STARS: JOSEPH FIENNES, WINONA RYDER, JULIETTE LEWIS, CHRIS PENN, ROBIN TUNNEY, JULIANNA MARGULIES, WILMER VALDERRAMA, LUKAS HAAS, D.B. SWEENEY, DAVID ARQUETTE, AND METALLICA.
DIRECTED BY: FINN TAYLOR
RELEASED: 2006
RUN TIME: 94min
The Darwin Awards takes its overall premise from the annual “Darwin Awards” novel series created by Wendy Northcutt. These awards are handed out for honorary excellence in stupid and often fatal acts of evolution.
(Joseph Fiennes) plays Michael Burrow’s, an exceptional profile detective by day, an obsessed Darwin Award enthusiast by night. As part of a PR campaign, Burrow’s is assigned a documentary cameraman to film his daily work for the San Francisco Police Department. Unfortunately he has a uncontrollable reaction to the sight of blood (hematophobia), and passes out while attempting to capture a serial murderer. Its all caught on tape and needless to say ruins his police career.
Using his genius profile skills Burrow’s lands a gig as a claims investigator for a top insurance firm. Its here that he teams up with the battle hardened investigator Siri Taylor (Winona Ryder). Their paring up takes a humorous poke at the Scully and Mulder dynamic, as they begin to investigate the “special” insurance claims soon to be classified as the “Darwin factors”. (With the cameraman still rolling) the duo take off across America investigating suspicious claims. There’s some very funny scenes as we witness some of the Darwinian acts first hand. (David Arquette nice job!) There’s a “Jackass” influence in the film that’s very funny as the accident flashbacks are hilarious.
While Burrow’s is successful in solving the Darwin cases, he’s still guilt ridden by the news he hears on the murderer he let escape. This gets even more complicated as the relationship with Siri, develops into more then he anticipated.
I have to admit this movie was well paced and funny, a great romantic comedy. The performances are awesome, and the story is solid!!! When your watching the film see if you recognize the voice of the cameraman, he does get exposed late in the film. The film has excellent casting, and the soundtrack was also very cool, Judas Priest and Billy Joel in the same film, not bad!!!
The dvd includes a making of featurette, brief cast and crew interviews and a cool photo gallery. Make sure to watch the end credits, there’s a cool scene at the very end.