Tooth and Nail

Tooth and Nail is yet another film handling the idea of the majority of the population being killed off and the rest living in a barren wasteland. There are plenty of these films about, and most of them are better than this one as Mark Young's film adds nothing new to the concept and as such is really disappointing. The film does actually benefit from a very well done atmosphere - most of it takes place at night and the director constantly enforces the idea that the central characters are in a hopeless situation. However, the good things about it end there. As mentioned, the film takes place in the future and we focus on a group of people (lead by a college professor) that have holed up in an old abandoned hospital. Of course they plan to rebuild civilisation from the ground up; but their plan hits a stumbling block when they come across another gang of survivors. This gang calls themselves 'The Rovers' and just happen to be cannibals. Naturally, our group find themselves on the menu and have to fight to survive.

Mark Young's screenplay is really weak. The characters are all non-entities and many lines of dialogue are awful, which doesn't exactly help. The film does not feature even nearly enough tension or suspense and spends far too much time focusing on bickering within the central group; which is at times painful since none of the lead actors can act. Even when the film does start to feature a bit more action; it's not well filmed or exciting. Most of the cast is made up of unknown performers, but there are three exceptions, in the form of Robert Carradine, Vinnie Jones and Michael Madsen; who have small and rather ineffective roles. There are a few gory scenes in the film, but nothing to write home about. It's really a shame that the film turned out like this as while there are a lot of post-apocalyptic films about; this type of film can be really well done if handled correctly. The ending is fairly good and the little twist at the end is nice; but overall this is not good horror and represents yet another underwhelming entry in Afterdark's '8 Films to Die For' collection.

I went into this expecting something like Mad Max meets Land of the Dead. It was not as grim as I had hoped. Once you get past the obvious messages about gasoline reliance, it isn't that terrible at all.

While some of the acting isn't the most solid and sometimes stereotypical, overall they way the characters act and cope are done pretty well. There are a few pretty gory moments if that is your thing.

As I said in my summary, it is pretty predictable what will happen, who is the bad and good guys, surprise salvations, etc... However, the one thing that struck me watching it that is atypical for a "people being hunted by crazies" movie is that when someone was taken down, they don't get back up and seem invincible. No machete through the stomach and still kicking butt bad guys, which was a welcome change.

I'm astonished that some people are rating this movie a 9 or 10. It really just isn't that good. Sadly, it had all the tools to be successful, including an interesting premise, a wealth of experienced acting talent, a great filming location, and convincing effects (although this being 2008 you can't really give much credit for the latter anymore).

Unfortunately, they still managed to screw it up. The villains' actions didn't make much sense, neither did the protagonists', for that matter. They consistently made really stupid decisions, presumably to create tension and a "stalking killers" feel, except the killers weren't scary. The "twist" was predictable and lame. Dialog was passable, but nothing to write home about. I did feel the actors all delivered the best performance they could with what they had, but there just wasn't much to work with.

The script really needed a couple of critical rewrites before going into production, I actually laughed out loud at the cliché "dramatic face painting in preparation for war" scene near the end. The ending is frankly boring and unsatisfying. Instead of this movie, you could just watch Mad Max and Doomsday while completely hammered, then take the resulting mess of memories and remove anything entertaining or intriguing, it will be the same experience but far more fun.

This movie was interesting and right after seeing an apocalyptic Manhattan / New York, here comes another "end-of-the-world" movie, this time it wasn't a plague that did us in, or a virus, or war, or fire, or bacteria, or even a meteor, it was something much more simpler. I will not say it so that those who haven't seen it can savor the moment. Anyway, there are a group of survivors who band together and survive in an old hospital when they pick up a mysterious young woman, who inadvertently lead the Rovers to the group. Now the group has to fend for themselves and fight the evil cannibalistic group. The emotions were pretty strong and good, except for Vinnie Jones, Rider Strong and Rachel Miner. The plot was well thought of but it seemed like a land engulfed, intensified version of WaterWorld. I thought that the concept was good but there some parts in this were it just ridiculous.

The acting was very mediocre and at points very over the top. Some of the acting was okay for the situations, like when your being hunted down by cannibals, the emotion and reactions were very strong and good, but when the horror stopped and the drama began, the performances quickly turned into a bad afternoon soap opera. Rider Strong and Rachel Miner were the biggest problems. In Rider's previous Horror Fest film, Borderland, his performance was electric, but in this movie, he seemed a bit over the top when the situation calls for something a lot calmer. Rachel Miner had a dry personality and seemed a bit too calm for her role and the very predictable twist at the end gives the reason why she acted the way she does. I'm sorry but she could have put a lot more emotion into her character and at least give us the illusion that you are in pain and fear. Nicole DuPort, who plays the heroine, does an outstanding performance through 90% of the movie but when she starts adding "war paint" and seeks revenge on the cannibals, then it was more humorous than scary.

It was very interesting to see that this movie took place entirely inside a hospital, with the exception of an occasional basement scene or an old factory yard scene. It was very well thought of rather than taking the approach of showing what the world has amounted to when "the end" finally hits, in some way this perspective allows the audience to imagine the world themselves and how they might think it looks. There were however some very interesting parts that I thought was completely unnecessary like the water purifier scene, some of the scenes where the little girl just roller blades down the halls and the random sex scenes that I have absolutely no purpose. Michael Madsen had a small and very weak role as well as David Carradine. Part of me wishes that David would have had a stronger role and to see him fend for himself in extreme situations, but I guess I couldn't see that.

All in all, this movie was good for what it was worth. There were some cheesy parts, over the top acting, random sex and violence and at point's very humors. There were some scares, I'll admit that I jumped here and there but the way that the camera's were angled, you could tell something was about to happen. The acing was very good aside from specific people. The plot was great and unique as well as the "set." I will say that the very end, and I mean the exact last 10 seconds was the funniest thing I have ever seen, and my theater audience would agree. It wasn't scary, just funny. This movie would fall under the category for guilty pleasure and I would recommend this movie to those horror fans who want a medium scare rather than heavy or light.

Michael Madsen is a fine actor, even though he's the same guy in every single role, but his association with this mega bomb may finally, have done him in. The dialog in Tooth and Nail is so poorly written, that I was laughing out loud at scenes that were supposed to invoke pathos. The premise of this movie is so stupid, that even an eight year old would find fault in its logic. It's kind of a pity to see guys like Madsen and Jones in a piece of crap like Tooth and Nail and makes you wonder who the hell talked them into it. The only redeeming aspect of this film was the DVD cover design, which was misleading at best. 8 Films to Die For, whose choices included some great, quirky horror in the past, has lost credibility in my book (of the undead of course).