Customer Reviews

April Fool's Day

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4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This movie was pretty terrible. The acting was horrible - the murders were horrible and the special effects were non existant. The original April Fool's Day was fun... it had everything a horror movie should have -and it even had himbos - dumb cute guys running around 1/2 dressed -- not just the bimbos in high heals. You could see the twist ending of this movie coming 5 minutes into the movie. I can see why this movie went straight to video -- get a group of friends together with a hand cam and you can make a better movie than this.

I was uncertain about this because of bad reviews. But I got the courage and rented it. It was good actually. Not one of the greatest movies, predictable. But Clever ending. Very surprising ending. Ok Acting. Some language. Hot actors. Some gore. Entertaining thriller.

In honor of today actually being April Fool's Day, I thought I'd write this review. I saw this movie last year after I watched the original. This is very different and not like the original, until the very end. Desiree Cartier is very rich. She is having a party for Torrance Caldwell, who is played by the sexy beautiful Scout Taylor-Compton. Desiree plays a prank, but it all goes wrong and someone dies. A year later, the people responsible for the prank become the targets of a killer, but it's all in good fun because it's APRIL FOOL'S DAY!!!

On the one year anniversary of the death of one of their friends, Milan Hastings (Sabrina Aldridge), Desiree Cartier (Taylor Cole) and her friends receive a letter telling them that if one of them doesn't confess to murdering Milan then all of them will be murdered, one by one.

Firstly, let me just say that this film is NOT a remake of the 1986 horror movie of the same title. These films are similar only in title, genre and the fact that neither film is particularly good. "April Fool's Day" (2008) reminded me a lot of those R.L. Stine teenage horror novels that were popular back in the early `90's, and is about as scary. A bunch of rich twenty-somethings, whom I didn't really care about are, are led like lambs to the slaughter from one stock horror film scenario to the next. The best things that I can say about it are (i) the ending's actually not too bad and (ii) at least the story was coherent, which is better than you can say about a lot of movies. This isn't too bad a viewing choice if you want to switch off your brain for 90 minutes, but otherwise, you should probably watch something else.

i didnt care about the reviews this movie got cuz im usually the one who like the movies that everyone els hates. I liked this movie. it had a really good premis and the acting wasn't bad. i did figure out the ending after half the movie but i had no clue about what happened after the "end." not very scary. some suspense but no real jump scenes. i would call this horror. its really more of a crime/mystery/thriller. overall good movie. you should give it a watch. BYE!

April Fool's Day easily has to rate as one of the worst if not the absolute worst remake that has ever come to be. While I'm not one to use the worst movie ever, this one rates as one of the worst movies I have ever seen. I was amazed at how terrible this movie was; I wasn't expecting a masterpiece, but I got a film even Uwe Boll would be ashamed of.

The original April Fool's Day was a decent flick, while I wouldn't say it was great it was fairly good and came out at a time when the slasher flick was just a massive cliché and it offered something new. My hatred for the remake has nothing to do with the original since I'm not a huge fan of it. The original was fun, but not great. The remake was just beyond horrible and actually wasn't even really a remake. It has very little in common with the original. If anything this is more of a remake of I Know What You Did Last Summer.

The credits list Mikey Wigart as the writer, which is based off an earlier screenplay by Mitchell Altieri & Phil Flores who go under the name the Butcher Brothers. My guess is Wigart did a rewrite and I cannot see the screenplay by the Butcher Brothers being any worse. April Fool's Day has a terrible script words cannot describe how truly terrible it was. I'm amazed that this screenplay actually got the green light; it was just pathetic I don't think I can describe how awful the screenplay was.

Directors Mitchell Altieri & Phil Flores live up to their name the Butcher Brothers for sure. There is not a single moment of suspense and if some of the scenes were meant to be funny they failed at that as well. April Fool's Day was done on about a 16-million dollar budget, but the production values are terrible! This movie looks so cheap it has sort of a TV movie look, but even worse. I've seen movies produced way under a million dollars that look so much better than this.

