes, between Hot Tub Time Machine and now Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil. The latter is looking better as it mashes the genre of slasher and comedy like never before. Don’t believe me? Here’s the official synopsis:

In the vein of Shaun of the Dead, Tucker & Dale is a wild, wonky tale of two hillbilly buddies trying to survive their vacation in the woods when they are mistaken for killers by a gang of college kids. Our heroes valiantly save one of the college girls from drowning but are accused of wrongdoing. The chase ensues, not treating the students too well, leaving us with a gory but hilarious tale of two hillbillies and their hearts of gold.

Two hillbillies that aren’t the killers, but just on the wrong end of a series of mishaps? Sounds too good, no? Well it gets better when you hear that the titular roles of Tucker and Dale will be played by fan favorites Alan Tudyk (Serenity) and Tyler Labine (Reaper). 30 Rock’s Katrina Bowden also stars as one of the accident-prone college kids.

The film officially debut’s at Sundance, and is expected to have a distributor and release date shortly thereafter. Check out two brand new clips from the film after the jump.

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Shaun of the Dead started a new trend of horror comedies that was once lost after the mainstream success of the Ghostbusters franchise in the late 80s. From there, films like Zombieland and Fido took the ball and ran with it. It was only a matter of time before the formula was used on something other than the zombie genre.

Enter Tucker & Dale vs. Evil, a new horror comedy in the works that puts the “teens killed by hillbillies in the woods” storyline on it’s head. The film shows what it’s like from the other end of the scale, and what if the hillbillies weren’t really all that evil.

Starring Firefly’s Alan Tudyk and Reaper’s Tyler Labine (what could become the American equivalent of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost), the film could help the genre mash-up of Horror Comedy grow some real legs, after Zombieland helped put it on the map this summer.

Check out the first trailer for the film after the jump, and we’ll be sure to have more info on the film (such as a hard release date) as soon as it comes to us.

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Though we try to keep things fresh here at the site, especially with our features like Fan Film Friday, sometimes it’s hard to skip over things that are quite well done, even when they aren’t really topical anymore. Though G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is already week-old news, we felt that this week’s fan film needed to be a little musical number from our friends at Funny or Die called The Ballad of G.I. Joe.

Continuing the trend of filling their skits with a who’s who of Hollywood, the Ballad includes names that will pretty much blow your socks off. Names like Alexis Bledel as Lady Jaye, Billy Crudup as Zartan, Zach Galifiankais as Snow Job, Tony Hale as Dr. Mindbender, Vinnie Jones as Destro, Chuck Liddell as Gung Ho, Julianne Moore as Scarlett, Henry Rollins as Duke, Alan Tudyk as Shipwreck, Olivia Wilde as The Baroness, and even a little Sgt. Slaughter thrown in as well.

There are a few other names thrown in, so be sure to keep an eye out. Check out the Ballad of G.I. Joe after the jump.

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