Tooth and Nail originally made its theatrical debut in After Dark Film's horrorfest back in 2007 and I've been curious about it ever since. Despite the negative reviews it received, I've been meaning to watch it, as I'm partial to post-apocalyptic and cannibalism films. As expected from the films of the horrorfest -- it wasn't very good and should've stuck with its intended DVD premiere.

The movie is set in a post-apocalyptic future, where the world has apparently run out of gasoline and that somehow results in worldwide panic and the eventual end of civilization (*sigh*). We follow a group of survivors housed in an abandoned hospital that welcome a new member named "Neon" after saving her life from a man armed with a hand scythe. This results in a large pack of cannibals known as "Rovers" to discover their hideout and one-at-a-time hunt down each of the survivors.

Here's a flick that attempted to deliver a couple creative, but failed ideas to the genre. For instance the fact that the world ends in an uncommon manner proved to be somewhat interesting, but also stupid. Sure we'd run into a bit of trouble if we ran out of fuel, but the end of modern day civilization? I don't think so, at least not in the capacity presented in the movie. However, the biggest problem I had with the flick would have to be its set of leads, who all seem to be as dumb as the cannibals themselves, which I guess evens out in the end.

I really liked (sarcasm) the part where the survivors find out that a violent group of large cannibalistic men are coming to get them at night, so they spend the rest of the day sitting around discussing their feelings until it's time to hide from the big bad guys. These have to be the most pointless characters I've seen in years; they don't even bother to barricade themselves or prepare for the oncoming battle, they just decide to spread out and play hide and seek (*sigh again*).

Standard baddies Michael Madsen and Vinnie Jones naturally play members of the group of cannibals, but they have very little screen time. Madsen's appearance is especially short, while Vinnie pops up a few times and does nothing but walk around the hospital all slow and menacing-like with his trusty hand scythe. Towards the end of the flick we're thrown a predictable twist and the remaining survivors FINALLY decide to fight back against the cannibals, but it came a little too late, in my opinion.

Another problem with the flick is that it tries too hard to be a drama, when it shouldn't be trying at all. The script just isn't strong enough to pull any dramatic elements and neither are the actor's performances. The attempted mix of drama and horror just didn't fit well with this pic. Despite all the negative, it maintained my interest and had a decent cast of familiar faces, like Rider Strong (Cabin Fever) and Robert Carradine (Revenge of the Nerds).

An interesting, but faulty post-apocalyptic effort that offers a couple creative ideas, but horrible executions. The leads are mostly unlikable and stupid, while the cannibals are all boring and two-dimensional, leaving very little to desire. Not recommended.