Starring Justin Long, Michael Parks, Haley Joel Osment and Genesis Rodriguez
When podcaster Wallace Bryton goes missing in the backwoods of Manitoba while interviewing a mysterious seafarer named Howard Howe, his best friend Teddy and girlfriend Allison team with an ex-cop to look for him.
I went into this movie completely expecting to hate it. But half-way through it, I was entranced by the ridiculousness and absurdness and the arguably poetic nature of the story. Then, Kevin Smith does what he does best and completely ruined it by dragging out jokes too long.
It started out so strong with the banter between the protagonist and the mad scientist to the point that I thought that maybe, just maybe, Kevin Smith finally discovered how to make a movie that wasn't about people smoking pot. Then, as fast as it built itself up, if not faster, it crumbled to pieces into a drawn-out and unfunny SNL skit where the audience is expected to laugh just because the actors have a silly voice.
Never have I ever seen a movie fall apart so quickly. It's almost as if the entire film was just a prank that did nothing but waste every ones time. If this is supposed to be a comedy, it's not funny. If this is supposed to be a horror movie, it's not scary. It just exists.
One important aspect of horror movies that today's filmmakers seem to forget is that you have to make your characters likable in order for us to connect with the terror they're being put through. "Tusk" is not the only example of this short coming, but it is definitely an offender.
I may not have started this movie with the hopes of liking it, but I definitely felt that urge at some point before the fifty-minute mark. Kevin Smith wrote, directed, produced and edited it. And unfortunately I feel the latter is where he was mistaken. Ultimately, he didn't know when to cut a scene and call it a day. Scenes that began phenomenally quickly dwindled into horrendous-ness.
My Rating: 3/10
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