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Tusk (2014)
Did I need to be high first?
As a longtime Kevin Smith fan (movies, comics, TV, appearances and podcasts), I was expecting to really enjoy this film. Especially after seeing the fantastic trailer. It led me to believe Tusk was a psychological thriller. Which is exactly what it is for the first half of the film (once you get past the terrible "Not-See Party" puns that litter the entire film). But then Johnny Depp...uh...Guy LaPointe sidetracks the entire film with his distracting Inspector Clouseau wannabe character.
I had to wonder, if this is Kevin Smith's tribute to Canada to show them how much he loves them, why did he not cast Canadian actors to play those parts? Instead I saw Americans doing Canadian accents very poorly. It was too distracting and put a slam to any horror vibe that had been built up to this point.
I guess I would not have minded the horror/thriller film also being a comedy as that genre has been done well in the past (e.g., An American Werewolf in London). But I did not find any of the jokes to be funny. In fact, nobody in the theater I was in laughed even once. Does one have to be stoned to think this is funny? I suspect so. Which is too bad. I have never had this problem with a Kevin Smith film before.
I really liked the premise of Tusk and wished it had stayed the psychological thriller that the trailer had promised. Like Red State, I think I could have loved Tusk if it had stayed true to the genre instead of getting sidetracked.
I would like to see an alternate version when the film is released to Blu-Ray that cuts out the attempts at humor and 90% of the parts where they are looking for Wallace and instead just go directly to the final scenes at the house where the two main characters are sparring. And then I'd leave in the same ending, which was good. This version would be about 60-90 minutes long.
Despite my overall disappointment in Tusk, I am happy that a strange and unique idea like this was able to be made. Especially since it got its start with a goofy advertisement. And I am still looking forward to seeing Yoga Hosers, Kevin Smith's next film, which is also set in Canada with the same actors. But I will probably wait for it to hit Netflix rather than see it in the theaters.