Black Friday

Not once I've raised the corners of my mouth for a slight hint of a smile. The (first time movie) writer totally missed the humor in his writing. Writing comedy is an art and this could have been much better (maybe hire a comedian?) On the characters and story, the writing was bad also because the situation is handled as if the events happen every week which made it surreal & detached (in a bad way)... Also the music score gets annoying (its like a Home Alone score).. Now all this would not bothered me when the writing was good! The writer should've watched 1992 "Braindead" (my fav horror-comedy!) which has the absurdism, sarcasm and over the top gore this movie needed badly! Watch Braindead instead, avoid this!

I have to admit, I wasn't too keen to watch this... when I saw that Devon Sawa (Final Destination) was in it, as was Bruck Campbell, I gave it a go. I have to say, while you won't achieve nirvana, nor discover the meaning of life, give it a go. It was better than many other movies with higher IMDB ratings, and certainly doesn't take itself seriously, almost parodying itself.

On a day off, and at a loose end, I microwaved a bag of popcorn, sat back with a couple of beers, turned my brain off and to be honest, I actually didn't mind it.

Give it a go.

This is a Christmas, horror comedy in typical B-movie style a la Bruce Campbell. I've read some of the reviews here and I think people mistakenly thought they were going to watch The Godfather or Alien. The criticisms sound like they were expecting a Spielberg or Scorsese cinematic masterpiece and they were shocked when ....it wasn't. It's a fun Christmas horror comedy driven by characters that are all flawed, parodies of those we all know in real life. It is fun to watch and fans of Bruce Campbell should give it a try. Will it win an Oscar? Not a chance! Is it going to revolutionize the film industry? Nope! Is it driven by an award winning, spell binding script? Heck no!

But will my husband and I watch many more times over the holidays to come? Yes! We! Will!

Bruce Campbell is the only redeeming quality of Black Friday. Yes, the production is okay, the cast too, but the humor just does not work very well and the horror is at most okayish. On paper a mix of Blob, Superstore and a buddy horror comedy a la Shaun of the Dead may look good but the execution meanders something on the edge of average and below average. What I miss mostly is some unique spark. Also there never is really some suspense like for example in the story of The Mist. Exact rate: 3 + 1 for Mr. Campbell's solid performance.

This wasn't amazing or anything but I had a good time. While I felt that there could have been more time developing the characters before the horror happened this was overall a solid survival horror. I thought all of the cast did a good job and it was great seeing Bruce Campbell in a role like this. The monster effects were fantastic and I enjoyed the climax. Not a masterpiece but an enjoyable way to spend an hour and 20 minutes.