"The Darwin Awards" is a breezy dark comedy that attempts to capitalize on the cult popularity of the website of the same name, but falls short in that respect. Still, it's a fun & entertaining story, well worth the price of admission.
In the late 90s, coinciding with the internet explosion, urban legends (or rumors too juicy to be true) took the world by storm. Immediately, several TV & film studios jumped on the sensation, putting together productions like "Urban Legend" (1998), "Magnolia" (1999), "Myth Busters" (2003), "1000 Ways to Die" (2008), and "The Darwin Awards" (2006). All of the above focus on strange-but-largely-untrue stories of human stupidity, providing morbidly funny entertainment. The biggest problem is that "The Darwin Awards", while purporting to be based on the true stories found on the website, in actuality doesn't use any true stories but instead falls back on the standard urban legends we know so well. In other words, none of the stuff in this movie is true, despite what the title leads you to believe (visit the Darwin Awards website and click the "Urban Legend" link at the bottom).
OK, if you can get past that, I think you'll enjoy the movie. The plot is pretty original: an ex detective (Joseph Fiennes) and an insurance investigator (Winona Ryder) team up on a road trip that takes them cross country checking out some quirky claims, while each of them confronts their own personal quirks.
It does a pretty good job of tying together the urban legends in a linear story with some romance, laughs, mystery and a nice moral statement. Of all the titles I mentioned above, this is probably my favourite because it covers so much ground without getting too heady. In the end, it's great entertainment for an evening.
Other films like this I recommend (dark comedies) are "Grand Theft Parsons" (2003), "Remarkable Power" (2008) and "The Last Word" (2008).
In the late 90s, coinciding with the internet explosion, urban legends (or rumors too juicy to be true) took the world by storm. Immediately, several TV & film studios jumped on the sensation, putting together productions like "Urban Legend" (1998), "Magnolia" (1999), "Myth Busters" (2003), "1000 Ways to Die" (2008), and "The Darwin Awards" (2006). All of the above focus on strange-but-largely-untrue stories of human stupidity, providing morbidly funny entertainment. The biggest problem is that "The Darwin Awards", while purporting to be based on the true stories found on the website, in actuality doesn't use any true stories but instead falls back on the standard urban legends we know so well. In other words, none of the stuff in this movie is true, despite what the title leads you to believe (visit the Darwin Awards website and click the "Urban Legend" link at the bottom).
OK, if you can get past that, I think you'll enjoy the movie. The plot is pretty original: an ex detective (Joseph Fiennes) and an insurance investigator (Winona Ryder) team up on a road trip that takes them cross country checking out some quirky claims, while each of them confronts their own personal quirks.
It does a pretty good job of tying together the urban legends in a linear story with some romance, laughs, mystery and a nice moral statement. Of all the titles I mentioned above, this is probably my favourite because it covers so much ground without getting too heady. In the end, it's great entertainment for an evening.
Other films like this I recommend (dark comedies) are "Grand Theft Parsons" (2003), "Remarkable Power" (2008) and "The Last Word" (2008).