Review: "Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil" is (Almost) as Good as it's Terrific Premise

It's easily one of the best movie premises of the year: a group of college kids go camping in the Appalachian Mountains and think they're being terrorized by a group of backwoods hillbillies – when, in fact, those hillbillies are just being friendly, and it's all a terrible misunderstanding.

So how did the filmmakers (including director and co-writer Eli Craig) do in executing this terrific, and terrifically funny premise?

Better than just okay. The movie mostly works, even if it's definitely not perfect.

What works best? Anyone who's watched the rise of Tyler Labine know that he's always the best thing in whatever project he's in, whether it was the decent supernatural comedy Reaper, the horrible sitcom Mad Love, or the stupid movie A Good Old Fashioned Orgy.

He's definitely the best part of Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil, playing something a little different from his trademark arrogant hipster-loser character. Here's he's a shy, hapless, but very smart hillbilly who's tongue-tied around girls, and Tabine plays him with the perfect combination of satire and heart.

He's helped a lot by his partner-in-crime, Tucker, Firefly's funny Alan Tudyk, who is clearly an old pro at comedy and game for anything.

The comedy-of-errors gags mostly work, all (affectionately) playing on either hillbilly stereotypes or hillbilly movie clichés.

When Tucker and Dale first see their new "vacation home" (which is a run-down shack that was clearly used previously by a serial-killer), they first exclaim, "Oh my God!" as if in horror. But that's quickly followed by, "It's perfect! They called this a fixer-upper?!"

There's not enough attention given to the generic college kid characters (or college kid stereotypes, which could've been a nice counterpart to the hillbilly stereotypes). But it is funny when they start dropping like flies, not because of anything Tucker and Dale do, but because of how these kids misinterpret what Tucker and Dale are doing.

Unfortunately, if you've seen the movie's trailer, you've already seen most of its funniest moments.

That said, the trailer doesn't show the love story at the heart of the movie (which is basically a retelling of Beauty and the Beast). It totally works and is quite touching.

I also appreciated that they gave the female love interest (charming Katrina Bowden) something to do. She's an aspiring therapist – a conflict mediator who specializes in communication. But in trying to get the college kids to see things from the hillbilly point of view, she finally declares, hilariously, "I'm the worst therapist of all time!"

The movie's problems? I hate to pick on what was obviously a low budget production, one that clearly has a lot of heart, but it does flag a bit in the middle, and the "evil" of the title is over-the-top, even for a movie like this.

There was also comedy gold to be mined in the movie's point of view transitions, as we shift between the perspective of the college kids to Tucker and Dale and then back again. The movie mostly muddles this.

Finally, there's a running joke about the relationship between Tucker and Dale, who act a lot like a married couple. Frequently, they find themselves in compromising sexual situations together. It's not quite tired and cliche "gay panic" humor, which is good, but none of these jokes is quite clear either, so they end up feeling sort of muddled too.

But now I'm being nit-picky. Bottom line? Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil is a fresh comedy with heart, with a couple of great performances. Definitely check it out.