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Idle Hands

Generally unfavorable reviews
Based on 20 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 9 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Horror
Written by:
Terri Hughes
Ron Milbauer
Directed by: Rodman Flender
Release Date:
Theatrical: April 30, 1999
DVD: August 31, 1999
Running Time: 90 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for horror violence and gore, pervasive teen drug use, language and sexuality
Starring Devon Sawa, Seth Green, Elden Henson, Jessica Alba, Christopher Hart, Vivica A. Fox, Jack Noseworthy, and Fred Willard
Anton Tobias (Sawa) wakes up Halloween morning to discover-after watching some TV and perusing the contents of the fridge, oblivious to the pool of blood on the floor-that his parents have been turned into a couple of headless Halloween decorations. After hanging out with his equally irresponsible friends, Mick (Green) and Pnub (Henson), Anton discovers that his right hand has a very bloodthirsty mind of its own, and it's hell-bent on wreaking deadly havoc with or without him. [Sony]
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin
Loaded with smart sight gags and endearing secondary characters, it effectively mixes slapstick splatter and deadpan satire...Pretty damned irresistible.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
Green and Henson make an inspired comic team, Sawa has the befuddled stoner thing down pat, and Alba is, in a word, yummy.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Exhibiting high spirits and a crazed comic energy. It doesn't quite work, but it goes down swinging--with a disembodied hand.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Ron Wells
Hey, it's not "Gone With the Wind" or even "Nightmare on Elm Street", so don't expect a masterpiece. You get a little nudity, a lot of gore, Seth Green doing his ironic commentary thing, and an easy way to kill a couple of hours.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Gene Seymour
What Idle Hands lacks in originality, it makes up for in energy and insolence. It takes guts for a movie to indulge as much as this one does in proto-hippie humor and you find yourself tickled, in spite of yourself, by the movie's nerve, if not its jokes.
Read Full Review >New Times (L.A.) Glenn Gaslin
This wry and surprisingly high-gloss production brings back the good stuff: zombies, latex body parts, screaming women on altars, errant eyeballs, and guys with no necks trying to eat burritos.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Staff (Not Credited)
Let us now praise Seth ''Scott Evil'' Green, whose beautiful delivery of otherwise generic wisecracks is all that stands between this painfully derivative horror comedy and a premature date with the eject button.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
Ill-timed "Hands" has a very limited grasp of comedy.
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
This briefly inspired bit of surreality quickly descends into gratuitous bondage, mayhem and dumb humour, marking the usual progression from mildly absurd premise to gratingly idiotic conclusion.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector
Their splashy gore is more convincing than this incompetent horror-comedy's attempt to mock bourgeois high school dissoluteness without appearing judgmental.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
There's about half an hour's worth of sickly amusing material here...Unfortunately, that leaves a solid hour's worth of witless screaming, running around and expiring in a welter of icky special effects.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Monica Eng
It's got the sex. It's got the violence. And, most important, it has an array of pot-centered jokes that might be funny to someone under the influence of an illegal substance. [30 Apr 1999]
ReelViews James Berardinelli
There's just one problem: it's not scary and it's not funny...Idle Hands transcends that mundane level of badness into the realm of gross ineptitude.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham
When a movie sets out to be awful and achieves its goal, does that make it a success?
Read Full Review >The New York Times Lawrence Van Gelder
Even pretensions toward the humorous and hip cannot save this blood-drenched film from its innate tastelessness.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
Let's talk about it quickly, because the thumbs of both my hands have gone similarly crazy. They're pointing downward and refuse to budge until I finish this review.
Read Full Review >Variety Robert Koehler
Perhaps thinking he had a farce to play with, Flender encourages tons of mugging; by overplaying what should be underplayed, helmer and cast deliver a fatal stab to the intended comedy-horror.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Nicole Campos
Many in the youthful target audience wont be able to identify the "homages," and the script is far too lazy for seasoned horror fans to stomach.
Read Full Review >USA Today Staff [Not Credited]
It's an unholy mess.
Salon.com Mary Elizabeth Williams
As stupefyng as Idle Hands is while the title appendage is still attached to Anton, it goes into a whole other realm of godawfulness when the demon digits take off on their own.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.5 (out of 10) based on 9 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Filipe M gave it a10:
Maybe it was supposed to be scary, but it turned out to be one the most funny movies ever.
Megan L gave it a10:
This movie i truly love and Devon Sawa is so cute this is one movie that I'll always love its so cool!
Megan L gave it a10:
This is a way cool teen movie i love it!
Michael H. gave it a10:
This movie was so fun to watch I decided to watch it when i saw jessica alba is starring in it, and I was surprised how great it was. Neverf laughed so much at a movie - awesome.
nicole d. gave it a10:
This movie is totally awesome, its incredibly funny a great way to kick back fo an hour and a half not too scarry just the right amount of seth green. when i saw this on DVD i snatched it right up.
Devin C. gave it an 8:
This Movie Kicks ASS. It's funny and scary my two favorate themes.
Felicity F. gave it a 9:
Seth Green deadpans (no pun intended) with skill. Sawa is a little too far over the top, but I had a lot of fun with this movie anyway.
