Catch of the Day

Director - James Balsamo (Cool as Hell)
Starring - James Balsamo, Jeff Kim (The Unwanted), and Frank Mullen (I Spill Your Guts)
Release Date - 2014
Genre - Comedy/Horror/Crime
Tagline - "Sometimes the hero is a fluke"
Format - DVD (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     In January of 2013 I was lucky enough to be drafted by Horror Society to write reviews and posts.  I talk about this a lot because my life now-a-days revolves around this amazing opportunity that was offered to me.  Soon after that I was playing around on Facebook and came across an indie horror comedy called Cool as Hell that was directed by James Balsamo.  I reached out to the page and James was nice enough to send me a screener.  Up until that point he was the second director to do that to me which really meant a lot to me as an indie fan and a reviewer.  Since then Balsamo has hooked me up with several other films of his to review.  With each film of his I see I can see a tremendous improvement in each one.  Several months back Balsamo was nice enough to hook me up with some news of his newest horror comedy, Catch of the Day.  The film looked fun as hell and I could not pass up the opportunity to review it.  Luckily, Balsamo was kind enough to send me a review copy of the film and for that I thank you so much!

     The film follows Officer Rod Davis (Balsamo) who just happens to be the biggest asshole on the force.  Davis joined the force to follow in his father's footsteps.  His father was a detective who was murdered by a drug kingpin along with his wife, Rod's mother.  Davis, along with his partner Hairy Chu (Kim), botched a drug bust and was removed from the case only to accidentally stumble back onto it.  Rod's sister, Chu's fiancee, is kidnapped by the evil Professor Jackal who is supplying the man who killed Rod's parents, the man with the gold hand (Mullen), forcing Davis and Chu to step up and not fuck up.  To make things even more complicated, Jackal has scientifically engineered sea monsters to kill the man with the gold hand any anyone else that gets in his way.
     Horror can come in so many different flavors and director James Balsamo knows that.  Balsamo's approach to horror is simple.  Instead of giving us a straight forward horror flick filled with blood, gore, and boobs we get a film filled with filthy language, blood, humor, and boobs.  His films are more stoner comedy than they are horror flicks and I am completely ok with that.  That gives his flicks a look all their own in an age where the extreme horror flick is taking over.  With all that being said, his films are not for everyone.  If you are a fan of Return of the Living Dead, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, Stoned Age, and Cheech and Chong then Balsamo's style of films are right up your alley.  The acting in this one is on the same level as Balsamo's other flicks.  The cast shows a lot of ambition and heart but really lack the experience needed to give off a convincing performance.  However, if the acting would have been top notch then the whimsical charm of the film would have failed.  The story for this one is a great mash-up of films made famous in two separate decades.  The film's basic premise is a buddy cop comedy that had its beginning in the late 70s and came full blossom in the 80s.  This buddy cop comedy then hits the mad scientist story line of the 50s and 60s head on to make one very fun and unique experience.  Finally, the film does have a lot of deaths and a lot of blood but the special effects are nothing amazing making the deaths almost laughable.  However, the creatures looked fucking phenomenal making me wish there was more creature features out there.  Overall, Catch of the Day is a funny creature feature that should be viewed with a few cold ones (or a bowl).  The film has blood, boobs, and laughs making it worthy of a viewing.  Check it out!