Kevin Smith’s “Tusk” Movie Review
January 6, 2015 8:09 pm | Leave your thoughts
Pop Culture Leftovers Rating System:
Toss It = Hated It
Taste It = Liked it
Tupperware = Loved it
I have gone on record as being an unapologetic Kevin Smith geek. I have loved his voice from my very first viewing of Clerks, funny considering he plays a character that has about a total of 2 minutes worth of dialog in all of his own movies. I own almost all of his movies in one form or another and have watched them all so many times I couldn’t give you an accurate count of which movies I have seen how many times. I also watch all the extra on the DVD’s and watch the movies with the audio commentary because I like to hear what the film maker has to say about the movie, especially when it is something he wrote himself and because I find Smith and his friends amusing. Thankfully I have a second job that affords me the opportunity to watch movies while I work and with as much time as I end up putting in I re-watch movies all the fucking time.
My primary job is a little harder to get away with that kind of shit but I have podcasts and a ton of music to keep my head off the fact that I work a very mundane and mind numbing job. I starting looking for podcasts shortly after I found my library of music was becoming really repetative and found SModcast which was Kevin Smith and his long time producer and hetero life mate Scott Mosier, so I gave it a listen. It turned out to be two dudes sitting around talking about mindless shit that I also found funny and cracking themselves up at the same time. I was as hooked to the podcasts as I was his movies. I think I may be slightly obsessed with Kevin but the truth is I just think what he has to say is interesting, funny, smart and really fucking profane.
I remember listening to SModcast episode 259 (The Walrus and the Carpenter) and laughing along as the Smith and Mosier layed out their thoughts on this want ad one of them had found in some British paper called Gumtree. The ad was basically someone offering a place to stay but had to occassionally dress up as a walrus. In the podcast they developed what would eventually become Tusk pretty much word for word and they later found out that the ad was just some hoax, although the guy who placed the ad got a producer credit on the movie.
If you have not heard the podcast I highly recommend that you do before you see this movie. Kevin gets slammed for always having made insider type movies, meaning that if you didn’t know the View Askew Universe you probably weren’t going to get all the jokes in his movies and he has publically agreed with this. This movie is the ultimate insider movie, it could still be enjoyed not listening to the variety of podcasts on the SModcast network but you would find yourself belly laughing at some of the inside jokes they put in there, including Ralph Garmin, Kevin’s partner on Hollywood Babble On (one of my absolute favorite podcasts), playing a Canadian detective named Frank Garmin, because someone sent them an email to the show one time and called Ralph, Frank. It was a running joke for several weeks after, and you also have Wallace and Teddy’s ringtones being Ralph doing his impression of Al Pacino singing “Come On Now…More Margaritas” for their Hollywood Helpers segment.
This movie is about a podcaster (Wallace played by Justin Long) who travels to different places to interview people who have interesting and sometimes embarassing stories then brings them back home to L.A. to share them on air with his friend Teddy (played by Haley Joel Osment). On his trip to Canada to interview the “Kill BIll Kid” he finds he no longer has a story and reluctantly calls the trip a bust. While he debates on what to do and relieving himself at some Canadian Wilderness bar he finds an ad that asks for anyone looking for a room must be willing to listen to an old man tell his life story. Wallace thinks this may be some salvation for his lost story and contacts the man (Howard Howe played by Michael Parks). Finding that Howard may indeed have some interesting stories he heads to the middle of nowhere in Manitoba Canada which is even further in the middle of bumfuck nowhere.
Well you guessed it Howard is actually a demented psycho whose real intention is to make Wallace into an actual walrus. In a storke of luck Wallace gets a call out to his girlfriend Ally (played by Genesis Rodriguez) and Teddy but only get their voicemail but leaves thema message that he is in real trouble. Teddy and Ally head to Canada to find Wallace and are led to Guy Lapointe (Johnny Depp) who has been hunting for Howard for a couple of years now. In the mean time Wallace has gone full walrus and by the time Teddy, Ally and Guy find the transformed Wallace it is too late.
I purposefully left a lot out because I really think it should be experienced and not spoiled. I really liked this movie a lot. Michael Parks was absolutely brilliant. Kevin Smith completely turned the tables on anyone who said he is not a film maker because the look of the movie, the horrific undertones and of course the dialog that keeps you glued to your seat all came together in one movie that had me completely creeped out and disturbed and then switched on a dime and had me in stiches laughing.
If memory serves, I think Jake Tasted It and Brian Tossed It. Brian has very valid points for not liking this movie. When it gets corny and Smith is going for the laugh, it can seem a little out of place and may not fit the levity of what you’re watching but I think going into this movie thinking you are going to watch a straight up horror flick you will be sorely disappointed. It’s not to say I thought everything in this movie worked, not at all actually. I didn’t like the way Depp portrayed Guy, I thought it was over the top and too corny. Smith could’ve used a little help with the editing here because when we are introduced to Guy, his monologue is long and his accent is God awful. Justin’s performance was hit or miss at times, mostly hit though, but Parks straight up steals the whole fucking movie. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and the criticisms this movie I can understand but do not agree with only because I know the source material.
If you listen to SModcast or find Kevin as funny and entertaining as I do you’ll love it. I find it refreshing that Kevin just doesn’t give a shit if he makes a commercially successful movie and as long as he makes back the production cost of the film he considers it a success. He is not going to make studio movies, he’s never really fit the mold and he is very self aware of this fact, but he is going to make a movie that he knows only he will make, his fans will watch and he doesn’t care who trashes him for it.
If you have not seen this movie yet, I implore you to listen to SModcast 259 – The Walrus and the Carpenter first then watch this movie, I promise it will give you a whole new perspective on it. For me it’s a Tupperware and will completely call myself out on being a huge Smith fan, but until he puts out another movie like Cop Out, he has my DVD/Blu Ray sales every single time. Which also leads me to my last point…I rented this from Redbox and the DVD rental had the audio commentary, the making of, another extra of Kevin shooting the shit for about half an hour to 45 minutes, deleted scenes and the episode of SModcast where Tusk was created.
Thanks for reading.
Pop Culture Leftovers Army Member…David
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Tags: Kevin Smith, pop culture leftovers, Scott Mosier, Smodco, Tusk
Categorised in: Movie Reviews
This post was written by Leftover Brian
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