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Dustin Putman



Dustin's Review

Capsule Review
April Fool's Day  (2008)
1 Star
Directed by Mitchell Altieri and Phil Flores.
Cast: Taylor Cole, Josh Henderson, Scout Taylor-Compton, Joe Egender, Jennifer Siebel, Samuel Child, Joseph McKelheer, Frank Aard, Sabrina Aldridge, Emily LaBelle.
2008 – 91 minutes
Rated: Rated R (for strong violence and language).
Reviewed by Dustin Putman, October 2008.

Blaine Cartier:
The guy thinks he's Hitchcock.

Chloe:
Who?

The Butcher Brothers, directors Mitchell Altieri and Phil Flores, made a smashing indie debut with 2006's vampiric mood piece "The Hamiltons." As filmmakers-for-hire, let's call their work on "April Fool's Day" a victim of the poor material they had to work with. In using 1986's "April Fool's Day" as nothing more than a means to taking a marketable title, this vague—no, make that very vague—remake is a lackluster CW soap opera posing as a veritable horror film. One year after a prank went bad at Torrance Caldwell's (Scout Taylor-Compton) coming-out party and left one of their wealthy elite friends dead, siblings Desiree (Taylor Cole) and Blaine Cartier (Josh Henderson) are targeted on the namesake holiday by a psychopath out to seek revenge. Attractive location shooting in Charlotte, North Carolina, and a taut scene where Desiree tries to follow a political campaign van that has just tried to run her over in a parking garage are about the only things worth recommending in a mean-spirited production filled with stereotypical, albeit beautiful, cardboard cutouts. The climax, so notable and innovative in the 1986 original, has been tweaked here to the point of no return. It is exceedingly stupid and convoluted, leading to a big "huh?" ending. April Fool's, indeed.





© 2008 by Dustin Putman
Dustin Putman