Let’s be honest, here. Like most religious holidays that have been given some ridiculous marketing pizazz, Easter is a little odd. Every year, a man-sized bunny in a waistcoat breaks into the homes of the believers in order to hide eggs and candy for the children of the household to find, hopefully before the eggs get rotten or the chocolate melts. It’s like the powers that be decided that Santa Claus just wasn’t ridiculous enough, got drunk, and started this Easter tradition with the slurred words, “Hey, you know what would be f#%king awesome? Listen to this s#!t, bro…”
What’s even more odd is that a movie like Hank and Mike hasn’t come around earlier to lampoon this crazy holiday.
Hank and Mike is a Canadian comedy film directed by Matthiew Klinck that tells the story of two professional Easter bunnies after they are downsized by their Easter Enterprises corporation headed by Pan (not Jesus.) There’s Hank (played by Thomas Michael) the foul-mouthed, boozing, smoking Easter bunny with anger issues, and Mike (played by Paolo Mancini), the emotional fat-ass Easter bunny that really wants to get the human-girl. Add in Chris Klein as the suave marketing consultant that made money branding people’s suicides and is now trying to make Easter more efficient and Joe Mantegna as Pan, the lord of the pagan Easter, and you have the holiday comedy for people who don’t like the usual heart-tugging holiday movies. Easter doesn’t really have too many of those to begin with, but you know the type of movie: kid-friendly, virtue-instilling family movies. Hank and Mike is the evil twin of those types of movies.
One of the oddest things about Hank and Mike is what the hell they actually are. They’re not men in Easter bunny suits. They’re Easter bunnies, which seems to mean they were born with cotton and polyester fur grafted onto them. It’s a very surreal theme. A movie with a similar theme was Bobcat Goldthwait’s Shakes the Clown, but even those clowns seemed to jettison their clown persona for at least a few minutes during the day.
What must be noted, however, is that these aren’t magic Easter bunnies. They don’t magically appear in homes with a bottomless basket of candy (well, maybe the baskets are magic. We’re not sure.) They break into people’s homes in the middle of the night with lock-picks, headlamps, and ropes. They drink, smoke, and watch porn. They get depressed and eat ice cream. They live in a crappy apartment building with crack-heads trying to sell them waffle-makers. You know, regular old Easter bunnies.
The only problem (for other critics, not me) with Hank and Mike is that some may see the movie as a comedy sketch that goes on too long. Well, there’s a reason for that. Hank and Mike were once characters on the Canadian sketch comedy show, “Y B Normal?” This movie is like their very own Wayne’s World, just not quite as successful.
I give Hank and Mike 4 out of 5 creepy-ass Easter bunnies which, considering this movie, is meant to be a good thing.
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I agree