Trees
Pioneer Motion Pictures
2001

review by Terry Wickham

This is a nicely shot, well-conceived homage-spoof to Jaws. In the small town of Hazelville, a Great White Pine tree is on the loose, devouring anyone who goes into the woods. The movie practically follows Jaws scene by scene, substituting the ocean background with the forest. Instead of suspense and terror, Trees builds up laughs utilizing our familiarity of Steven Spielberg's 1975 blockbuster film.

The main characters are similar. Timid Park Ranger Cody (Kevin McCauley) substitutes for Sheriff Brody (Roy Scheider), experienced woodsman Squint (Peter Randazzo) takes over for Robert Shaw's Quint and Max Cooper (Phil Gardiner) is in for the educated but naïve Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss).

The film is the creation of three Southern Connecticut State University graduates, Michael Pleckaitis, Andrew Gernhard and Bill Minervino. These three guys practically handle every conceivable function of the film. Just watch the end credits to see what I mean. They actually got their start at ESPN in Bristol, Connecticut. Minervino still works at ESPN, while Gernhard and Pleckaitis have moved on to Mazzarella Communications, an educational video company in Bristol.

The film starts out with a pretty blonde, Nancy (Erin Reynolds) who wants to be alone with her boyfriend. They escape a party and Nancy takes off running into the woods. Her boyfriend can barely keep up, as he's had too many beers. This opening scene will get your attention as Pleckaitis does a good job capturing Reynolds' voluptuous figure. I was somewhat disappointed that the filmmakers couldn't think up something to substitute the buoy prop the actress hung onto in the opening of Jaws.

You will certainly get a chuckle as the filmmakers recreate the scene when the first body is found and the town hall scene, which introduces the lumberjack Squint. He makes a similar entrance to Robert Shaw's character, as he uses an ax against a chalkboard to get the attention of the town's people. He says that he will catch and kill this tree for one thousand bucks. Of course the mayor decides to be cheap and more bodies start to pile up.

The other scenes recreated from Jaws with flair are; the fishing dock, the autopsy, the Kintner boy with dog on crowded beach - getting attacked scene (which almost is edited together shot for shot) and the scene where Brody and Hooper try to persuade Mayor Vaughn to hire Quint in front of a graffiti drawn sign. The showdown between Hooper in a cage and the shark is likewise re-staged. It's hysterical and you've got to give these guys credit for spoofing such a classic film.

A downfall of the film is that the music could have used more subtly. At times the music works against the movie and was very distracting.

I think that you have to accept a certain level of acting in any comedy. For the most part Trees cast works. If Peter Randazzo had toned his performance down a couple notches, it would have been better. He needed to be more grounded, like Robert Shaw was to make that character more believable. I was also disappointed that director Pleckaitis didn't stage a camera set-up framing the three main characters leaving in the truck in between tree branches. That would have worked like the amazing dolly shot Spielberg filmed of the boat leaving for "the hunt" through the mouth of shark jaws.

The tagline that comes after the ending credits and from the info on the website, this looks to be the first installment of a trilogy. I'll be looking forward to see what they come up with next.

Official Website:
http://www.treesthemovie.com

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