Eagle Vs. Shark Details

[Highly rated reviewer]

And now for something completely different...

A perfectly mis-matched (or perfectly matched) pair of oddballs gravitate to each other in this perfectly written and directed film from Taika Cohen.

This is very much in the Napoleon Dynamite vein, but then again totally separate and in its own realm of quirkyness. You know as soon as this opens it is not going to be a straightforward hour and a half, enter the fantastically awkward main characters and we are off. Loren Horsley is just fantastic beyond words as Lily, as is Jemaine Clement as her love interest, the Looser Jarrod.

It is a real personal sort of film, and in away I could understand people having difficulty with it, if so I would say watch it again, as for me the whole thing is just brilliant. One of those very special (odd, but special) moments where you find something totally on another plane, definately one of the best films I have seen in 2007.

Idiotic man-child vs Sweet Person

I must say that when I started watching I thought that this film was going to be a) slow and b) dull but in a very short space of time the character of Lily brilliantly played by Loren Horsley totally won me over. Unfortunately I can’t say the same for the character of Jarrod excellently played by Jemaine Clement but then again that is the point of the film. Eagle vs Shark is very much a tale of love comes in all shapes and just because it’s not the Hollywood 'perfect romance', seen a thousand times version doesn’t make it any less valid or fascinating to watch.

I'll try not to give too much away but... Jarrod is very much a big teenager and self-assured eccentric geek totally unaware of how much of an idiot he is which is where the laugh out loud moments come from (hence Napoleon Dynamite comparisons), Lily very much provides the heart of the film and is very possibly one of the sweetest women ever to grace the screen. The support cast are excellent as Jarrod and Lily’s oddball family and friends but the shining star is Loren Horsley and I really hope to see more of her on the big screen as this film is very possibly the best thing to come out of New Zealand since “Black Sheep” (joke, it’s much much better...)

Finally to say that this film is quirky would be an understatement with some interesting touches such as the sidelines into animation, which really take you by surprise but really hit the tale home. It’s really not going to be for everyone but if you have a quirky sense of humor and laugh at things that you probably shouldn’t you’ll more than likely love it, well worth a rent! It left me with a fuzzy warm feeling, which hasn’t happened since I watched “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' and with any luck it will for you to. If it wasn't for the lack of mass appeal and re-watchability i'd give it 5 stars, still it's a very original, engaging and daring love story and for those reasons I loved every second.