Club Dread
At Quality 16
Fox Searchlight
Every once in a while, a film comes along that ruins its
creators’ careers and makes it that much more difficult for
them to have the opportunity to make another movie. Such a film is
now in theaters.
The movie, Broken Lizard’s “Club Dread,” is
classified as a comedy, a thriller and a horror flick but does not
satisfy even the most basic requirements of any of these genres. It
is neither funny, scary nor remotely successful at poking fun at
much of anything (with the possible exception of Jimmy Buffet).
“Dread” marks the latest project by the comedy
troupe Broken Lizard (“Super Troopers”). It stars no
noteworthy actors except Bill Paxton, although the lack of familiar
faces has nothing to do with the movie’s failure. The feeble
plot takes the viewer to a tropical island that is home to a
singles’ camp run by Paxton’s character, Coconut Pete.
A mysterious murderer resembling a Mexican bandit stalks the island
killing off the camp’s staff.
The script is so poor and deficient in humor that the 90 minutes
the film takes to finally come to a long-awaited end feel much,
much longer. “Club Dread” is not a bad raunchy teen
comedy; it is a total and complete failure that is not of a high
enough caliber to be classified in that genre.
Rating: .5 out of 5 stars
— Jason Z. Pesick