Eagle vs Shark

Well, I enjoyed the movie, better than those high-budget, pornographic CGI-ed repetitive predictable crap out there.... I don't have to apply my logic, morals or expectations here. Things don't have to make sense.

source: Eagle vs Shark

I loved this movie in spite of itself. Great script, great gags, good characters, but it was like it was directed by a wet sock. I love the Loser Genre and they really nailed that it is a character-based and pain-based genre but it had all the directorial panache of a youtube video web log. It was as though the camera was just set up and the director walked away leaving the actors w/o guidance. It walks a thin line of funny and sad but some things, especially the sound mixing, hew way too far towards sad. Partially giving away the game. Anyway, loved it because I love the writing, characters, story, actors, and genre, but penalty of 3 stars for the dismal directing. Edgar Wright could've made this material into Citizen Kane, as it is it is still much better than Napoleon Dynamite.

Everyone I talked to could only say this was a strange film. It wasn't bad, but I would NOT call it good. I saw it at Sundance and while they tend to have some really obscure story lines and actors this was very bizarre. I found it hard to believe that a girl from such a well balanced, functional background would put up with such a strange, dysfunctional dork. She was a sympathetic character but he was not. I never did care for him. There were so many places where there could have been character redemption that were ignored. The father in the wheel chair was never even addressed. Very strange. At the very end of the movie (when they were the only ones on the bus~ what was up with that?) when he said, "Horse" was the first glimmer that he might actually be worth saving. This had potential, but it was not taken when available.

just how terrible this movie was... An underachiever, who has been obsessing about the bully who tortured him in high school, decides he wants to get even. To hell with this indie-crap. Seriously... Why make a movie about a loser who doesn't prevail. The characters were one-dimensional. Even though there was enough substance in the basic idea to make them likable, even to a point where you could identify with him. But no, let's try to score cheap laughs - trust me, they are cheap - by making almost every scene in this movie awkward. The only character that had any real depth was the father. At least this character had some realism in him. Why not make this into a drama? This would've been an excellent drama. Then point out the fact that his brother died, his mom is a lesbian and he lies to everyone about everything. This would've been one of the most complex characters ever. One of the worst movies of the year, coming in this late, it's quite the achievement.

I thought this film was great! It was one of my favorites of the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. Yes Jarrod was a jerk. But he had created the alternate personality to hide the person he had been before he left home. We all have masks we hide behind at times and act like jerks when confronted. It didn't make him a bad person. Just misguided and controlled by the person he wished he had been. Lily is a great heroine! She is humble and full of joy and love. She brings a light to Jarrod's family that is much needed. She doesn't really take his crap for very long. She saw his potential and in an unbitchy and loving way she shows him what an ass he is/has been. I thought it was inspiring and refreshing!

Just because a movie is quirky (if that is the word) does not earn it the right to be compared to Napoleon Dynamite. The latter is wonderfully bent but Eagle vs. Shark is horribly a mess. Sorry. I'm not saying the filmmakers tried to make a movie like Napoleon Dynamite and failed, they failed to make a good movie and others try to rescue it by comparing it to the the genius of ND. I tried and tried to "get into" the movie but again and again, it made me just turn my head and gag. What a waste of some excellent talent in the actors. None of them are bad but the story and directing of E vs. S was dismal. This was not a good story gone bad it started out as a bad story that could never go good. Save yourself some time and stay away.

To be honest, I love some of my independent movies but this one was actually awful. From the beginning, I found it depressing, not funny at all except if you enjoy taking the p*ss of people that have mental disabilities... The "gag/jokes" were predictable and lame. At some point I found it gross even though the movie in itself wasn't. I guess it's just that I didn't found that the situation of both character was laughable.. As it was stated in the main user comment, it is not gross such as the Borat movie but at least I found the latter funny, picking up on important point on our society, showing our defaults (mainly our ignorance and intolerance). The Borat movie was not at all about sex, p*o and p*e but it was satire. And if the user that wrote the main comment didn't understand that, I do not understand what he/she saw in Eagle and Shark... The only good point is that the actors played well but even if you play well in a rubb*sh movie, it doesn't change anything..

Eagle Vs. Shark is a quirky comedy from New Zealand, with "Flight Of The Conchords" Jermaine Clement, and a cast of unknowns. It's a very funny film, with some good directing and a decent score. My only quip is it feels like it's been done before...(read more)e. The wall paper and tapestries remind instantly of that legendary Garden State scene, there's animation of the Michel Gondry arts and crafts vein, a little blonde girl who very much resembles a certain Little Miss Sunshine, a leading man doing his best Napolean Dynamite, and a leading lady playing a dotting, kind hearted, quite woman ala Miranda July in "Me and You etc". Yes there all here including a soundtrack of obligatory indie pop, I heard a Devandra Banheart cover of "Body Breaks". That being said, the movie works. It's funny, painfully awkward, mean, and consistently goofy. Loren Horsley gives a terrific performance as "Lily" the films hero, who is at the beginning of the film for reasons never clearly expressed absolutely in love with clueless uber-loser Jarred. The two get together at an Animal Dress up party, and all's well until Lily discovers Jarred is planning to get revenge on a man who bullied him in high school (which seems to be his only really coherent thought). So its off to Jarred's home town, and uncertain revenge and love. Jarred is ridiculously unlikable, and Lily has the loving patience of a saint, it's the sheer awkwardness of the performances which make any of this believable, the little ticks like the compulsive lying, the monotone speech, awkward stance, clothes, droll humor. The performers really drive home the story well which in the hands of others could have been God awful. Though writer/director Taika Cohen has borrowed a lot of elements from other films working in similar fields, he does so naturally, with a poise, grace, and nerdiness, left out of a lot of the quirky, funny, hip, indie rom-coms. Nothing brilliant, but a solid comedy, that plays better to absurd than it does thoughtful, but I laughed all the way through, and would recommend to others, if it sounds like the thing for you. It's pluses easily beat out it's minuses. I'm not really into actors, or following "the stars', but Loren Horsley's performance here was really kind of enchanting, and I would definitely be interested in seeing her again. "I am...Dangerous Person..."

THIS MOVIE SUCKED!!! Let me preface this review by saying I'm a huge Jermaine Clement fan. I have all the flight of the Conchords DVDs/TV Specials/CDs. This movie didn't work for me, because Jerrod was an unlikable bombastic jerk without any redeemable qualities. That's not to say a movie can't work with somebody you love to hate but it doesn't work in this film. You keep on asking yourself why would Lilly like Jerrod? The film never answers that question. This movie lacks originality. It plays like a cheap Napoleon Dynamite rip off without the charm. I wanted to love this movie but I found myself completely bored and empty at the movies end. Do yourself a favor and avoid this movie at all cost.