Richard Reubens (Ross McCall) has his work cut out for him if he wants to stay off the menu in SERVING UP RICHARD
SERVING UP RICHARD (Henry Olek, 2011)
Cinema Village
22 East 12th St. between University Pl. & Fifth Ave.
Opens Friday, August 17
212-924-3363
www.cinemavillage.com
www.servinguprichard.com
In the mid-1980s, George Romero produced a syndicated horror anthology series called Tales from the Darkside, a creepy, often gory combination of Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone, Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories, and, primarily, HBO’s Tales from the Crypt. Actor and screenwriter Henry Oleck’s directorial debut, Serving Up Richard, is like a too long, more graphic Darkside episode, with actors you think you’ve seen before but are not quite sure where, caught up in bizarre situations that might just work until the usually pretty stupid ending ultimately leaves you disappointed. Ross McCall (White Collar) stars as Richard Reubens, a minor Wall Street player who is transferred to Los Angeles, moving to a sunny community with his lovely wife, Karen (Jericho’s Darby Stanchfield). Seeing an ad for an ultracool Mustang, Richard doesn’t listen to his wife and instead goes to check it out — and winds up locked in a cage by a crazy cannibal couple, anthropologist Everett Hutchins (24’s Jude Ciccolella) and his very strange, perpetually ailing wife, Glory (executive producer and former ballerina Susan Priver). While off on one of his many trips, Everett learned that eating healthy humans is good for sick people, so he regularly finds meals for his darling love, the pale-skinned, agoraphobic Glory. But when Glory takes a liking to Richard as a person, the Wall Street hunk thinks he might be able to negotiate his way out of this mess and avoid winding up on the menu. Originally titled The Guest Room, Serving Up Richard starts out as a surprisingly appealing appetizer, setting the table with some tasty tidbits. The main course keeps things looking up for a while, but as it goes on and on, it grows cold and silly, throwing in some very bad jokes and ridiculously over-the-top scenes. And the dessert — well, like the most mediocre Tales from the Darkside episode (was there any other kind?), the finale is a major letdown. However, McCall hangs tough through it all, doing a good job of holding the audience’s interest as the plot goes off the deep end. (Add half a star if you thought Tales from the Darkside was anything but mediocre.)