“So your favourite animal’s a shark? I almost came dressed as a shark actually but then I realised that an eagle’s slightly better.” Jermaine Clement as Jarrod in ‘Eagle vs Shark’
Eagle vs Shark was New Zealand director, Taika Waititi’s first film and after advertising it to death during the breaks of Flight of the Conchords, I just had to see it.
Awesome tackiness - Access via The Age and Web Wombat
It stars Jermaine Clement (one half of Flight) as Jarrod, an arrogant and passive-aggressive nerd with a score to settle and Loren Horsley as Lily, an awkward but innocent dreamer who has a crush on Jarrod. Essentially, it is a love story of two quite unlovable characters.
Jarrod is a self-absorbed geek who returns to his hometown to seek revenge on a bully who tormented him as an adolescent and Lily is painfully awkward to a point of irritation, so overacted by Horsley that she seems almost mentally disabled. In fact, the only appealing thing about the two is their gorgeous Kiwi accents and the extreme tackiness of suburbia, complete with matching tracksuits.
But Eagle vs Shark definitely has its charming elements. The sweet stop-motion animation is a lovely motif throughout and the scenery of Jarrod’s hometown is a beautiful backdrop to the unfolding stories of his childhood, and as The Age’s reviewer commented, it makes “the actors in their silly costumes look more than ever like kids playing dress-up”.
After a hilarious season of Flight of the Conchords, I guess I expected a lot of laugh-out-loud-till-you-have-to-change-pants moments. And while Eagle vs Shark failed me in some respects, it is one of those incredibly disappointing movies which is outrageously funny to quote later.
Watch the trailer here… You foolish sucka!
