Raetsonwe
Redundant and unnecessary.
Pluskylang
Great Film overall
MoPoshy
Absolutely brilliant
BA_Harrison
Flesh-eating, genetically mutated trees are running rampant in the ski resort of Hazelville; Ranger Cody (Kevin McCauley) and botanist Max Cooper (Phil Gardiner) try to alert the locals to the danger, but their progress is hampered by Bentley and Royce (Brandi Coppock and Brian Reid), two National Forestry Service agents who are part of a conspiracy to cover up the existence of the carnivorous Great White Pines.If you haven't already twigged from the above synopsis, The Root of all Evil, from writer/director Michael Pleckaitis, is a dumb, low-budget parody of Jaws, only with man eating trees instead of sharks—which sounds like it could be a lot of fun, but isn't.Although Pleckaitis does a commendable job with both the direction and editing, his scriptwriting skills are far less impressive: the characters are weak spoofs of those in Spielberg's classic movie (Cody rhymes with Brody, Cooper with Hooper, and there's even another character called Squint!), the dialogue is terrible, and the humour is dreadfully puerile. To make matters even worse, the cast are simply awful (the trees are less wooden than the actors), and the monster-tree special effects are embarrassing (achieved by z-grade CGI that would have looked bad in a mid-90s video game).If the approach taken had been much trashier, with outrageous OTT gore and nudity to help compensate for its crappier qualities, then this might have been a blast—a demented nutzoid effort destined for cult status. As it stands, however, it's an unmitigated disaster.
Paul Andrews
The Root of All Evil starts just outside the small American town of Hazelville where local resident Fang (Tom Erb) & his gang break into a National Forestry Service area & cut down various pine trees so he can sell them to the residents of Hazelville as Christmas tree's. Meanwhile Max Cooper (Phil Gardiner) has been trying to convince the authorities that the events of Trees (2000) actually happened, in yet another attempt he travels to Hazelville again to team up with another survivor from the original forest Ranger Cody (Kevin McCauley) who just wants to forget all about killer tree's. But when a local senator is killed on a ski slope Max insists a killer great white pine tree, or a 'Pinus Strobus', was responsible & he fears every house in Hazelville may have one in the run to Christmas...Co-written, produced & directed by Michael Pleckaitis I have a really hard time understanding how anyone can genuinely enjoy a low budget piece of crap such as The Root of All Evil, to be honest this isn't much more than a glorified home video. The jokey script by Pleckaitis & Jim Lawter seems to exist for no other reason than to parody Jaws (1975) by using killer tree's instead of a shark & it's sequels as well as a few other notable films, from the Ranger whose name is Cody which is an obvious reference to Roy Scheider's character in Jaws the police Chief Brody, there's the selfish Mayor who refuses to do anything for fear of bad publicity, there's the blurred photo's which Cody believes is solid proof but no one else agrees, they even refer to the killer tree's as great white pine's & there are other numerous homages littered through The Root of All Evil which I can't be bothered to go into. The character's are awful, the dialogue just as much & once the initial joke wears off which doesn't take too long I can assure you this is a pretty painful film to try & sit through & at over 100 minutes it outstays it's welcome. The only positive thing I can say about it is that there are a couple of occasions where the parody works & it's almost amusing but these are few & far between I'm afraid.Director Pleckaitis actually does a reasonable job & to be fair to it The Root of All Evil looks reasonably professional. However the CGI computer effects are absolutely awful, unless you have literally a multi million budget you just cannot produce convincing CGI effects & they almost always turn out terrible & The Root of All Evil is no exception. The killer tree's themselves look rubbish & then there's a huge monster thing at the end which looks & moves like it belongs in some cheap 90's video game. There is no gore whatsoever apart from some fake blood. It's certainly not scary, there's no tension & it's definitely not funny so why does a film like this actually exist?With a supposed budget of about $150,000 the filmmakers probably did the best they could on a small amount of money but my argument is that doesn't excuse it from being crap & not worth spending good money on to watch. The acting sucks & McCauley who plays Ranger Cody looks very much like Roy Scheider which I doubt is a coincidence.The Root of All Evil the sequel to Trees that nobody wanted is rubbish, I'm sorry the low budget doesn't excuse it from being painful to sit through, definitely one to avoid.
bravabrut
This movie is a must see. Watch Trees then watch Root of all evil. You will be on the ground laughing. "Horshack" Ron Palillo did a great job as a wimpy rich man. The rangers wife did great snubbing the husband for the money man. She was awesome. The lumberjacks were hilarious running around trying to kill killer trees in the streets and at the gym. The big guy Fang was a tough customer, and his partner Petey was pretty funny too. He farted everywhere he went. Cheers to the hottie playing the agent. Vavavoom! The graphics were totally cool too. The last time I went camping I was very cautious about how the wind blew and which way the trees were migrating. Those sons of saplings ate my picnic.
Roanka
This sequel to "Trees" is far better than the original. The addition of some movie professionals has helped improve the product. The plot of this movie picks up where Trees left off. Ranger Cody now has a fear of trees. When killer Christmas trees invade the town of Hazelville no one believes the ranger. Mayhem and chaos ensue. I live in the town where this was filmed, and the sight of killer Christmas trees running down Main Street is absolutely hilarious! The second film in a "treelogy," this is a great movie to watch on a cold, rainy night.
