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—— A Green Story
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Coming Soon

—— After Earth May 31
—— Now You See Me May 31
88% The East May 31
100% The Kings of Summer May 31

Idle Hands (1999)

tomatometer

15

Average Rating: 3.4/10
Reviews Counted: 53
Fresh: 8 | Rotten: 45

Idle Hands has neither the humor or the scares to satisfy audiences.

6

Average Rating: 3/10
Critic Reviews: 18
Fresh: 1 | Rotten: 17

Idle Hands has neither the humor or the scares to satisfy audiences.

audience

56

liked it
Average Rating: 2.9/5
User Ratings: 55,196

My Rating

Movie Info

Teenage burnouts and post-modern slasher films are both raked over the satiric coals in the blood-soaked comedy Idle Hands. Anton (Devon Sawa) is a cheerful but exceedingly non-ambitious 17-year-old stoner who lives to stay buzzed, watch TV, and moon over Molly (Jessica Alba), the beautiful girl who lives next door. However, it turns out that the old cliché about idle hands being the devil's playground has a kernel of truth after all; there's a demonic beast living in his house that has already

R,

Horror, Comedy

Terri Hughes, Ron Milbauer

Aug 28, 2001

Columbia Pictures - Official Site External Icon

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All Critics (55) | Top Critics (18) | Fresh (9) | Rotten (46) | DVD (5)

Maybe 90 seconds of viable and sustained humor at the end.

July 21, 2005 Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle
Houston Chronicle
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Its mixture of slapstick humour and gore -- produced by the flying fingers -- gives new meaning to the phrase digital effects.

March 22, 2002 Full Review Source: Globe and Mail
Globe and Mail
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Even pretensions toward the humorous and hip cannot save this blood-drenched film from its innate tastelessness!

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: New York Times
New York Times
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Excruciatingly unfunny!

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Detroit News
Detroit News
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Dumb, blood-soaked, undeniably kinetic teen Guignol bash!

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A disastrous attempt to mix comedy and horror!

January 1, 2000
New York Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Too precariously straddles the line between fun and cheese, often going a bit too far over the top.

April 8, 2009 Full Review Source: TheMovieReport.com
TheMovieReport.com

Ganha pontos pelo perverso senso de humor, mas acaba soando demais como uma cópia de "Evil Dead 2" para merecer uma recomendação.

April 8, 2008
Cinema em Cena

Were you expecting a teen remake of The Hands of Orlac? Don't hold your breath.

December 6, 2005 Full Review Source: Film Threat
Film Threat

It jumps from one path to the next without any sense of continuity.

April 9, 2005 Full Review Source: Reeling Reviews
Reeling Reviews

Stupid, silly fun with a decent amount of gore and heavy dose of teen humor

June 19, 2004 Full Review Source: Slasherpool

The jokes are as obvious as they are sick and flat.

March 16, 2004 Full Review Source: Laramie Movie Scope
Laramie Movie Scope

All of these people can make better movies than this, and most of them have.

March 10, 2004 Full Review Source: Laramie Movie Scope
Laramie Movie Scope

Is it a spoof, or is it just stupid ... or is it a stupid spoof?

May 20, 2003
Palo Alto Weekly

It's an infalliby funny gambit...

December 2, 2002 Full Review Source: Sight and Sound
Sight and Sound

The attempts to extract comedy from this grim raw material are leaden, blood-soaked disasters.

October 15, 2002 Full Review Source: Cincinnati Enquirer
Cincinnati Enquirer

Idle Hands may be the devil's playground, but empty minds are the venue for this time waster.

March 24, 2002 Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix
Boston Phoenix

When it's over, you may feel like cutting off your own hand for having paid good money at the ticket counter.

February 27, 2001 Full Review Source: Q Network Film Desk
Q Network Film Desk

Has all the old jokes you've seen before, recycled one more time.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Internet Reviews
Internet Reviews

Audience Reviews for Idle Hands

Yes, this movie is utterly ridiculous and maybe a little stupid at times, but it is also very funny, wacky, exciting, and entertaining. This is definitely something to catch on TV late at night for some fun.
September 6, 2010
ajv2688

Super Reviewer

This is a gruesome but fun horror comedy about a super lazy teenaged slaker who's right hand gets possessed by evil and goes on a killing spree. Plotwise, that's it. There's really nothing mroe to this movie. I mena, there's a bit of a love story going on, and it's a high school movie, but really, that's just extra stuff. The real focus is just about the killer hand and the bum trying to stop it before too much mayhem gets caused.

This movie really seems like it's gonna be stupid and suck, and yes, while it's by no means intelligent or brilliant, it's super entertaining and a great deal of fun. As far as horror comedy movies go, it's far more campy and schlocky than Scream. It's slapsticky in the vien of Evil Dead II (which it references/parodies constantly and not subtly), but it avoids being a total ripoff, so it's cool.

The characters, though goofy, lazy, good for nothing stoners, are likeable and it's hilarious watching them banter back and forth and try to deal with such a ludicrous situation as a killer hand on the loose. Jessica Alba is also in this as the hottie love interest, and, while she's not great, this was early in her career so her flaws can be overlooked (I think).

For a comedy, this is quite gruesome, but it's almsot always played for laughs, even though it does get a little disturbing at times. Maybe here and there some legitimately intense moments pop up, but this is mostly just wacky instead of being a truly scary experience. The effects are good though and Christopher Hart (who played Thing in the Addams Family movies) is awesome as the possessed hand once it SPOILER gets chopped off and starts roaming free.

LIke many high school movies, the climax takes place at a school dance, only here it's a Halloween ball instead of prom. For rock fans, it's also cool seeing The Offspring play the band perfporming at the dance. Without getting into specifics, they also are part of one of the best bits of the movie. Overall, this is some silly stuff, and I shouldn't be giving it the credit I am, but I first saw this at an impressionable age, and it left a pretty good impression on me, and I think it's pretty charming. Yeah, it's not great, but as far as B-movies like this go, it could be a whole lot worse. Besides, where else are you gonna see people using an asthma inhaler as a hash pipe?

Shut your brain off and give this a chance. It's ridiculous, but quite fun.
October 10, 2011
cosmo313
Chris Weber

Super Reviewer

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