Idle Hands

Rodman Flender's film is so dumb it doesn't get its own double entendres. Teen slacker Anton (Devon Sawa) finds himself cursed with a homicidally inclined right hand -- not because of a penchant for self-abuse but through sheer sloth: he does nothing but eat, sleep, and smoke dope. After killing his parents (a cruelly used Fred Willard and Connie Ray), his best friends Mick and Pnub (Seth Green and Elden Henson, whose gross-out sangfroid is the closest thing to comedy in the film), and a couple of policemen, Anton decides to take drastic action when the demonic digits seek out Molly (Jessica Alba), the girl he secretly has a crush on. Pointless and inert, the film tosses in a zombie subplot for extra life and includes Vivica A. Fox as a crusading demon buster by way of suspense. Mostly, though, it busies itself with gratuitous tastelessness -- the couple next to me left during the scene where bean curd from a burrito oozed through a neck wound. Idle Hands may be the devil's playground, but empty minds are the venue for this time waster. At the Harbour Mall, Holiday, Showcase, Tri-Boro and Woonsocket cinemas.
-- Peter Keough