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Tusk is... a lot. Like, every single element of its development, release, and post-release is worthy of discussion. Directed by Kevin Smith, once considered an indie new-wave cinema contemporary of Quinten Tarantino, Tusk (2014) started out as a podcast gag that got wildly out of hand: an ad had been placed in Gumtree, a British classifieds website, offering free room and board if the roommate agreed to dress as a walrus. After riffing on the subject with producer Scott Moser on-air, Smith posted a twitter poll asking if the concept should be turned into a film. The response was overwhelmingly "yes." So, he made it. Because I guess that's the kind of impulse you can indulge in when of a certain status. It's a movie about a guy who hosts a podcast who gets turned into a walrus by a lunatic. That's it. That's the thing.  The flick was originally going to be produced by Blumhouse, but he wanted to do it in too tight of a turnaround (fifteen days!), so they parted ways. Then he wanted to premier it at Sundance, but had to be delayed to allow for the score to be completed (lol). The film was eventually released by A24, which you may know as a studio that has since has gone on to release good movies.  this is the only pic I could find of this idiotic scene, so deal The cast is pretty solid for a genre flick: Michael Parks (in one of his last roles), Justin Long, Haley Joel Osment..... ...Johnny Depp in an extended cameo as a Quebecois detective..  The creature effects were done by Robert Kurtzman, who has worked on drat-near everything, but you wouldn't know it by how terrible lighting obliterates any semblance of believability in the execution. Uhhh, most of the budget apparently went to securing the rights to the Fleetwood Mac song? gently caress it, let's talk about this ... thing. Is it awful? Is it good? Could it have been amazing if directed by literally anyone else?  Tusk if available to watch on Netflix NA, because it's a quality streaming service you pay money for.
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Jul 13, 2019 04:19
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| # ? May 6, 2024 21:13 |
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I think this movie had the potential to be genuinely horrifying if Kevin Smith had wanted to take it in that direction. Like when Justin long woke up and his leg was gone, that was honestly unsettling to me. But things got so cartoonishly ridiculous and the creature effects sucked. I was furious with my husband for making me watch this drat movie. I hate it so goddamn much.
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Jul 13, 2019 05:38
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I feel like this movie is a case in point for both why Kevin Smith objectively kind of sucks, but also why I have a really big soft spot for the dude. Like, this is a straight up badly made movie on most levels. It's paced like poo poo, the casting is all wrong, the effects are wonky, it's shot like a low-budget network TV show, etc. In most regards, this is an object lesson in why Smith is a Bad Director. But on the other hand, I have to genuinely kind of admire a brain that can turn a stupid podcast joke into a full-on honest-to-Jebus movie in the span of like two weeks, especially when it's a concept as utterly bugshit crazy as this. Smith has a kind of creative energy, when he sets his mind to it, that you really don't see outside of people like Roger Corman and Rob Zombie, and even if he doesn't quite have the technical skill to back it up, I can't get mad at him for saying "gently caress it" and just doing it anyways. poo poo, I wish I could have that mindset.
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Jul 13, 2019 16:18
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It'd have been a wild career development for Kevin to become a very competent horror director, especially since he himself has joked that he has no visual style as a director and horror is such a visual genre
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Jul 13, 2019 17:36
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Kenneth Anger would have made a great movie out of this concept
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Jul 13, 2019 20:27
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LORD OF BOOTY posted:I feel like this movie is a case in point for both why Kevin Smith objectively kind of sucks, but also why I have a really big soft spot for the dude. My biggest issue with the film is that I think it could be a legitimately fantastic film based on the bones, if it had been directed by someone who was more willing to treat the idea authentically. The concept is horrific, but the execution is so mired in bullshit - encapsulated by Depp's bad SNL character bit - that it just becomes tedious. It's too soft to be effective, because Kevin Smith can't be an angry filmmaker, which is what this needed.
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Jul 13, 2019 20:55
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Tart Kitty posted:My biggest issue with the film is that I think it could be a legitimately fantastic film based on the bones, if it had been directed by someone who was more willing to treat the idea authentically. The concept is horrific, but the execution is so mired in bullshit - encapsulated by Depp's bad SNL character bit - that it just becomes tedious. It's too soft to be effective, because Kevin Smith can't be an angry filmmaker, which is what this needed. That movie is called the human centipede
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Jul 13, 2019 21:34
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Tusk is a movie that is a solid example of, it and I was saying to myself when I saw it - "I get what you're trying to do here, but this is just not working."
