Loading ...Remembering 'Idle Hands'
Posted by Tim on March 16, 2006Remembering ‘IDLE HANDS’
Oh, I remember when this movie came out. Believe me, the trailers, Jessica Alba, the gore, how funny it looked, I remember this. I also remember the events that took place also during the spring of 1999… The start of what would become famous or infamous as the high school shooting of all high school shootings took place in Colorado at a small high school that would spark off events leading to stiffer ratings for video games and abuse of government towards horror movie genre in general that year and the next few years to come! See, in order to review this movie or talk about it, I have to explain where I’m coming from when I review this movie. Also it is mostly because people forgot about this underrated horror/comedy that in my opinion should have and could of been a hit in theaters. But once the two dumb asses decided to enter Combine High School with guns and a death wish, it changed everything for quite awhile in Hollywood and in society in general. After the shootings, everything from heavy metal music, to video games, to violence in action and horror movies were blamed for the deaths at the high school not the two dumb asses that did it. Even their fucking suicide note blamed video games such as Doom, Area 51, and others including violent movies were blamed for the way they were. This sparked off the government, parents, etc. to crack down on these things. A couple of episodes of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ were canceled, moved to another date, or played in even more censored version depending where you lived. ‘The Matrix’ became a hot topic! But what was forgotten was the movie ‘Idle Hands, a horror/comedy…
‘Idle Hands’ came to theaters mere weeks after the shootings and was met with critics refusing to review it, make it an example of how disgustingly violent it was, etc. as this movie felt the brunt of it all including “Columbia Pictures� dropping it from theaters after only two weeks! Plus, after the first week, Columbia pulled it out of half the theaters not because of its content or not making money or what it was, but because parents and government decided this is the movie they will protest and make an example out of! Why? Because it was a horror movie, plain and simple. The sad part is many people didn’t find this movie until it hit DVD or the cable movie channels. Well, you missed out… And if you still haven’t seen it, now is the time to check out one the funniest horror/comedies of all time! The movie stars Devon Sawa as a slacker high school student who watches too much TV and smokes too much weed especially with his two friends: Seth Green and Elden Henson, and dreams about the girl across the street, the very hot and delicious, Jessica Alba! Well, there is a killer on the loose in the community and it isn’t any ordinary killer. It’s a killer that possesses your hand and kills people and tries to send a good soul to hell by midnight ‘druid time’ on Halloween night! First, Devon’s parents are killed, then the twin nerds are killed that work the drive-thru, and then Devon’s two friends are killed before he knows his hand is possessed. That is just the first half of the movie! It gets gut-wrenchingly funny after that with lots of gore displayed along the way as Devon’s friends come back as zombified corpses who decide if they can’t smoke weed right now they might as well try to help Devon on what to do with his killer hand. Movie at times is a laugh minute and is well-paced for the 90 minutes. The movie has its influences “Evil Dead 2� being one of them! But why else would you want to see this movie now or even again? The DVD, of course. There was a unrated DVD first released that actually played with the alternate ending in it instead of the DVD you can buy now at Best Buy for $5.99. But don’t be disappointed, there isn’t too much missing from the $5.99 ‘Idle Hands’ at Best Buy. It has the theatrical ending, but in the extras there is a commentary that includes Seth Green, plus the alternate ending which is actually pretty good compared to most alternate endings of movies where you are usually asking yourself, “Why in the blue fuck did they film that for?� So if you are able to track down a copy of the original release on DVD, more power to you… The only thing that I can remember that was extra on the unrated DVD besides what I told you, is extra gore scenes they either cut down or cut out of the movie entirely! So people, don’t disappoint, seek this movie out as I give it 4 stars and something that not only adds to your beautiful horror movie collection like mine? But, give the movie its due for what it never originally got when it was being ridiculed for something it had nothing to do with. Its due for just being a very entertaining and funny horror/comedy!