I "Loved It" Cottage Country: I talk about dark comedies, how Tyler Labine is the luckiest man on Earth, and the moment I fell in love with Lucy Punch and also how awesome Malin Akerman and Katrina Bowden are

I started this movie knowing a lot about it. The preview for the movie gave a lot of it away, and my wife even commented that they showed the whole movie during the preview. The murders, the hiding of the bodies, the cops showing up . . . sorry, but there’s a lot more to this movie, and the preview just hints at the darkness going on in it. 

            Of course with all movies the acting is important, but with a movie like this, the acting is everything. I mean, we know that this being a dark comedy that these people are gonna do anything and everything they can to get away with murder while keeping up the image of being normal – in a comedic way. For all of that to work, though, the we have to start off liking these people, wanting these people to have their perfect weekend, and when it is ruined we root for them to win because we like them. If the acting isn’t there, and we don’t like and care and root for these people at the beginning then the whole movie will fail.

            What’s the point in seeing someone go all dark if it’s not fun seeing them all in the light? Watching Malin Akerman is always a pleasure, I mean seriously, and how much of a bonus is it that she’s actually a good actress? Don’t think she’s a good actress? Check out the sleepwalking scene in this movie and tell me that wasn’t a great and chilling scene that makes you chuckle uncomfortably afterwards. Not just anyone can pull that kind of stuff off.

            Tyler Labine is the other half of the couple in this movie and seriously, I want this guy’s life. First he seems like such a cool guy, genuinely funny and nice and laid back and all, and I mean seriously, who wouldn’t be with the sort of job and luck this guy’s got. He is also in Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, and in that movie – like Cottage Country – he gets a girl that is so far beyond his league that both movies almost become fantasy movies, but he’s cool so it’s allowed I suppose. But seriously, how does a guy like him get to make out with Katrina Bowden in this movie and then later get Malin Akerman as well?

TandDvsE is a great movie that I loved and it is another dark comedy but one with a story that requires none of it be taken seriously, unlike Cottage Country. TandDvsE was at the time the perfect commentary for popular horror movies (the movie was made in 2010 but they’re not making the horror movies then that they are now) as well as popular horror movies from the past, and so no matter when you see this movie it will resonate with being dead on in its poking fun at horror movies. This is one of those movies that is so good you wonder how no one thought of this kind of movie sooner. The death scenes are all very well done in gore and in cringing laughter, and the pay off at the end is pretty good, and most importantly is that the laughs are constant through out (and Katrina Bowden is in the movie). As I said previously about caring about the people, and how important the acting is, it is proven here again how this movie would not work were you not to care about the guys in it. Alan Tudyk is great as usual and so because of those three this movie is definitely good and worth a look.

            What I did not expect when we started this movie was to become such a fan of Lucy Punch when this movie was over. She’s not in it very much (make of that what you will) but when she is she is awesome. Apparently I’ve seen another movie with her in it (The Giant Mechanical Man, which I also loved) but I don’t remember Lucy Punch in it. She was so good in Cottage Country, and her weird story about the mushroom? Jesus. It’s because of her, characters like her in this movie that you just don’t know what direction this movie is gonna take and that is a great feeling to have, and one that I can’t recall having for far too long.