April, April - Tote scherzen nicht

The presence of about ten scriptwriters should have warned me just how bad this remake of a '80s-era slasher would be. That, and the name of the directors, The Butcher Brothers. If that doesn't say it all then I don't know what does.

APRIL FOOL'S DAY is an appalling film, so cringeworthy, so awful that I can barely believe it exists. The script is awful, mind-numbingly bad and with no discernible wit, skill or intelligence present at any spot in the narrative. The actors are equally terrible, delivering their lines in a stilted way reminiscent of automatons. Watching the end result, I can't help but liken this to a particularly poor episode of BEVERLEY HILLS 90210.

Horror fans should look elsewhere, too. There's plenty of full-blooded horror on offer in cinemas today, and this is anything but. The various kill scenes are silly indeed and the movie reaches a real nadir when it comes to the big twist at the climax, which is the most ridiculous, SCOOBY DOO-type thing I've ever seen. Please, please do yourself a favour and avoid this movie like the plague.

A question if I may, why in the blue hell would a person make a remake a film if they weren't going to stick to the original concept? I mean I understand making tweaks here and there but let's be clear this shares little to nothing with the 1986 original.

Though I deemed the original movie rather overrated I at least appreciated the intricate story that it wove. This 2008 remake throws the originals concept out the window and comes up with something all of it's own, sadly what it's replaced with is generic Hollywood tripe and not even the top shelf tripe.

With an interchangeable forgettable cast playing top 1% spoiled trust fund babies we see a mindless tale about a prank gone wrong and the past coming back to haunt them one year later. So again, this doesn't even resemble the original movie.

The characters are detestable, news flash it's very hard to care about the plights of wretched human beings such as these (And no there isn't a "Nice" one mixed in). For this reason I was entirely unable to give a crap about the fates of these people and considering how dull the plot was I couldn't find it in myself to care about that either.

Did you like the original? If so this won't appeal to you. But do you like slashers? If so then again this won't appeal to you

The Good:

Nope

The Bad:

Vile characters

Hardly a remake

As generic as conceivably possible

This is a movie very lightly based on the '80s slasher of the same name. The original wasn't anywhere near the best of the slasher movies so I could only think that this movie could easily equal it's predecessor. The acting was pretty bad for most of the supporting characters but I still am having a hard time figuring out if it's the actors fault or the directors. I don't know. Blaine and Desiree did on OK job with the material they were given.

Its cinematography was terrible. The quick zooms of the camera was very much something I'd expect from a teenager filming skits with friends. The score in this film was laughable. I don't know where they got the idea to use some of the music but it ruined any little bit of suspense that they managed to build.

This was one of the worse movies I have seen in a long time. I had very low expectations for this film but am baffled at how bad it really was.

In the débutant ball of the socialite Torrance Caldwell (Scout Taylor-Compton) on April, 1st 2007, the jealous and futile millionaire Desiree Cartier (Taylor Cole) dilutes a powerful drug in the champagne of her dislikable acquaintance Milan Hastings (Sabrina Ann Aldridge) and her reckless brother Blaine Cartier (Josh Henderson) takes sexual advantage of Milan. Desiree tapes the situation with a camcorder while her friends Torrance, Barbie (Jennifer Siebel) and Peter Welling (Samuel Child), Charles Lansford (Joseph McKelheer) and Ryan (Joe Egender) snoop the couple in Blaine's bedroom. However, Milan has a seizure and falls off the balcony immediately dying. The group goes to court, Blaine looses the control of the family's fortune that shifts to Desiree, but they are considered innocents and the death of Milan is considered a fatality in a prank. One year later, each one of them receive a letter mustering them up to Milan's grave. While gathered in the cemetery, they receive a package telling that each one of them would die until the end of the day if the responsible for the death of Milan does not assume the guilty.

The association of "April's Fool Day" with the franchises "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and "Cruel Intentions" is immediate. The author has certainly inspired in these movies to write his plot, and I noted that this is not only my impression, but there is at least another IMDb User that had the same feeling. However, the unoriginal, unbelievable and predictable story is not totally bad and entertains. The good point of this flick is the camera work, with long travelings and original planes and angles. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Dia da Mentira" ("Day of the Lie" (literally), meaning "April Fool's Day")

I must say that I kind of liked this movie. Well, actually I liked just the ending. It was way better than in the first one, because it wasn't just a stupid prank to a friend (which by the way, no one sane person would do to anybody). This one also had ending, that I would never predict. But that's possibly just because I was waiting straight copy from the first one.

The acting was horrible, except for Scout Taylor-Compton. Killing scenes were stupid, especially the first one. The direction was so cheap-looking, that I almost puked. But because the ending was decent and the movie was somewhat entertaining, I give it 5/10.

Ps. I love pretty much all slasher films that I've seen.