Review of Tusk (2014) by David P — 11 Jan 2015

Ridiculous as it sounds, you would have to think with such a prolific director such as Kevin Smith at the helm, there is sure to be a deeper meaning behind all this madness. I think it is there, barely. Wallace is a bit of a jerk, and the message is that when he is transformed into a walrus, he becomes more human. But the film never really sells this.

Apparently the idea for this film came out of one of Smith's own Podcasts, and it kind of just feels like he is making this movie because he can. I'm hearing critics saying that this movie is made for.

Kevin Smith fanboys. But I am a Smith fan, and I didn't particularly like this movie. It feels like it doesn't really know what kind of film it is. It slips between straight horror, parody horror and stoner comedy. To be honest I would have rathered that it kept to the latter, as that is what Smith does best. After his last delve into the horror genre with Red State, that didn't do to well with me, I thought he would go back to his roots. Instead we get this craziness.

It's good to see Justin Long back in the fray though, really an underrated actor that has been absent of late and he is great as Wallace. Haley Joel Osment is a strange inclusion, considering most of us are only aware of his work as a child actor, but he is pretty solid as Wallace's Podcasting co-host. Although most of his scenes include his character and Wallace's girlfriend, played by a super sexy Genesis Rodriguez, searching for the missing Wallace, and the tone of these scenes, while fun in their stupidity really throw the tension out the window. A guest appearance by Johnny Depp as a detective from Quebec is quite entertaining, but again I feel his character really didn't fit this movie. Critics are saying that Michael Parks as Howard Howe is the highlight of the film, but I tend to feel the opposite. Although he was delightfully deranged, his long winded monologs had me tuning out.

The walrus make up was disturbing and effective at first, but then we see way too much of it as the film progresses and it starts to just look silly.

I think that if Kevin Smith gave Tusk a little more focus it would have been a truly terrifying or highly hilarious experience, depending on which way he took it. But the mish-mash approach that has been taken really didn't work and it will have you saying WTF a lot, and not in a good way. Even if you're a Kevin Smith fan, I think you can wait for this one on DVD. Can't we he just make Clerks 3 or another Jay and Silent Bob movie already?