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Idle Hands
Columbia / Tristar


7.8

based on 20 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 6 votes
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MPAA 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]

GENRE(S):	Horror
WRITTEN BY:	Terri Hughes Ron Milbauer
DIRECTED BY:	Rodman Flender
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: August 31, 1999 Video: August 31, 1999 Theatrical: April 30, 1999
RUNNING TIME:	90 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham

When a movie sets out to be awful and achieves its goal, does that make it a success?

The New York Times Lawrence Van Gelder

Even pretensions toward the humorous and hip cannot save this blood-drenched film from its innate tastelessness.

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.

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.

LA Weekly Nicole Campos

Many in the youthful target audience won’t be able to identify the "homages," and the script is far too lazy for seasoned horror fans to stomach.

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.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.8 (out of 10) based on 6 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

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.

Bernie F. gave it a 10:
Seeing Kelly Monaco's bare cones was easily the best part of this movie. [Though Jessica Alba is clearly off the hook, too]

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Idle Hands Columbia / Tristar

Idle Hands
Columbia / Tristar