The Tripper (2006)

hyped garbage

A Masterpiece!

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Well you have to at least give "The Tripper" an "A" for originality...A strange little tale of the hippie culture being massacred by a Ronald Reagan-Masked killer during a music festival in the country. Very odd and at times quite annoying, but there are a few moments of grandeur... Written and directed by David Arquette "The Tripper" sells the scenario short with silly child-like humor and over the top performances by it's A-List walk on cameos. The main characters are unlikable, which leaves the viewer not caring about their well being at all. Jason Mewes acts even more ridiculous then his "Jay" character (if you can believe that), to the point where you just can't wait to see him killed, just to shut him up... I'm not sure if the film was aiming to, but it makes the hippie culture look even dumber and less human then the woodland creatures they try to protect. Pee Wee does a great job as the foul-mouthed concert promoter, but Thomas Jane looks stupid as the sheriff. The inconsistencies in character development makes this confusing movie even that much harder to watch, and by the end of the film you feel more baked then the idiots on screen...But alas, there are some decent gore scenes and the cinematography looks fantastic. If you are in the mood for mindless comedy / horror dribble, then this might work for you. If you are looking for a good hallucinogenic horror film, try renting "Shrooms" (the movie) instead...

The Tripper is set in Northern California where six doped up tree loving hippie friends make their way to the Free Love Festival in the middle of some woods just outside a small town. There they intend to dance, smoke some weed, make love & generally have some fun. However their plans are slightly thrown out of kilter when a Ronald Reagan mask wearing psycho killer turns up & starts killing all the hippies & guests. Personally I would give the guy a medal but you can't just go around killing people no matter how annoying they are so local cop's & surviving hippies team up to put an end to the Ronald Reagan killer once & for all...Co-written, co-produced, directed by & starring David Arquette I am yet again amazed by all the positive comments this piece of crap film has, where has people's taste in films gone where they can rave about a piece of turgid crap such as The Tripper which offers zero entertainment value as far as I am concerned? I keep reading & hearing about how clever The Tripper is, how relevant it is, the fact that it's a knowing satire of American culture & has something socially relevant to say & get across. Did I just see the same film? Where is all this social commentary & satire then? There's a conversation between the hippies talking about George W. Bush but the most intelligent thing said is that he 'has Texan sized balls' which just about sums up how clever & thoughtful The Tripper is. There seems to be a quick anti war message thing going on at the start but then is completely forgotten about as none of it's ideas or themes are carried through with an conviction. Even the hippies are shown as stereotypical tree huggers who are always stoned, boring & it's been done to death plenty of times before. There is nothing thought provoking, clever or relevant in The Tripper & I found it one long bore. So the social commentary sucks & doesn't work what about the horror & slasher content? Well that sucks too, the pace is mind numbingly slow, the kills are tame & few & far between, the killers motives are again meant to be clever but they don't work & I don't really see why he dresses up as Ronald Reagan, maybe it's an American thing & being British I don't get it but I got it enough to know it sucks. So as a horror film it sucks, as a comedy it's not funny in the slightest & as a film that tries to be meaningful it fails completely on all fronts. One to avoid I think.I must admit that The Tripper does seem to have a budget & it actually has good production values but the film still sucks balls though. The gore levels are disappointing, there's an off screen decapitation, there are a few dead bodies seen, someones hand is chopped off (to which the stoned one handed kid says 'what's your f%^&ing problem?), the killer stabs a couple of people, he uses an axe at the end to kill hippies in a rather bloodless way, someone is sliced in half with a chainsaw & a guy is seen with a chainsaw stuck in his neck but it's all pretty tame actually. There's no build-up to any of the kills, there's no tension & while the woods provides a decent yet clichéd location there's not too much of an atmosphere either. I am really struggling to find one single positive thing to say about The Tripper, I just thought it was moronic & unfunny rubbish of the highest order that doesn't satisfy on any level whether your looking for horror or comedy or satire.To give The Tripper some credit it does look quite nice with above average production values but as I said the film is still terrible. Apparently shot in the Big Basin Redwoods State Park in California. I found the entire cast grated on my nerves, David Arquette's wife Courtney Cox appears although I didn't recognise her.The Tripper is a truly terrible film that I hated, I keep seeing & reading about how good this is but I just didn't see it at all & I really do wonder if I saw the same film. Absolute total & utter crap from start to finish & that's my opinion.