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Jul 13, 2019 21:53
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Tart Kitty posted:My biggest issue with the film is that I think it could be a legitimately fantastic film based on the bones, if it had been directed by someone who was more willing to treat the idea authentically. The concept is horrific, but the execution is so mired in bullshit - encapsulated by Depp's bad SNL character bit - that it just becomes tedious. It's too soft to be effective, because Kevin Smith can't be an angry filmmaker, which is what this needed. Pretty much this. There's enough there for a great horror film but it needed more time to simmer in it. One thing I liked that I would have loved more of was that moment when Justin Long falls into the pool and sees a half-rotting previous attempt to turn someone into a walrus. Another thing is there's a great sense of dread that's almost there, again there's not enough there to actually build upon it. Instead we get a bunch of filler with the other characters that just kills the pacing. Just think of the tension that could have been there had Justin Long been out there with no one actually looking for him.
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Jul 24, 2019 14:52
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I said it when I watched it and I'll say it again now. I came to see Justin Long get turned into a walrus. I got Justin Long being turned into a walrus. I'm satisfied.
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Jul 24, 2019 20:14
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I liked this movie better than Red State at least.
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Jul 24, 2019 20:40
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I'm in the same park of "The movie wasn't really that good and neither is Kevin Smith's work, but I have a soft spot for him". Tusk was a movie he made because he wanted to see it, success be damned. To be able to make your hairbrained ideas become a tangible thing is something I think that's that resonates with a fair amount of people. It's enviable. "I made this because I wanted to and I like it. I hope you like it to, but if you don't it's cool". Although I couldn't get behind the follow up movie with his and Depp's daughter.
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Jul 24, 2019 20:55
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Drunkboxer posted:I liked this movie better than Red State at least. Yeah, Red State is terrible.
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Jul 25, 2019 17:06
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Yestermoment posted:I'm in the same park of "The movie wasn't really that good and neither is Kevin Smith's work, but I have a soft spot for him". Tusk was a movie he made because he wanted to see it, success be damned. To be able to make your hairbrained ideas become a tangible thing is something I think that's that resonates with a fair amount of people. It's enviable. We went to see a scheduled Kevin Smith talk at a local con one night a year or so after Tusk released and this was pretty much how I felt about it too when the talk was over. The sentiment he expressed at having the opportunity to do something so ridiculous that came from an equally ridiculous origin was just purely genuine. If nothing else, you can't fault the guy for loving what he does. He did bang on forever about Johnny Depp and casting his daughter though, holy poo poo
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Jul 25, 2019 19:05
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TrixRabbi posted:Yeah, Red State is terrible. I recall liking Red State and yet I cannot remember a single thing about it other than the trumpet scene. Tusk is one of those movies that I feel worse for having seen it. I'm not squeamish, horror is my second favorite genre and I grew up on Kevin Smith films. Just after the middle point I hated everything I saw. When I wasn't annoyed, I was bored. So, it got a reaction, I guess. Like others, I'm happy that he can make batshit crazy movies like this and I'm enough of an idiot that I'll probably watch them all.
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Jul 25, 2019 21:13
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I really liked the last scene at the zoo.
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Jul 26, 2019 04:42
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I will have to make a point to find my other posts about it, I think I even made a thread about it, but I actually like this film quite a lot. It's a film about how Internet notoriety actually really sucks, and I do think that it lands that pretty well. I also do like that you have an unlikable main character who does get his comeuppance, but it's not because he stupid, he really makes very few stupid decisions in the entire film. That ups the terror for me.
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Sep 2, 2019 21:13
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The biggest complaint I had about Tusk is it really should be an effective horror movie but it keeps getting distracted by Johnny Depp being “artsy”. It’s pacing is just terrible for that reason because Tusk really is horrifying at times but then you have Depp talking about the Gimli Glider for like 15 minutes. Props to Kevin Smith for putting this film together like a Frankenstein monster. I can’t even really hate the guy because I still like his View Askew stuff and he really is a funny/chill dude in real life.
