By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Director: Kevin Smith
Starring: Genesis Rodriguez | Haley Joel Osment | Johnny Depp | Justin Long | Michael Parks
Country: united_states
Year: 2014
Running time: 102
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3099498/combined
Thom says: “Podcaster Wallace Bryton (a forever boyish Justin Long) and his head dude Teddy (a decidedly chubby Osment) are looking for odd, disgusting clips for their podcast and come across a really gross one where a young man accidentally (?) slices his leg off. So Wallace travels up to Canada to track the tragic character down for an interview only to discover he’s committed suicide. He then reads a posting on a bulletin board that intrigues him because of its weird obsessions. He travels far into the
wilderness to track down the mysterious stranger. Upon arrival he meets the odd, psychotic Howard Howe and is carried away by his fantastic stories that seemingly haven’t a grain of truth. Too late, Bryton discovers he’s been drugged and secured as Howe lets him know that he literally plans to turn him into a walrus. Later, after his disappearance is notable his girlfriend Ally heads off to Canada to search for the missing podcaster with Teddy and they hook up with a very peculiar police detective Guy Lapointe (a merry, madcap Johnny Depp) to follow his footsteps.
“Smith, responsible for such noted fare as CLERKS, CLERKS II, CHASING AMY, MALLRATS, DOGMA, JERSEY GIRL, & RED STATE, is on to something at first where the film threatens to head off into THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE territory but once the search is on for our missing protagonist the film loses serious steam. I got a kick out of some of the lame references and the contention that Canadians hate Americans was played for serious laughs, but even that got slightly wearing. Smith has some problems mixing comedy & horror but it’s a fun effort. 3 cats”