OK, it was campy, fun and a little racy too. But I thought it was totally entertaining! Great concept with the Reagan thing and all the irony of the times with Bush and all, but the movie just had a fun feel to it. My wife thinks I am nuts, but I love these kind of movies and David should make a sequel to it! Two thumbs up here! The more blood and bad jokes the better! The ultimate was Pulp Fiction. Lots of blood, no one cared type of atmosphere. The irony of Samuel Jackson quoting passages from the bible, then wasting someone away. Or John Travolta taking out the Boss' woman and really getting her almost killed by drug use. Some of this is pretty sick when you think of it, but reality does stink sometimes, doesn't it? And bringing in people like Paul"peewee" Reubens to be in it, he was great! The beginning is classic too, with the tree huggers and all. I have to give it two thumbs up! JT

What do you get when you cross Republican president Ronald Reagan, hippies, hatchets, a homicidal maniac and a whole lot of drugs? You get David Arquette's The Tripper. Basically the movie is about a group of friends, who are hippies, that travel through the northern wood of California for an all night rock n' roll concert, similar to that of Woodstock. The problem is, people start dying and turning up in pieces by the hands of a lunatic dressed up like Reagan. This movie was an equally balanced horror flick in my opinion. I enjoyed the horror/scares; I loved the outstanding lighting techniques, but I somewhat enjoyed the acting and the plot structure. In fair's game, I enjoyed this film and I did not think it was a waste of time, and it is a very good average horror movie.First off, I enjoyed the horror and the gore that is placed throughout this movie. It's easy to see that this film follows "standard serial killer guidelines," which is why it was such a good homage to slasher flicks of the 80's and 90's. in this movie "Reagan" wields a non-firearm weapon (hatchet), super human strength, brutal attacks and a scary mask, your typical Republican serial killer. We even have our anti-survival-girl (the heroine that does seem like the hero of the movie). There is a good amount of blood and gore that is NOT typical in slasher flicks, but when dealing with a hatchet it is very necessary to have that amount of blood. The killer does pop out of nowhere at the most inopportune times, which plays for an effective "jump-out scare." There is a good helping of all to familiar blood. The blood in this movie is not as clear as other movie blood, but rather thick and red-pinkish, similar to that of Tim Burton blood that we saw in films like Sleepy Hollow and Sweeney Todd. All in all a good scare from this movie.The lighting in this movie was a marvel; in fact, it was a huge component to the films genre and its drug themed story. The lighting provided a great mind expander to enhance the already intoxicated feel this movie has. There was a beautiful circular array lighting that had a tie-dye design to it whenever somebody was in silhouette, there were fantastic straight primary colors used and the natural coloring (green plants, blue sky, fire and blood) were amplified to give the audience the blinding feel of the mind on horrible drugs. Ultimately and curiously enough, these amped colors and tie-dye designs only seemed to be present when one of the main characters took a hit. The lighting, as funny as it sounds, played a huge part in the films genre.The acting was sort of a bittersweet thing for me because by a normal eye, the acting was great but I can see that the emotion and the reactions didn't fit the characters or the situation. Jamie King, who plays the main actress, does a good performance but she tends to overreact to the most subtle things, but when the killer comes, her performance lowers. There were okay performances by Lukas Haas and Balthazar Getty. Jason Mews did not seem like the pot-smoking-foul-mouthed bad boy in this movie, I enjoyed that, he performance was good but I don't think that his character should have been so "light." And Paul Reubens, who plays Frank Baker the owner of the concert, was an obnoxious character who swore too much and seemed like a plot device to set up the ending.Overall, this movie had a great homage to slasher movies with some good scares and amazing lighting, though the acting and the plot seemed a bit unorthodox, ultimately giving this movie a good average rating. I do recommend this movie for people who enjoy a good slasher flick as well as humorous political satire. Though, I would not recommend this film to those who don't like comedy-horrors like Cabin Fever or Slither. I enjoyed it but I did not like it, basically I have a bittersweet relationship with this movie.