CineVegas 2008

Hank and Mike

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Courtesy of CineVegas

Hank and Mike started life as a comedy sketch, became a short film and is now a feature, and you can almost see the seams where the concept was stretched beyond its breaking point in this latest incarnation. The idea of two foul-mouthed Easter bunnies sitting around and talking trash is amusing for maybe five or 10 minutes, but this film proves just how not amusing it is when stretched to 90 minutes and charged with propping up an actual plot.

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Hank and Mike official Web site
Hank and Mike on IMDb
Hank and Mike
**
Thomas Michael, Paolo Mancini, Chris Klein
Directed by Matthiew Klinck
Plays again June 18 at 9 p.m.

This is essentially the profane, indie version of Fred Claus, with the titular bunnies (played by Thomas Michael and Paolo Mancini, who also wrote the screenplay) fired from their jobs at Easter Enterprises thanks to corporate downsizing proposed by a ruthless efficiency expert (Chris Klein, probably wondering what happened to his career). Frustrated and desperate, they must find a way to get their jobs back while simultaneously saving Easter (of course).

The bizarre logic problems presented by a world in which guys clearly wearing bunny suits are meant to be actual bunnies but also live otherwise normal human lives (including having sex with regular women) are easily glossed over in a sketch, but as the movie goes on it just makes less and less sense. That wouldn’t matter so much if it were funnier, but the jokes mostly miss, and are ineffectively balanced by incongruous serious moments dealing with the duo’s friendship and Mike’s romance with a co-worker. Anything beyond a few minutes short with these guys turns out to be nearly excruciating.

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