Idle Hands

I'm going to open this review with a question: Have you ever heard of Devon Sawa? Probably not. But have you ever seen him. Probably. He was the human form of Casper in the eponymous movie, Alex Browning in Final Destination, and played Stan in Eminem's music video of the same name. Yet in 1999, he appeared in one of his most famous roles, a film called Idle Hands, which almost nobody seemed to notice. Well, the truth it is, underrated films are often pretty damn good, and this one is no exception.

Directed by Rodman Flender (The Unborn), and starring Devo Sawa, Jessica Alba, Seth Green, Elden Hensen and Vivica A. Fox, Idle Hands tells the story of a teen whose right hand becomes possessed by a demon that forces him to kill as many people as possible, before dragging a soul down to Hell. But please don't let that morosity put you off, it's very tongue-in-cheek.

The story begins with Mr. and Mrs. Tobias, the parents of our main character, getting killed after seeing a message on their ceiling. We then meet our hero, Anton (Sawa), a lazy stoner who spends all of his time flunking out of school to smoke weed, watching TV and hanging out with his equally sedentary friends Pnub (Hensen) and Mick (Green). They inform Anton that several people have been murdered in the last few days, and that, coincidentally, Anton has not seen his parents recently. During this scene, he notices the girl who lives across from him, Molly (Alba), dropping her lyrics book, so he awkwardly tries to return it to her.

Upon discovering that his parents are dead, Anton also finds out that he is responsible, but before he can do anything about it, his right hand attacks and kills both Pnub & Mick. But they don't stay deceased for long, and come back as the undead, since they were too lazy to approach the white light at the end of the tunnel. No, that's no a joke, it's literally the explanation they give.

We then meet Debi LeCure (Fox), a priestess that has sworn to fight the evil that has apparently possessed Anton's hand. She tracks Anton down, and tells him exactly what has happened to him, and how little time they have to stop it.

                                                           One of those morning huh?

It's not what you'd call a spectacular movie, or even a great movie. It's a pretty rudimentary stoner comedy. I enjoy the funny twist they put on what other films would portray as a very serious supernatural phenomenon. It also has very lovable characters, especially our layabout hero, who tries so hard to have the most idyllic and eventless life that we can't bear to see him get up off the couch, let alone fight an evil, homicidal power.

One of the most surreal additions to the film is the school band who play at the Halloween dance, who just so happen to be The Offspring, one of my favourite bands. They play their own song 'Beheaded' and a cover of The Ramones song 'I Wanna Be Sedated'. Both great songs, but the best part comes when Anton interrupts their performance to warn everyone about the hand. Dexter, the bands lead singer, shoves him aside, recites a single line, then gets graphically scalped by the hand. It's a hilarious moment, just a shame that his 1 line is about as a hammy a recital as you would expect from a non-actor.

But I'm digressing. Idle Hands is a very enjoyable flick. Like any stone comedy, it's easy to watch, and easy to like. Nothing more, nothing less.