Thursday Movie Review: Control Alt Delete

Posted in Internets by Chico, July 8, 2010 at 4:46 pm | 249 views, 0 comments

On the eve of what the majority considered the new millennium, Lewis Henderson has to solve the Y2K problem. As the stress mounts, and his relationships fall apart, his interactions with computers become more intense and erotic, further complicating his work and personal life.

This Canadian film, starring Tyler Labine of ‘Reaper’ fame and written and directed by his brother Cameron Labine, helps to answer a question regarding internet porn and has nothing at all to do with the shitty webcomic. Labine, as Lewis, helps to show what happens when Internet porn just doesn’t cut it anymore. His next move seems almost natural, though it is still pretty gross and shocking. Nothing overly graphic is shown, beyond Labine’s sizable ass, but not much is left to the imagination.

For those of you still scratching your heads as to what he could possibly be doing, let me spell it out for you. He takes a drill, makes a sizable hole in the side of his computer tower, unzips his pants, and does a very special act that is usually saved for mommies and daddies.

Labine does a very good job as Lewis, who clearly has a few problems, but is still a generally conservative and likable guy. The rest of the cast, made up of only vaguely (and I stress that severely) familiar faces. The fat black friend, if I’m right, was the fat black guy in that computer store commercial from a while back, where the type of sale was blatantly voiced over with a very different voice. Maybe. They all do a fine job, the boss being a caricature of the overly supportive boss who still seems insincere, and Geoff Gustafson does a good job as Lewis’ rival, Gustafson.

The movie is dark, obviously, given the subject matter, but still does a good job of feeling relatable. Lewis’ specific quirk may not be something people have commonly dealt with, the alienation and stress he feels and expresses resounds well with the viewer. One thing that kind of took away from the film, however, was the names of the characters. Every character is primarily referred to by their last name, all of which end with son. Henderson, Gustafson, Johnson, Mendleson, Anderson, Paulson, and on and on. This makes some of the characters hard to follow when they are being referred to, though these are usually secondary characters. There is also a confusing secondary plot about one of Lewis’ co-workers, who is gradually losing all feeling in his body as the New Year approaches. How this is dealt with in the end is confusing and could be seen as pointless and lazy. That’s how I saw it.

This movie has not officially been released yet, despite IMDB and Wikipedia saying it’s a 2008 movie and despite it having won the Inspiration Award at the Vancouver International Film Festival. It’s available on Netflix or, you know, piracy, and I say you should definitely check it out.

Theatre: Yeah, but you’ll likely never see it here.

Buy: I don’t think it’s interesting enough to own, so no.

Rent: Hop on Netflix and go at it.

Download: For sure.

To contact the author of this post: corey.hales@wildgunmen.com