Lily McKinnon is an awkward fast food waitress, excluded because she doesn’t fit in. Wrong dress, wrong walk, wrong talk, wrong everything. Yet beneath all the wrong is a little bit of wonderful. Jarrod is more interested in Lily’s pretty workmate. He doesn’t give a toss about the weird girl with the weird mole. He’s a video game champion, determined to win respect but pushing all the wrong buttons. The only person who sees beyond the bravado is Lily. So when, after only a brief liaison, Jarrod returns to his hometown on a mission of revenge, love-struck Lily follows him. Jarrod needs someone to have a bit of faith in him. Lily needs someone to love. It’s not the perfect match, but maybe it’s a match worth fighting for...

Eagle Vs Shark is a not-very-romantic, romantic black comedy - if you can get your head around that - that sees two very misunderstood individuals strangely drawn together.

Loren Horsley (Xena: Warrior Princess) and Jermaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords) star as Lily and Jarrod, outsiders who have never really fitted into society. While Lily is a sweet, caring individual, Jarrod is a selfish loner who has never really grown up and is haunted by the ghosts of his past.

When Lily, who has fancied Jarrod from afar, finally gets the chance to met the man of her desires, she has a hard time getting him to notice her. In fact, the only reason Jarrod really takes an interest in her is because Lily turns out to be a mean Fight Man console game player. Once they are going steady, after a night (well, 20 seconds) of passion, Lily agrees to accompany her new man back to his hometown where he has a serious task to complete - one he's been training for since he left school.

When they arrive at Jarrod's home town, Lily soon discovers that Jarrod has told her some pretty big lies about his family. His mother isn't dead, she's a lesbian whose run off with another woman, and his brother didn't die heroically saving a family from a burning building. With a relationship built on so many lies how will Lily and Jarrod make things work, especially when Jarrod seems more interested in dating his dead brother's girlfriend.

Writer/director Taika Waititi (who also makes a cameo, none speaking, appearance as Jarrod's brother) sets this movie in the present, but it's a present day that has an '80s feel to it. The movie's characters are all grotesquely over-exaggerated, almost child-like individuals, who are stuck in a world just this side of believable.

There's also some impressive stop-frame animation weaved in and out of the main feature, which tells the story of Jarrod's and Lily's apples, and how they are very much in love.

What's great about the conclusion of this movie is that there's no Ugly Duckling transformation - Lily and Jarrod don't get over their awkwardness or any of their other problems. Instead, Waititi's message is clear: We're all screw-ups, and no matter what we do we'll still be screw-ups tomorrow. It's realising that we are losers, and being comfortable with that fact, that sets us free.

Extras include an audio commentary with director Taika Waititi and lead actors Loren Horsley and Jermaine Clement; The Mouse Wheel (1 min behind the scenes footage of filming on the mouse wheel); Theatrical Trailer (2 min); Flight of the Conchords Trailer (2 min); Cast and Crew Interviews (30 min interviews with Waititi, Ainsley Gardiner (producer), Horsley and Clement); Interview with Director Taika Waititi (21 min); and Deleted Scenes (18 min - highlights include animated opening credits, extended dinner scene and more scenes with Jerrod and his brother's girlfriend).

Highlights on the audio commentary include Clements asking if it's a sci-fi movie set in the future - as the Wolverine movie has been released; that Waititi and Horsley (who came up with the story together) are partners in real life; Waititi, who is a good artist, drew all of the childish drawings that appear throughout the film; Horsley's mother thinks that Horsley should play Princess Diana in a movie - which is not as odd as it sounds. She does look incredibly like her in the scene where Horsley points this fact out; and the fact that all three spend the entire commentary moaning about how rubbish the commentary is.

In a market saturated with romantic comedies it's refreshing to see that there are still directors who aren't afraid to experiment with something a little different.

8

Darren Rea