If you are not into shock and fright for Halloween you may want to get the Blu-ray of Idle Hands a spoof on horror that features some familiar film stars. The wild and weird movie may be a little worse for wear being originally released back in 1999, but on Blu-ray for the first time it all comes alive for your home entertainment.
The story centers on Anton (Devon Sawa) who wakes up on Halloween morning to find his parents dead and stuffed into the pumpkin headed dummies that are being used for decoration. Completely stoned out of his mind he consults his stoner friends Mick (Seth Green) and Pnub (Elden Henson) on what to do. Of course, smoke more weed, right?
Well they do a little of that and find that Anton has developed a hand that is possessed by the devil. On top of that Mick and Pnub have turned into wild and weird zombies out looking for a good time on Halloween night. In the meantime Anton tries to control the murderous hand, but it even attacks his girlfriend Molly (Jessica Alba). Totally out of control Anton takes a desperate chance of cutting off his own hand before it kills him. When the zombielike hand comes crawling back to finish the score, Anton has to find a way to defeat the five fingered killer.
The fun film always gets laughs with the well acted script by writers Terri Hughes and Ron Milbauer. Director Rodman Flender (Leprechaun 2, The Unborn) keeps the film moving at a fast pace inserting obstacles in the path of the frightened Anton as he tries to figure out a way of surviving the attack of his own hand. He takes his actors through some very crazy situations and they look like they are having a lot of fun performing in the wacky film.
It’s great seeing Seth Green and Jessica Alba so young in the film. It was not Seth’s first film as he had already made a name for himself in the Austin Powers series. His first was a small role in The Hotel New Hampshire opposite Jodie Foster and Rob Lowe playing the youngest of the Berry’s. He worked in a lot of television following that film including stints on “Facts of Life” and later on “The Birds of Paradise”.
I like Jessica Alba’s character in Idle Hands where she really starts turning up the heat in this spicy role as Anton’s girlfriend who’s unaware of his dilemma. Her screen presence certainly got her noticed as her career started to blossom. Idle Hands and the release of Never Been Kissed in 1999 gave her one of the best years. She’s a natural beauty and started getting roles in films like Sin City, The Fantastic Four and Into the Blue. She repeated as the Invisible Woman in The Fantastic Four sequel and later picked up the emotional role of Joyce Lakeland in The Killer Inside Me.
Idle hands has been rated R by the MPAA for horror violence and gore, pervasive teen drug use, language and sexuality. Most of the horror is fed by the comedy, but the teen drug use gets a little over the top. There is also some nudity in the movie that’s not mentioned in the rating. The makeup team must have been working round the clock to keep Green and Henson looking like zombies.
The video quality is very good with the enhanced high definition Blu-ray release. It’s clean and clear with hardly a distortion from print to disc. It actually looks scarier on the small screen with the special prosthesis looking a lot better. The 1080p HD Widescreen 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio fills the whole 16×9 HD television giving the best possible look without those black bars top and bottom.
The sound quality featuring the 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio does a great job blowing the music around the room on my upgraded system. I also noted that even through my television speakers that surround sound was coming from both sides of the room. The dialogue is easily heard and the special effects sound crystal clear.
Specifications and additional film information:
Cast: Devon Sawa, Seth Green, Elden Henson, Jessica Alba, Steve Van Wormer
Director: Rodman Flender
MPAA Rating: R for horror violence and gore, pervasive teen drug use, language and sexuality
Genre: Horror, Comedy
Running Time: 1 hr 37 min
Video Release Date: October 29, 2013
Original Film Release Date: April 30, 1999
Language: English
Format: Blu-ray
Audio: 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio
Subtitles: English SDH
Number of Discs: 1 Disc
Distributed by: RLJ Entertainment
Writer, critic, film editor John Delia, Sr. has been on all sides of the movie business from publications to film making. He has worked as a film critic with ACED Magazine for more than 20 years and other publications for a total of 40 years. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Florida. John is a member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association and Critics Association of Central Florida Send John a message at jdelia@acedmagazine.com
