Eagle Vs Shark

Written & Directed by: Taika Cohen
Tagline: Finding love was never so... Awkward.
Runtime: 87min 21sec
Release Date: August 17th 2007

Plot Outline
Fresh from Sundance (Grand Jury Prize nominee), this wickedly offbeat comedy, is New Zealand's wink to US indie hit Napoleon Dynamite. Jarrod (Jemaine Clement), is a lonely oddball and video game clerk who has spent the last decade plotting vengeance on a bully from his high school past.

In spite of himself, Jarrod captures the attention of hopeless romantic Lily (Loren Horsley) at a 'dress as your favourite animal' party, that she slyly gets herself invited to. He an Eagle, she a Shark. A funny fractured romance between two total misfits, woven into an all-consuming quest for revenge.

In addition, it's about two half-eaten apples that find themeselves on a mission to find each other and hangout & enjoy the morning sun.

Overall Impressions:
Well, stating that it's a nod to Napoleon Dynamite is fair in that the feel is very indie, the characters are quite strange all-round and the sense of humour it has probably won't appeal to all, that said those it will appeal to, it will appeal to greatly.

Looking at the structure of this film, it is when broken down to it, a romantic comedy, with a man on a mission. The fact that they don’t overly complicate the characters or the storyline from the given synopsis warrants merit. The simplicity of it leaves ample scope for the character and action to take its cause and this is where it scores highly.

Right from the get-go with dreamy Lily trying her best to get our questionable heroes attention, inviting herself to his party, right through to the climax where the protagonist meets his childhood nemesis.

Leaving the viewer in hysterics by the character’s quirky behaviour and actions, this one I would say deserves a definite credit to the star cast. It appears that it has been left to the actors how they represent & interpret the writing. The dialogue between Lily and Jarrod works very well throughout, particularly in the beginning portions, if I were to take a guess, I’d imagine some of this was probably improvised.

Their interactions do take a backseat as emphasis then moves to the training and preperation for the big fight, but it’s only for the better. Meanwhile Lily gets to know the family as do we. It's all very well balanced, allowing you to enjoy the scene rather than get caught up in trying to work out what is going on.

Possible moral of the story:
Contrary to what they tell you, gatecrashing is cool, it allows many missed opportunties to flourish. Dressing up in wierd costumes and playing video-games, also, cool. Overall I'd say the moral behind it for me byrns down to all the strange things you dont do on a regular basis: Don't knock it til you try it. Oh, perhaps one more thing, working at some burger joint - not cool.

Though aimed at a niche, I'd say its very much worth a watch, if the climax (amongst numerous other moments) doesn’t have you laughing out loud I’d be very surprised.