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Sep 3, 2019 01:32
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Here it is, my thread "I love Kevin Smith's "Tusk" And Think It's a Great Movie". My perspective is there  .https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAL7EMMCq-k
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Sep 3, 2019 18:19
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Documentary was just posted on Kevin Smith's youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2IKoonFHJc
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Sep 21, 2019 02:44
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I like Kevin Smith far more than I like his movies.
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Sep 21, 2019 03:51
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The whip/snap zoom reveal of the creature itself unsettled me to the point that I had difficulty sleeping for several days after seeing this flick in the theater and the ending only made it worse. He's gone on record as regretting not allowing marketing to show the walrus so that moment would be impactful, but it was absolutely the right move. He's making a sequel called Tusk$, which, okay?
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Nov 11, 2022 18:42
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Only movie where I walked out the theatre, at a festival where I stayed through Zombie rear end.
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Nov 24, 2022 00:57
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just another posted:I like Kevin Smith far more than I like his movies. He makes Clerks which is a bit overwritten, but is very endearing and fun. People talk about the guy's skills as a filmmaker, but dude was twenty when he made Clerks. There are people who don't get really competent behind the camera till they're twice his age. He makes a middling follow-up, but does actually make a flawed but decent next step with Chasing Amy. Then the guy makes Dogma, and note, he's not even thirty. And it's a successful and well-liked movie barring controversies and Weinstein fuckery. But you could imagine the guy at this point continuing to grow... and then the guy just collapses in on himself. He makes the incredibly self-indulgent Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. But then he does try to do something with Jersey Girl which isn't a great movie, but is actually an alright family drama that really had people looking at it sideways because of JLO and Ben Affleck, and then he just got lost. Clerks II is fine enough, but just him going back to the well. Zack and Miri is a Judd Apatow coverband. Cop Out is him trying to do mercenary work. And his pivot to horror has just been unremarkable with him unwilling to go absurd or dark enough to make something interesting. Dude was thirty-four years old when Jersey Girl came out. You could have imagined him doing a smaller indie dramedy, really learning how to be a stronger filmmaker, build on what he was doing with Chasing Amy, but alas...
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Nov 24, 2022 01:32
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Kevin Smith and Richard Linklater are the Goofus and Gallant of Gen X indie filmmaking
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Nov 24, 2022 01:38
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Imagine Before Sunrise, but Jesse just talks about Masters of the Universe for half of the evening.
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Nov 24, 2022 01:46
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Smith is a treasure as a raconteur. https://youtu.be/Wo2KB1dEDdk https://youtu.be/53hMYw8LX60
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Nov 24, 2022 03:54
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Anukahn posted:Only movie where I walked out the theatre, at a festival where I stayed through Zombie rear end. Lmfao
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Nov 24, 2022 04:18
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He'll be the first to tell you he's not very good, which is its own kind of cringe, but the why of it interests me. Unlike every other rich rear end in a top hat, he's come out and admitted that his great art came from pain and now he's rich and successful, so his only pain is "somebody doesn't like me" and that doesn't make for very good art, so he said on a podcast a couple years back that in order to become the Kevin Smith that made Clerks and Chasing Amy, he'd have to be unhappy again and he's not interested in that. MotU: Revelation was really good, though.
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Nov 24, 2022 19:19
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LividLiquid posted:MotU: Revelation was really good, though. 
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Nov 24, 2022 19:37
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Anukahn posted:Only movie where I walked out the theatre, at a festival where I stayed through Zombie rear end. I've watched a lot of films I didn't end up enjoying but this was one I really wished I'd turned off. It was like Human Centipede but shitter.
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Nov 24, 2022 20:31
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Lurk Ethic posted:Smith is a treasure as a raconteur. Absolutely, the Superman story is hysterical and did he do it completely off the cuff? It’s timed so perfectly it’s like something that he fine tuned out of years of working on it at open mics or something. I don’t know if he should have been a stand up comic, but professional storyteller or something? A profession that doesn’t really exist in our society. He’s very good at it.
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Nov 25, 2022 05:18
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That's exactly what his job is and has been since that DVD. Even when he releases a film, he tours with it and does talking gigs as part of the show. He's done a number of stand-up specials at this point and they were all just stories like that.
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Nov 26, 2022 01:46
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