Freezer Burn: The Invasion of Laxdale

Against my better judgement, I watched this movie with Tom Green. I can stomach his brand of comedy only in small doses, but I think he is generally a decent dude. I do feel that Freddy Got Fingered is one of the worst films ever made.

Here Green is an actor only, not a writer or director, and he deliberately underplays his role. Exactly the right move. Maybe I should credit the director for using Tom in the best way he could have possibly been used. The film is very light on Green's usual shenanigans. Nobody has intimate relations with a dead moose. Nobody's bum is on a rail.

Sure, the whole tone is tongue-in-cheek. Sure, we've seen plenty of alien invasion movies before. We've even seen plenty of comedy alien invasion movies before. We've also seen before the comedy about a dying small town filled with plenty of "local color," and it seen it many times. But somehow, FREEZER BURN transcends all those potential hazards.

The dialog is pretty damn clever, the characters are well-drawn, and the script's ducks are in a row as far as plot development. I enjoyed it way more than I thought I was going to. This is definitely one of those magic movie-making experiences where the whole adds up to way way more than the sum of its parts.

And I sure was not aware of the deadly properties of a hockey puck, er, I mean, an Eskimo Pie.

If you don't like goofy comedies then I would stay away, but otherwise, this is an offbeat flick that you might find to be a pleasant way to spend 90 minutes.

Best movie I've seen this week filmed in Alberta.