The Tripper
A Ronald Reagan-obsessed serial killer targets a bunch of hippies who are heading to a weekend-long concert.
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- Cast:
- David Arquette , Courteney Cox , Richmond Arquette , Paz de la Huerta , Lukas Haas , Balthazar Getty , Redmond Gleeson
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Reviews
Lack of good storyline.
How wonderful it is to see this fine actress carry a film and carry it so beautifully.
I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.
That so many prominent actors would collude to produce this piece of crap saddens me. Sophomoric would be an aspiration for this film but The Tripper can't reach that bar. The crudity of the political impetus to this film is not just simplistic, it's severely retarded. To draw characters of such stunted stereotypicality is an insult to any prospective viewer. There isn't one role that isn't appallingly encumbered by the nature of their shallowness of type. The sheriff (Jane), while chasing the killer's father, comes across the lair of the psychopath , papered with newsclippings about Reagan, and is scared when the (venal, crooked and meddling) roughed up mayor steps out of the shadows blubbering. This causes the sheriff to not only lose his hat but drop on the floor the shotgun that had been his main weapon while in pursuit. Does he stoop to pick it up? No, and of course as soon as the sheriff helps the mayor out of the shack, the shotgun becomes an immediate need when dogs attack the mayor. Does the sheriff take out handgun on his hip to take care of the dogs? No, he runs like a scared rabbit. Courtney Cox, Paul Reubens, Jaime King, David Arquette, Thomas Jane, Lukas Haas and Balthezar Getty-- you'd think acouple of them would have called for a rewrite to the crapulous script,but again, no. What a terrible waste of money (because the production values are of a professional caliber). Better that the celluloid wasted on this film had been used to make guitar picks.
Well, if comedy/horror is your thing, than David Arquette's 'The Tripper' may be for you. Part satire and tribute to 80's slasher films and part political satire, I can't say I did not enjoy this flick. It's goofy, but gory, and maybe a little stupid, but it's a fun ride! There is some nudity, some gore and laughs! The plot is simple-Hippie kids to a rock fest, do drugs and then are killed by a wacko in a Ronald Regan maskThe acting is so-so and some of the time is feels a little sloppy BUT that didn't stop it from being a hoot!If you like slashers, with comedy thrown in, this is a good choice. Though nothing original, it gets a 6/10 from me
...because based on the evidence of "The Tripper" he's an average-at-best director and a distinctly second- or even third-string screenwriter, though no doubt hamstrung by the scripting contributions of Joe "Darkness Falls" Harris. I'm sorry, I admire good intentions as well as the next guy, but only when they rise above mundane infernal construction projects, if you catch my drift. "The Tripper" is essentially a vanity project, and suffers accordingly.The production values are alright for a relatively low-budget affair, especially the at-times lovely DP work from Bobby "Arlington Road" Bukowski, and the acting varies from earnestly professional (particularly leads Lukas "Mars Attacks" Haas and Jaime "Sin City" King) to egregiously self-conscious (most notably the ever-moronic-but-somehow-likable Jason "I owe Kevin Smith everything" Mewes and Paul "I AM Pee-Wee!" Reubens), with various shades in-between, including a slumming Thomas "The Mist" Jane as a local sheriff doing his best to keep a straight face. No one, though, collectively or individually, is able to redeem the sophomoric script.I won't bore my gentle reader with yet another synopsis; you can find that in profusion elsewhere. "The Tripper" is, at best, a slasher film pseudo-parody that plays things too seriously to be genuinely funny, and too tongue-in-cheek to be remotely scary. Arquette should have gone for one or the other, not both. It's a watch-once film that I'm quite relieved I found at the library instead of wasting money buying or renting it.
What do you get when you cross Republican president Ronald Reagan, hippies, hatchets, a homicidal maniac and a whole lot of drugs? You get David Arquette's The Tripper. Basically the movie is about a group of friends, who are hippies, that travel through the northern wood of California for an all night rock n' roll concert, similar to that of Woodstock. The problem is, people start dying and turning up in pieces by the hands of a lunatic dressed up like Reagan. This movie was an equally balanced horror flick in my opinion. I enjoyed the horror/scares; I loved the outstanding lighting techniques, but I somewhat enjoyed the acting and the plot structure. In fair's game, I enjoyed this film and I did not think it was a waste of time, and it is a very good average horror movie.First off, I enjoyed the horror and the gore that is placed throughout this movie. It's easy to see that this film follows "standard serial killer guidelines," which is why it was such a good homage to slasher flicks of the 80's and 90's. in this movie "Reagan" wields a non-firearm weapon (hatchet), super human strength, brutal attacks and a scary mask, your typical Republican serial killer. We even have our anti-survival-girl (the heroine that does seem like the hero of the movie). There is a good amount of blood and gore that is NOT typical in slasher flicks, but when dealing with a hatchet it is very necessary to have that amount of blood. The killer does pop out of nowhere at the most inopportune times, which plays for an effective "jump-out scare." There is a good helping of all to familiar blood. The blood in this movie is not as clear as other movie blood, but rather thick and red-pinkish, similar to that of Tim Burton blood that we saw in films like Sleepy Hollow and Sweeney Todd. All in all a good scare from this movie.The lighting in this movie was a marvel; in fact, it was a huge component to the films genre and its drug themed story. The lighting provided a great mind expander to enhance the already intoxicated feel this movie has. There was a beautiful circular array lighting that had a tie-dye design to it whenever somebody was in silhouette, there were fantastic straight primary colors used and the natural coloring (green plants, blue sky, fire and blood) were amplified to give the audience the blinding feel of the mind on horrible drugs. Ultimately and curiously enough, these amped colors and tie-dye designs only seemed to be present when one of the main characters took a hit. The lighting, as funny as it sounds, played a huge part in the films genre.The acting was sort of a bittersweet thing for me because by a normal eye, the acting was great but I can see that the emotion and the reactions didn't fit the characters or the situation. Jamie King, who plays the main actress, does a good performance but she tends to overreact to the most subtle things, but when the killer comes, her performance lowers. There were okay performances by Lukas Haas and Balthazar Getty. Jason Mews did not seem like the pot-smoking-foul-mouthed bad boy in this movie, I enjoyed that, he performance was good but I don't think that his character should have been so "light." And Paul Reubens, who plays Frank Baker the owner of the concert, was an obnoxious character who swore too much and seemed like a plot device to set up the ending.Overall, this movie had a great homage to slasher movies with some good scares and amazing lighting, though the acting and the plot seemed a bit unorthodox, ultimately giving this movie a good average rating. I do recommend this movie for people who enjoy a good slasher flick as well as humorous political satire. Though, I would not recommend this film to those who don't like comedy-horrors like Cabin Fever or Slither. I enjoyed it but I did not like it, basically I have a bittersweet relationship with this movie.