Tucker and Dale stars two funny, relative unknowns — Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine — in a pretty clever premise: what if they made one of those college-kids-vacation-in-a-backwoods-cabin horror movies, only this time, the hillbillies are the good guys?  Unfortunately, either not enough time or not enough thought came between funny premise and finished script, and the result is a movie that’s just sort of mildly amusing.

T & D V. E (remember that acronym, people will think you’re cool) is kind of like watching Chelsea Lately: everyone around me is laughing, and I can sorta see why.  It’s kinda funny.  I like the idea of the joke.  It’s not unfunny.  But for me the writing just isn’t sharp enough to warrant more than a chuckle.  Here, I’ll give you an example of a line that drew a huge laugh at my screening:

DALE: [to the college girl he falls in love with but doesn't think he's good enough for] I just knew if a guy like me tried to talk to a girl like you someone would end up dead!

*guy next to me brays like a retarded donkey*

It’s sort of a microcosm of the movie.  If you think that was a hilarious line, you’ll probably love the film.  I find it irreverent without being particularly humorous, like an old man wearing a colorful hat.

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After the jump, I’ve got some new clips from Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, a new horror comedy starring Alan Tudyk that looks a little like Cabin Fever.  Only this time, it’s told from the hillbillies’ perspective, who can’t figure out why all these college kids came out to the woods to terrorize them and die accidentally.  It looks pretty funny, and I should have a review for you next week, my too-hot-for-Sundance-press-credentials status notwithstanding.  At the very least, I hope it gets picked up for distribution and makes lots of money so Alan Tudyk won’t have to do cell phone commercials anymore.  Wait, I just looked it up and it turns out it’s actually just a DirecTV commercial in which he watches TV on a cell phone.  Phew.  Last thing we need is another Luke Wilson.  Have you heard?  AT&T’s new 3G network allows him to eat two sandwiches at the same time.

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This is the trailer for Eli Craig’s Tucker & Dale vs. Evil ,starring the great and still-surprisingly-unknown Alan Tudyk.  It’s a horror comedy that thankfully doesn’t involve zombies.  Instead it takes the familiar college-kids-go-camping-in-the-backwoods plot, but the twist is that this time, the hillbillies are the good guys, and they only seem like psycho killers because of repeated, Three’s Company-esque misunderstandings.  Even if the writing turns out to be not as good as, say, Zombieland, I appreciate that writer-director Craig took a more novel approach than just ripping off Shaun of the Dead.

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