The Butcher Brothers got a little attention for The Hamiltons from the 8 Films to Die For, which I haven't seen, but after seeing this I have no desire to nor do I have a desire to see anything they make again. My best guess is after this these guys are stuck in direct to video hell. They had a nice size budget and deliver such a poorly made movie that looked so low budget. Imagine if Uwe Boll cloned himself and the two teamed up that is how this movie is. Actually, as I said before even Uwe Boll would be ashamed of a movie like this.

The so-called suspense scenes look idiotic with the worst death scenes I have ever seen put on film. I assume they were meant to have some comedy in them, but they weren't funny, just pathetic. The pacing is horrible besides just being a flat out terrible movie it's painfully boring. There isn't even an ounce of suspense to be found at all, the stalk scenes are just idiotic. One has to wonder if the Butcher Brothers did this on purpose; if not than they are just terrible filmmakers.

April Fool's Day also has one of the worst scores I have ever heard in my life. Composer James Stemple should never be allowed to score another movie. The score was pathetic and not just that, but didn't fit with the movie. There was no suspense and even if their were any it would have been destroyed by the music. I have no idea what James Stemple thought he was scoring, but it wasn't a horror movie

Taylor Cole, Josh Henderson and Scout Taylor-Compton are the only actors in the movie who don't phone their lines in. The three of them manage to give pretty good performances despite having the worst dialogue in recent memory and having terrible directors. Any flaws in their acting cannot be blamed on them since I don't think any actor could sell the lines they had. Despite how terrible everything was the three give pretty good performances. The same cannot be said about the rest of the cast who give mostly weak performances with Samuel Child just being downright annoying. But again with what they had to work with I suppose it's not fair to place all the blame on them.

Originally April Fool's Day was meant to get a theatrical release, but it was than dumped direct to video. Instead every copy of this movie should have been destroyed. This is a travesty of filmmaking. There is no excuse for a movie being this bad that had a nice sized budget and decent cast. We may be early in 2008, but it's gonna take a lot to be worse than this. April Fool's Day was just a travesty and it's just a bad, bad movie. It's not even the so bad it's good. My advice is just skip this movie, if you must spend the money give it to charity at least it goes to a good cause.

The only joke is on the people who watched it. Skip at all costs.

April Fools' Day (The Butcher Brothers, 2008)

The second straight-to-video-supposed-"remake" I've seen this year that looks absolutely nothing like the movie that spawned it, but where the Day of the Dead flick was actually a great deal of fun, April Fool's Day was a tiresome examination of how different the rich are-- kind of like Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, but without such niceties that film sported as talent and wit.

The Butcher Brothers' (The Hamiltons) third feature together opens on April Fools' Day 2007, at a coming out party for Torrance Caldwell (the beautiful and suddenly-ubiquitous Scout Taylor-Compton), hosted by the First Family of Atlanta money, the Cartiers. Desiree (Summerland's Taylor Cole) and her brother Blaine (Josh Henderson, recently seen on Desperate Housewives) have actually staged the coming out party as the basis of an elaborate prank on their former friend Milan Hastings (Whittaker Bay's Sabrina Aldridge), who has turned her back on the life of the idle rich and thrown herself into charitable causes). The prank goes horribly wrong, and Hastings ends up dead. Fast forward to a year later, and most of the circle of friends involved in the prank have all been summoned to Hastings' grave by mysteriously-delivered invitations. When they arrive, a package is delivered containing a laptop showing footage of the death of one of those absent. Assuming it was he who played the trick, they head over to his house and instead find him quite dead. From there, the flick develops into a bland, uninspiring slasher film. Aside, of course, from the big twist, which will come as absolutely no surprise to anyone who saw the original--it's the only thing the two movies have in common. (It will also come as no surprise to anyone who, you know, read the title of the movie before seeing it.)

