Tasmanian Devils (2013)

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

RELEASED TO TV in early 2013 and directed by Zach Lipovsky, "Tasmanian Devils" chronicles events on the Australian island when a group of American base-jumpers inadvertently spawn several amped-up Tasmanian devils from folklore. The Americans team-up with three rangers to (try to) survive.The low scores are inexplicable (with a 3.6/10 average on IMDb) in light of the fact that this is a competent monsters-in-the woods survival/horror/adventure flick. Sure, the diverse cast is no-name, except for Danica McKellar (best known, of course, for her role as Winnie Cooper on The Wonder Years), and the CGI creatures are decidedly cartoony, but "Tasmanian Devils" otherwise delivers the goods as a suspenseful, gory creatures-on-the-loose TV picture with breathtaking forest locations. Danica is super-cute, as usual, but she'd be sexier if she gained at least 15 lbs. Australians complain about the accents, but the Australians in the movie sounded Australian to these ears. Another nitpicker complained about the Gerry-rigged flame thrower. Seriously? THE MOVIE RUNS 86 minutes and was shot in British Columbia. WRITER: Brook Durham. ADDITIONAL CAST: Kenneth Mitchell & Mike Dopud emerge as the most prominent base jumpers. Winter Olympian gold-medalist Apolo Ohno has a small role. GRADE: B

A group of adventurers land their helicopter in the mountains of Australia. They are going to parachute off really big, high cliffs. Unfortunately, the first one to jump doesn't pull his chute on time and suffers a terrible fall. Incredibly, he survives the fall - which doesn't seem physically possible, considering the extent of his puncture wound. Things get worse for Olympic champion Apolo Ohno (appropriately named Stone) because his sky-dive releases the titular "Tasmanian Devils". Naturally, the animated monsters want to kill everyone in camera sight.The movie's greatest visual is park ranger Danica McKellar (as Alex). She is presented in a tight uniform that accentuates her prominent front...One interesting little moment in Brook Durham's script occurs when Ms. McKellar notes her character has a man's name ("Alex") while leading man Kenneth Mitchell plays the male character "Jayne" - spelled just like a girl. This starts out like it might be an interesting relationship, but it's really ordinary. The couple does get good interesting support from Mike Dopud (as Anderson) and a trio of food suppliers for the Tasmanian devils. The creatures are not very scary or believable, but the effects team makes up for it with some well-stage gore scenes.**** Tasmanian Devils (1/19/13) Zach Lipovsky ~ Danica McKellar, Kenneth Mitchell, Mike Dopud, Terry Chen

As another Aussie, I didn't mind this all that much. I read a heap of complaints about the accents and that it wasn't filmed in Tazzie. True. Bad accents, not Tasmania, parks employees with sidearms. Who cares? That's like watching Sharknado and complaining that sharks don't fly, or Big Ass Spider and moaning about how spiders don't grow that big.Same for the whinges about the Devils not being actual Tazzie Devils. Duh. Of course they're not. They're special supernatural devils.It's a farcical horror movie. It's not meant to be factual. That said, it's not a brilliant one, but if you're looking for a fun farcical horror, this isn't too bad. If you want it to be about real Aussie parks and wildlife or high drama... Erm... Leave this be. If you had fun with Sharknado and Big Ass Spider! then maybe you might like this.

Three forest rangers in Tasmania stumble across a group of base jumpers who are in the park illegally . They frantically tell the rangers that one of their team has been killed in a cave by something and that something is still in the cave . What ever killed their colleague is hostile and it's not alone If I'd seen TASMANIAN DEVILS a few weeks ago I would have dismissed it as yet more brainless clichéd fodder from the SyFy Channel but I still had a sense of disappointment from a recent trip to the cinema where I watched WORLD WAR Z which cost me £7.80 to watch and Paramount Studios $200 million to produce . I'm guessing in terms of production TD cost closer to the rice of my cinema ticket than WWZ . One very common and vocal criticism of the Pitt epic was the conspicuous lack of blood and gore , along with a lack of suspense . It says something that despite all the money thrown at it TD is slightly more effective as a suspense driven horror movie TD beats out the brain dead undead epic spectacle of WORLD WAR Z Don't get me wrong I'm not for a second claiming TD is some sort of lost underlooked gem just waiting to be discovered by a wider audience because it's not . It's merely a low budget horror movie featuring sketchily drawn characters played by a journeyman cast hiding out in dark remote woodland and stalked by hostile viscous creatures . The clichés come thick and fast but what the film does it does relatively well . It also contains a bit more blood and guts you'd expect in this type of TVM and an early death with a character impaled is genuinely shocking . Perhaps if the production team of WWZ studied this film - which coincidentally features monsters attracted to sound - in depth their own film might have been better received by critics