Delightfully awkward ‘Eagle vs Shark’ now on DVD

Eagle vs Shark, a brilliant comedy from New Zealand director Taika Waititi and featuring Jemaine Clement of Flight of the Conchords is now on DVD. The film plays like a New Zealand version of Napoleon Dynamite with amped up awkwardness and stellar performances all around.

January 9, 2008

Alexis Gentry

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Eagle vs Shark, a brilliant comedy from New Zealand director Taika Waititi, is the story of Lily, played by Loren Horsley, a socially awkward woman who works at a fast food restaurant called Meaty Boy. Lily harbors a major crush on equally awkward Jarrod, played to perfection by Jemaine Clement of Flight of the Conchords.

Lily finally becomes a part of Jarrod’s world after proving her skill at a Mortal-Kombat-style video game called Fight Man played at his animal theme party. After the two hook up at the party, Jarrod reveals that he is secretly training to fight a bully who used to pick on him years ago in school.

The two travel to Jarrod’s home town for the battle when friction caused by Jarrod’s family causes a rift in their budding romance. Jarrod continues his intensive training regime while Lily fights off loneliness by bonding with his family. The two are reunited on the day of the big fight when Jarrod (and the audience) learn a hilarious surprise about the former bully.

The film plays like a New Zealand version of Napoleon Dynamite with amped up awkwardness and stellar performances all around. Horsley and Clement capture every nuance of geek-ness and the supporting cast keeps the bar set high for the film.

You could cut the awkwardness with a knife in the scene when Jarrod is consulting his “computer hacker” friend Mason (Cohen Halloway) about the bully as Mason’s computer screen slowly fills up with pop up windows advertising porn sites. The giggles erupting from Lily when her brother Damien (Joel Tobeck) launches into his celebrity voice impressions give a genuine sweetness to the nerdy characters. These people are all weird, but you love them. That kind of good-hearted awkwardness makes the film so delightful to watch.

Eagls vs Shark is now available on DVD, great news for those who weren’t able to catch it in it’s limited theatrical run.

View a video of Jemaine and Bret of Flight of the Conchords playing at this year’s CES on our blog.

8 responses to “Delightfully awkward ‘Eagle vs Shark’ now on DVD”

Delightfully awkward ‘Eagle vs Shark’ now on DVD

January 9, 2008

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Mel

January 9, 2008

Jemaine is so sexy in his spedo!

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PS

January 9, 2008

I am a die hard fan of Flight of the Concords and so I loved this movie! Jemaine is flawless as the awkward nerd who still believes he is a pretty cool guy. The casting was great, even down to the bit part players, like his daughter, best friend, dad and sister. Really good.

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Justice is waiting

January 9, 2008

“tell him that justice is waiting for him”
“alright Justin, thank you, bye bye”
“no, justice! justice!”

awesome part

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Alexis Gentry

January 9, 2008

Check out video of Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie of Flight of the Conchords playing at CES up now on the trashwire blog

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andrew sullivan

January 10, 2008

I found this review on google. It seems like you liked it, but you should see what AP said about it. http://movies.msn.com/movies/movie.aspx?m=2073693&mp=cr#Review_0

But Clement is stuck in an inherently unlikeable, seemingly irredeemable role – and we don’t mean in a smart, funny, ”Seinfeld” kind of way. Jarrod is just a rude, arrogant, crass bore. He’s abusive and thoughtless and consistently so. And yes, it’s probably all bravado built up over the years to disguise how insecure and self-loathing he truly is, but still.

When he sighs and moans to Lily, ”Damn it, I’m too complex,” you wish it were actually true. At least that might make him feel like an intriguing – and truly original – character.

I haven’t seen it, but it’s weird that she hated it so much and you loved it.

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Alexis Gentry

January 10, 2008

Andrew, thanks for posting a link to that AP review.

Personally, I think that, just because characters are odd, doesn’t mean they’re a “rip-off” of Napoleon Dynamite. I mean, Welcome to the Dollhouse was like 10 years before Napoleon Dynamite and that had weird characters. Does that mean that Napoleon Dynamite ripped off that?

I don’t understand how someone (a film critic no less!) could basically assume that every film since 2004 that includes weird geeky characters must inherently be a Napoleon rip-off.

But hey, not everyone loves the same stuff as me. I still think it’s definitely worth checking out Eagle vs Shark for yourself.

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Paulina M

January 10, 2008

I don’t know if I like Jemaine’s beard in that video. It’s like him and Bret switched facial hair.

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