*Insert boy band joke*
Anton is a slacker. A typical 90s teen only interested in chicks, drugs and… Well that’s probably quite enough isn’t it?
When Anton learns that not only is there a killer on the loose, but that the killer has already disposed of his loving parents in a bloody and vicious fashion, then he decides that it must be time for a smoke… And off to visit Mick (Seth Green) and Pnub, his two equally dopey stoner mates across the street he goes, hesitating only long enough to hesitate too long to try to chat up the lovely Molly (Jessica Alba) along the way.
What the bong toting trio don’t initially twig to, is that the killer isn’t a someone, but a something. Namely a hand. Anton’s hand. It has gone rogue and is now operating separately – even while still attached to his body.
Idle Hands is that all too rare horror comedy which nails the line between the genres. While some of the references aim a little low, and some of the jokes remain trapped in an era two decades past, it doesn’t shy away from gore, doesn’t skimp on the (non-Alba) nudity, and certainly doesn’t take the high road with the dialogue. The teens on display here are genuinely ‘regularly dumb’ teens. That’s not to say all teens are dumb, but some are. And these ones are dumb, especially the eventually undead Mick and Pnub.
Green gets the best lines, with a snarky aside for every occasion, and Alba is all teenage jailbait hotness in waiting as the not quite so innocent Molly.
This is like entry level Evil Dead for adventurous alterna-teens. It’s not especially dangerous but it is very effective and funnier than many more popular so called comedies of the era (*cough* SCHNEIDER!), and I can’t work out why it wasn’t more popular the first time around.
Final Rating – 7 / 10. I’d go as far to say it’s cool and all but y’know, like, whatevs…
