Idle Hands Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		4.0

Idle Hands Blu-ray Movie Review

Scream for Stoners

Reviewed by Michael Reuben August 30, 2013

Like the possessed appendage stalking the movie, Idle Hands refuses to die. Released shortly after the Columbine High School shootings in 1999, Idle Hands was reviled by critics and a box office flop, though opinions vary on whether Columbine was a factor. In any case, Rodman Flender's (Conan O'Brien Can't Stop) horror comedy has retained a devoted cult following, and with good reason. For all its zombie makeup and elaborate gore, the whole enterprise is an extended goof that doesn't take itself seriously for one moment. Any film that opens with Fred Willard as a version of "father knows best", features Seth Green as one of the hero's best friends (both alive and as the walking dead), and casts Jessica Alba as a girl next door who, at the slightest invitation, falls to billing and cooing over a stoner who's lusted after her for years, isn't just winking at the audience. It's putting giant "air quotes" around every scene.

Idle Hands was written in post-Scream ironic mode by the team of Ron Milbauer and Terri Hughes Burton, who went on to create the short-lived NBC series Tucker, then moved to SyFy's Eureka. They would probably do a hilarious commentary on Idle Hands, but unfortunately no one has asked them. Director Flender and some of the cast provided a commentary for Sony's DVD release, but the Blu-ray is being issued by Image Entertainment, part of the last wave of Sony titles licensed to Image before it turned over much of its catalog to Mill Creek Entertainment. On Blu-ray, Idle Hands is a featureless release, but at least the presentation is excellent.

Anton Tobias (Devon Sawa, Final Destination ) has a problem, and it's not that he's a perpetually wasted pothead with no ambition who sits around the home of his parents (Fred Willard and Connie Ray) all day eating junk food, watching TV and listening to music. Anton's problem is more unusual. A mysterious killer has been terrorizing his hometown of Bolan (not that Anton would notice, since he never watches the news), and it happens to be Anton's right hand, which has become possessed by a demonic force. It acts on its own with the homicidal intensity of Jason and the ghoulish delight of Freddy Krueger. Like a sleepwalker, Anton is generally unaware of what his hand makes him do. He only stumbles on the truth (literally) when he trips over bodies and body parts in his house.

An itinerant priestess, descendant of a long line, is tracking the evil that has seized Anton's body, but she doesn't arrive with an explanation (such as it is) until late in the film. Her name is Debi LeCure (Vivica A. Fox), and with a nod to History of the World: Part I's Count de Monet, she has to instruct people to pronounce it "liqueur", not "liquor". Debi alone has the power to defeat the deadly force that has invaded Anton, but at a great cost to the unfortunate host.

Meanwhile, Anton, newly aware of his errant hand's satanic capabilities, struggles to restrain it and mostly fails. He manages to prevent it from taking the life of the beautiful neighbor, Molly (Alba), on whom he's had a lifelong crush, but his friends Mick and Pnub (Seth Green and Elden Henson) are not so lucky. In an unexpected turn, however, these fellow slackers are too lazy to traverse the corridor of light to the afterlife and return as zombies to continue vegging with their homicidal buddy, who can no longer hurt them, since they're already dead.

To his shock, however, Anton's efforts to protect Molly from his murderous appendage have attracted her attention after all the years he spent shyly hiding from her. They make a date for the annual high school Halloween dance, which the police are allowing to proceed despite the tight curfew instituted to protect the public from the mysterious mass murderer. With so many potential victims gathered under one roof, Anton's hand, now severed from his body (don't ask), goes on a rampage, Carrie-style, with Molly as its ultimate target. By then, Debi has arrived in town and acquired a guide in Randy (Jack Noseworthy), a would-be stud with a truck and a passion for heavy metal. A showdown is inevitable—and messy.

Director Flender liberally sprays the film with gore effects, melding practical makeup effectively with CGI, but none of it is ever quite realistic enough to be genuinely disgusting. The cast gamely play their parts as straight as possible, even Green, who often can't resist winking at the camera in other roles. Idle Hands is the kind of film where the comedy works best when everyone tries to behave seriously, even Fox's Debi LeCure, who is the story's Van Helsing. The true standout, though, is Devon Sawa, whose physical incarnation of a person at odds with his own body is truly impressive. Just watching his two hands fight over a TV remote is a mini-drama. To find a similarly skillful manifestation of two souls inhabiting the same body, one has to go back to Steve Martin in All of Me (1984).

Idle Hands Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Idle Hands was shot by Christopher J. Baffa, who has since become Ryan Murphy's in-house cinematographer, shooting the memorable hues of Running with Scissors, as well as Nip/Tuck and Glee. Even though much of Idle Hands occurs in dark interiors, Baffa has made it a colorful affair, and Image Entertainment's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray provides a varied and vivid palette for Baffa's work. As has been typical of the Sony titles released through Image, Sony has supplied a superior transfer featuring superb detail, a fine-grained and film-like texture, excellent black levels and contrast, and no indication of high-frequency filtering or other inappropriate digital manipulation. Image has taken advantage of the extra space created by dropping all of the DVD's extras (see "Supplements" below) to encode the 92-minute film at the relatively high average bitrate of 27.85 Mbps, which no doubt helps account for the utter lack of noise or other artifacts added to the transfer in its migration to Blu-ray. Fans have had to wait a long time for Image to release Idle Hands, but at least their patience has been rewarded with a stellar picture.

Idle Hands Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The horror effects in Idle Hands's sound mix tend to be amplified and exaggerated, and the Blu-ray's lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1 gives presence and clarity to every crunch, splatter, blow, evisceration and ominous sound-that-shouldn't-be-there. There's a degree of directionality in the mix, but the sound design relies more on timing and volume balance to achieve its impact. The dialogue is clear, despite stoner slur and the background noise of various loud environments (e.g., a bowling alley). Graeme Revell's score is expertly pitched right on the edge between chills and laughter; Revell knows his way around this territory, having scored such films as The Crow, The Craft and Bride of Chucky, among many others. Like many films aimed at a young audience, Idle Hands had its soundtrack seeded with CD-friendly (this was 1999) songs performed by such groups as Motley Crue, 2 Live Crew, Rob Zombie and The Offspring. The Offspring also appear in the film as the band performing at the Halloween dance. Anton's demonic hand isn't a fan.

Idle Hands Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The disc has no extras. Sony's 1999 DVD included a commentary with the director and cast; the original ending with a director's introduction and commentary; a "making of" featurette; storyboard comparisons; and trailers for Idle Hands and Can't Hardly Wait.

Idle Hands Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I would never recommend Idle Hands to anyone as a blind buy. Its initial failure should be warning enough that the film isn't for everyone. To those who already love it, however, this Blu-ray treatment will not disappoint. Just hold onto your DVDs for the extras. Highly recommended to those who know what they're getting into. To all others, caveat emptor.