Slackers (2001) from Tuna

Slackers is an extraordinarily bad comedy about three friends who scam their way through college. When another student catches them cheating on an exam, his price for silence is that they help him get the girl of his dreams, Laura Prepon. Only trouble is that he is a monumental jerk, and one of the three friends clicks with her.

NUDITY REPORT

The real surprise in this film was the lengthy breast exposure from a 71 year old Mamie Van Doren. You have to love an industry that will give a nude role to a 50s bombshell in 2002.
I found very little to laugh at, was put off by the score, and could have done without some of the trick photography.  I honestly can't recommend this film at all.

DVD info from Amazon.

  • The widescreen transfer is pristine, well saturated, bright, and not a hint of noise anywhere.

Scoop's note:

Devon Sawa ("Idle Hands") and Jason Schwartzman ("Rushmore") are considered two of the top five comic talents in their generation.

Which goes to show you just how bad this script was. Anybody can make a bad comedy with Tom Arnold, but it takes a true genius to make one with gifted performers.

The Critics Vote

  • General consensus: less than a star. Ebert 0/4, Berardinelli 1.5/4, filmcritic.com 1/5

  • General UK consensus: one star. Daily Mail 0/10, Daily Telegraph 5/10, Independent 4/10, Guardian 2/10, Evening Standard 1/10, Express 4/10, BBC 2/5.

The People Vote ...

  • IMDB summary. IMDb voters score it 4.3/10, Guardian voters 4.8/10
  • with their dollars: it only grossed $4.81m (half of that the first weekend) against an $11m budget.
IMDb guideline: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence, about like three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, about like two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, about like two stars from the critics. Films under five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film, equivalent to about one and a half stars from the critics or less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

Based on this description, this film is a D+. It is a technically sound comedy bomb..

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