Hank and Mike: Thanks, Easter Bunny!

Back in the dark days of video rental, a person had little choice other than to travel to the video store and rub elbows with the public in order to rent a movie for the weekend. In an effort to avoid having to spend any more time than necessary at the nearby rental chain, I always kept a list of movies that I wanted to see close at hand which generally allowed us to get in and out of the store as quickly as possible rather than have to spend time browsing among the collective of ever-present mouth breathers and videogame vampires that didn’t seem to have homes to go back to. Unfortunately, there were a handful of times when I was overly excited about the trip to the smoothie joint adjacent to the video store and I’d leave my list behind, thereby condemning myself to the pathos of the browsing process and becoming that which I hate; a slump-shouldered box turner with bad posture and no apparent purpose. 

It was during one of these unfortunate times that Mary and I began an unscientific study on selecting movies according to their packaging. After renting Kevin Costner's Open Range, the disappointing 2003 western starring Robert Duvall, Costner and Annette Bening, we hypothesized that movies with three faces on the box cover were inherently no damn good. Over several more weeks, we tested our theory and found that it held water and have since tried to maintain a good distance between us and any movie that commits this artistic equivalent of a bad omen. Since subscribing to Netflix a year or so ago, I’ve discovered that finding a movie is every bit as difficult as it was in the dark days of the video store. Sure, I don’t need to browse in the company of dirt bags anymore, but when choosing among the films in the Watch Instantly queue, not much has changed. Though I still keep a list, the movies on it are rarely available and we’re often reduced to picking something on the merits of a brief synopsis and the cover art.

A few months ago, while digging about for an independent comedy picture, we happened across the image of two grown men in bunny suits. We read the synopsis and a couple of reviews and thought we’d give the movie a go. We couldn’t have been more pleased with our choice.

Directed by Matthew Clinck and based on a 2000 short film, written by Thomas Michael and Paulo Mancini who portray the main characters, Hank and Mike is an engaging story about two Easter Bunnies who fall victim to holiday labor downsizing and suddenly find themselves struggling to afford food or pay the rent at their shared apartment. Hank (Michael) is a dispassionate, foul-mouthed holiday figurehead and a drinker who’s suffering from egg-hiding burn-out. He has long since shrugged off any remnant of holiday spirit and rarely has a moment onscreen where he doesn’t have a cigarette absently dangling out of the corner of his mouth. In contrast, Mike (Mancini) is a more composed, happy-go-lucky bunny and tries to maintain a positive attitude despite the dire circumstances, Hank’s cynicism about virtually everything and his own simmering insecurities. The combination of The Odd Couple-style relationship and the framework of a basic buddy flick works really well here, and the costumes themselves become the film’s longest running joke as Hank and Mike endure a number of misadventures and ill-suited job opportunities while their outfits become filthy and worn in parallel with their deteriorating fortunes. The movie has a great script and the sets and execution are top-notch despite a slim budget. (The casting of Joe Mantegna as Mr. Pan was probably the film’s greatest production expense.) But the film’s strongest selling point remains simply watching the drama unfold between two increasingly desperate characters dressed in giant bunny suits. I just couldn’t stop laughing. Easily one of the top five movies we rented last year.

Regardless of how you get your movies into your livingroom, I would still recommend the avoidance of box covers with the three faces on them. Conversely, movies with grown men dressed in bunny suits on their covers come highly recommended and have so far recorded a 100% satisfaction rating. 

Happy hunting.