No joke: there's a painted on sarong on my DVD cover. I need more ass cheek!

I found "Broken Lizard's" Super Troopers to be a mostly funny, low-budget satire of the action cop genre. But like that film, Club Dread has a strange pull between the sharply funny and the extremely juvenile. Sometimes this works in the viewer's favor (lots and lots of cute girls baring their breasts and some truly funny horror and music parodies) and sometimes it works against the movie (stupid deaths, oh so many false scares.)

The false scares alone take about an hour themselves - characters run around in the jungle, explore the resort and get scared by monkeys, fruit, and whatever else is on screen to which they could assign a loud noise. The sum effect, of course, is that it then makes nothing on screen scary at all. Scream excelled at mixing parody with real thrills. Club Dread doesn't quite get there.

The real problem with Club Dread is that it's so schizophrenic - it doesn't know if it's a satire or a horror film. Where it fails as a horror film is obvious: too many unfunny false leads, scares and false conclusions. It fails as a satire only because there isn't enough of it, because what's there is pretty damn good. As the Jimmy Buffet-esque Coconut Pete (complete with the ballad "Piña Colada-burg"), Bill Paxton nails the slacker lifestyle and is perfectly cast and hilarious. In fact, the ridiculousness of such a place (with human Pac-Man. Constant limbo, and crab aerobics) is perfectly captured, and I only wished they could have focused on it more.

The other members of the team are the usual mixed bag of acting styles and stereotypes, but they add nicely to the film's texture. The girls are the real highlight though. Ah, the girls. Brittany Daniel plays an aerobic instructor, and is built for the part, not to mention she possesses some pretty good comedic timing. Jordan Ladd, who trotted around Cabin Fever looking super-hot, finally does her thing and makes the film worth watching. Yes, I'm that shallow.

It's hard to assign a letter grade to this movie. Watching it by myself was no fun, but like Jackass, maybe it's the kind of movie that's just better when you watch it with a big, drunken group.

Movie Grade: B-

Video: 4 out of 5
The video is quite nice on this release, considering that the movie wasn't too high budget. The scope picture is clear, fairly balanced with just a bit of grain that becomes noticeable in the darker scenes.
Widescreen anamorphic - 2.35:1 / Full Screen - 1.33:1

Jordan in the middle.

Audio: 4 out of 5
The audio is also very good with the rear channels getting a fair bit of workout.
English (Dolby Digital 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)

Extras: 3 out of 5
Only two commentaries on here. They're both pretty good - I wouldn't exactly call them laugh riots, but the Broken Lizard crew seem to be enjoying themselves on these two separate tracks.

Overall: 3 out of 5
One word: boobies. If you're looking for another 'party' film like Showgirls, or Evil Dead, this movie would fit right in. It may not be the perfect mix of satire and horror, but it may make you grab the rum and make some drinks.

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