Review of Tusk (2014) by Whiskey187 — 18 Sep 2014

Wow! How the mighty have fallen. The movie's trailer looked ok, but once the movie started I was just waiting and waiting for something good to happen. The movie tries to be funny and scary, but is neither. Die hard Kevin Smith fans will enjoy it, but it isn't a good movie at all. The pre-climax scene is disturbing, but that doesn't make it scary at all. It seems more like one of those movies that seemed great on paper, but doesn't look good on the screen at all. The movie is about a podcaster named Wallace Bryton ( (Justin Long) who is a total jerk and has no regard for the audience he talks about in his podcast, but goes to Canada to interview the Kill Bill Kid who had a terrible accident. When the inital meeting doesn't turn out as expected, the podcaster finds a letter written by a mysterious adventurer who lives in the middle of nowhere in Canada. From there, the podcaster arrives to the mansion where the mysterious old man adventurer Howard Howe (Michael Parks) talks about his stories and how he befriends a walrus. The old man is obsessed with everything about walruses. The podcaster drinks tea with the old man and soon realizes that his tea has been posioned. Then, flashbacks go to the happy days of Wallace and his beautiful girlfriend Ally Leon (Genesis Rodriguez) before all the torture begins. Rodriguez is the only good part of the movie. She plays a really great part.

From there, the movie borrows everything from Misery to The Human Centipede. Nothing original happens which includes Wallace getting a surgery to get placed in a walrus suit. Wallace's girlfriend, friend Teddy Craft (Haley Joel Osment), and a funny Guy Lapointe homicide detective (Johnny Depp) start to investigate what happened to Wallace after he leaves a voicemail for his girlfriend. The movie switches back and forth between seeing Wallace in a very disturbing walrus suit and being tortured by Howard Howe then to the friend, girlfriend, and detective searching Canada for his last trails.

The movie isn't enjoyable at all. It has funny parts, but it isn't worth watching. Kevin Smith is now living off of his name. If he wasn't famous, this movie would not be created at all. It is very disappointing. Unfortunately, there are supposed to be two more of these made as sequels. Hopefully, Smith chnages his mind. AVOID AT ALL COSTS! If this movie had been made in the 80s, it would be stratight to VHS and forgotten. Luckily, after this review I will forget about this movie. It didn't stick in my mind at all after I left. I didn't even stay after the movie to watch the live cast of Q&A between Justin Long and Kevin Smith live from Austin.

Kevin Smith, like many directors before him, have reached a point in their career in which they have lost their creative touch and cannot make good movies anymore. I saw the movie last night and I heard one person clapping and the rest in shock about how bad the movie was.