I've seen far too many movies this year that have made me want that portion of my life back, and the ninety-one minutes I spent watching this movie can now be added to the tally. The script was loosely adapted from Danilo Bach's original screenplay by the Butcher Brothers themselves and first-time writer Mikey Wigart, and it's hard to know who to pin the blame on here (save Bach, whose original screenplay had all the humor, suspense, and fun that this one lacks). It seems to want to skewer the culture of the filthy rich, but I get the feeling that the Butcher Brothers, nee Mitchell Altieri and Phil Flores, come from this type of background themselves; the characters are far too content to wallow in their shallowness for this to be an effective parody.

Well worth avoiding. I'd have bumped it up half a star for Taylor-Compton, but her overacting in the climactic scene is just painful to watch. (She's good for the rest of the movie, though.) *

I think this is a hard title to capture, but I think it is not a reach to classify April Fools Day as the worst horror movie of all time. I read somewhere that this movie cost over 10 million to make and if that is true somebody is running around with 9 mil in their pockets.

This movie is a joke, it's not scary, the directing is probably the worst I have seen in a long time and I'm sure there was even a script by the number of writers listed in the credits.

If you want good independant horror check out "Them" or if you like Josh Henderson a movie like "Fingerprints" is much better then the movie I just had to watch. April Fools Day redefines torture porn.

April Fool's Day was a remake of the 1980's film off the time. It features a cast of good looking people that looks like they stepped off a soap opera or MTV. That's one thing I miss about the 80's horror films, the teens in those films looked like real people rather then Hollywood actors. Anyway, a group of friends pull a prank and someone dies. A year later they start to get messages from her. The first death was painfully stupid that it might go down as the worst death scene ever filmed that didnt involve CGI. It's cliche and not worth the time, even though the story was pretty good. The death scenes are some of the worst i've ever seen, right along side Prom Night. Overall, I do not recommend this to serious horror fans. If your some teenage girl who watches MTV alot and looking for a good scare, then this is up your alley.

I was a teenager when the original "April Fool's Day" hit the theaters. The critics and fans alike hated it. Twenty-five years later it's hailed as a slasher classic from the notorious slasher frenzy era. Executive Producer Frank Mancuso, Jr., who brought us the original, has released a remake. Despite the bad press from critics and fans, I was surprised to find it rather enjoyable. "April Fool's Day" is similar enough to be called a remake but different enough to delight those who saw the original.

I love a good murder mystery. (I've reviewed innumerable Italian gialli from the sixties and seventies.) "April Fool's Day" is definitely a murder mystery. On April 1, 2007, wealthy, gorgeous, spoiled Desiree Cartier (Taylor Cole of "Numb3rs") invites her friends to her mansion to celebrate her friend Torrance's coming out. In actuality, she is planning a vindictive prank against kind hearted Milan. Unfortunately, the prank ends in Milan's death. Exactly one year later, on April Fool's Day, Desiree begins seeing fleeting images of Milan, and one by one her friends are murdered. Has Milan returned from the dead to exact vengeance or has one of her friends decided to seek justice against the spoiled rich kids who murdered her?

Plot twists abound as each of Desiree's friends fall under suspicion of murder but are quickly eliminated by their deaths. There is some comic relief provided mostly from the pathetic Peter who is running for Congress and has a goofy smile forever plastered to his face. His wife Barbie is a beauty queen living the ludicrous life of a doll. The gossip columnist Charles, who is the homosexual version of Rona Barrett, is extremely annoying. You want to clap when he dies. Ryan, the poor friend, is a lonely, voyeuristic photographer; however, he is the only character with substance. The cast is gorgeous and perhaps this only adds to the viewer's hatred of the characters they portray.

The double twist ending caught me by surprise. It was truly horrifying and chilling if you think about it. It made the film worth watching. You must add "April Fool's Day" to your collection of slasher flicks. Twenty-five years from now it will probably be hailed as a great classic like its original.

As far as the DVD package, Sony could have done much better. "April Fool's Day" is in widescreen with closed captions. However, there is no "making of" featurette or any other extra features - not even a trailer.