External Ratings (as of posting)
IMDB – 7.0/10 from 426 users
MetaCritic – 55/100 on 26 critics, TBD on user score
Audience and Scoring:
Ross – 7.5/10
Conrad – 8.0/10 (declined to add written review)
Weber – 7.0/10
BONUS: Fleetwood Mac & USC Trojan Marching Band playing Tusk in 1979
Weber
Bar none, most ridiculous movie I’ve seen in quite some time. Take Kevin Smith’s brand of humor and Frankenstein it with “The Human Centipede” and you’ll have an idea of where this movie goes. Silly and darkly hilarious, it’s never meant to be taken seriously and when you do the movie shifts around again and proves why you shouldn’t have.
If you know Kevin Smith’s work at all, Tusk fits right in though, as mentioned, in a much darker corner than his other comedies. His writing and directing shine through, and there are plenty of funny dialogue sequences as well as long, eerie diatribes from Michael Parks a la Red State, only with more $5 and $10 words for good measure.
I’m not sure if I’d give it the standing ovation that it received at the Toronto Film Festival, but Tusk is a solid movie if you have the ability to see it for what it is. Absurdist, black, and funny.
SPOILERS: Johnny Depp, credited as his character Guy Lapointe, is downright unrecognizable (or close to), and does a fantastic job as a disheveled French detective come to save the day.
TL;DR - If you're a Kevin Smith fan, go see Tusk. Just keep your silly hat on. If you listened to the podcast that spawned the movie, you'll be in the right mindset for this one.
Ross
This is the silliest, most awesome-ly horrifying film I’ve seen in a very long time. It spends periods of time trying to convince you that this could actually happen and then rip you out of that dream very quickly with a fast aside to funny talking Canadians or over-the-top walrus jokes. Kevin Smith does amazing work with both the script and the directing, taking his chance to write obnoxiously verbose dialogue for Michael Parks’ character.
The acting in this movie is spot on for the most part. Guy LaPointe is hilarious and Genesis Rodriguez shows the legitmate ability to display emotion. Honestly, I just feel sorry for Justin Long, he wasn’t given ample opportunity in this movie to do much other than scream in pain and blurt out a couple of snarky comments. Michael Parks is as fantastically insane as usual and Haley Joel Osment is, well, there.
I love Kevin Smith and his writing but the only true flaw that I found in this movie was the occasional excessively long scenes. I understand him letting the moments breathe and I understand allowing the actors time to really bring life to characters but there are a few moments in the movie that stretch out longer than is necessary, to the point of being uncomfortable.
TL;DR: I liked it a lot, creepy as all hell and silly to boot. Well written, directed and acted, definitely worth your probably overpriced ticket.