Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Absolutely the worst movie.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Most of the main cast of the Jaws spoof "Trees" return for this sequel that adds Horshack to the mix. This time around the main villain are Christmas trees. This film, while having its moments comes nowhere near as good as the first film. It goes off on tangents fairly often and just isn't as funny. Whereas I found myself laughing or chuckling at a good 80% of the original, I managed to laugh less here, even though it was a bit of a longer movie. It's humorous but some of the sub-plots and even some characters could've been left on the cutting room floor without harming the film in the least bit. And those flashbacks could've been done away with to as long as I'm on the subject.

The Root of All Evil starts just outside the small American town of Hazelville where local resident Fang (Tom Erb) & his gang break into a National Forestry Service area & cut down various pine trees so he can sell them to the residents of Hazelville as Christmas tree's. Meanwhile Max Cooper (Phil Gardiner) has been trying to convince the authorities that the events of Trees (2000) actually happened, in yet another attempt he travels to Hazelville again to team up with another survivor from the original forest Ranger Cody (Kevin McCauley) who just wants to forget all about killer tree's. But when a local senator is killed on a ski slope Max insists a killer great white pine tree, or a 'Pinus Strobus', was responsible & he fears every house in Hazelville may have one in the run to Christmas...Co-written, produced & directed by Michael Pleckaitis I have a really hard time understanding how anyone can genuinely enjoy a low budget piece of crap such as The Root of All Evil, to be honest this isn't much more than a glorified home video. The jokey script by Pleckaitis & Jim Lawter seems to exist for no other reason than to parody Jaws (1975) by using killer tree's instead of a shark & it's sequels as well as a few other notable films, from the Ranger whose name is Cody which is an obvious reference to Roy Scheider's character in Jaws the police Chief Brody, there's the selfish Mayor who refuses to do anything for fear of bad publicity, there's the blurred photo's which Cody believes is solid proof but no one else agrees, they even refer to the killer tree's as great white pine's & there are other numerous homages littered through The Root of All Evil which I can't be bothered to go into. The character's are awful, the dialogue just as much & once the initial joke wears off which doesn't take too long I can assure you this is a pretty painful film to try & sit through & at over 100 minutes it outstays it's welcome. The only positive thing I can say about it is that there are a couple of occasions where the parody works & it's almost amusing but these are few & far between I'm afraid.Director Pleckaitis actually does a reasonable job & to be fair to it The Root of All Evil looks reasonably professional. However the CGI computer effects are absolutely awful, unless you have literally a multi million budget you just cannot produce convincing CGI effects & they almost always turn out terrible & The Root of All Evil is no exception. The killer tree's themselves look rubbish & then there's a huge monster thing at the end which looks & moves like it belongs in some cheap 90's video game. There is no gore whatsoever apart from some fake blood. It's certainly not scary, there's no tension & it's definitely not funny so why does a film like this actually exist?With a supposed budget of about $150,000 the filmmakers probably did the best they could on a small amount of money but my argument is that doesn't excuse it from being crap & not worth spending good money on to watch. The acting sucks & McCauley who plays Ranger Cody looks very much like Roy Scheider which I doubt is a coincidence.The Root of All Evil the sequel to Trees that nobody wanted is rubbish, I'm sorry the low budget doesn't excuse it from being painful to sit through, definitely one to avoid.

A bunch of genetically altered killer mutant trees created by the nefarious National Forrestry Service bump off several folks in the sleepy rural hamlet of Hazelville. Noble, but traumatized Ranger Mark Cody (affable Kevin McCauley) and eager botanist Max Cooper (the equally engaging Philip Gardiner) try to warn everyone to no avail. Come Christmas Eve the killer trees form into a large group and lay waste to the town. Capably directed by Michael Pleckaitis, with rather grainy, but pretty polished cinematography by Andrew Gernhard and Chuck Gramling, a nicely deadpan tone, cool and creepy CGI-animated tree monsters with gnarly glowing green eyes, several sidesplitting killer tree attack scenes, a nifty pseudo-serious shuddery'n'spooky score by Tom DeStefano, likable characters, a handy helping of graphic gore, and a witty and clever script by Pleckaitis and Jim Lawter, this cheerfully inane and ridiculous fright flick parody makes for an enjoyably campy hoot to watch. The game acting from a personable cast constitutes as another substantial asset, with especially solid work by Mary Ann Nilan as Cody's loyal, long-suffering wife Helen, Ron Palillo (Horshack on "Welcome Back, Kotter") as smarmy sniveling wimp rich jerk Dougie Styles, Trish Dunn as feisty blind girl Darla, Peter Randazzo as demented lumberjack Squint, and Brandi Lynn Coppock and Brian Reid as a couple of pesky NFS agents. The lengthy last third with a rampaging army of lethal and ferocious trees attacking the townspeople is absolutely gut-busting. Good, silly tongue-in-cheek fun.

This movie is a must see. Watch Trees then watch Root of all evil. You will be on the ground laughing. "Horshack" Ron Palillo did a great job as a wimpy rich man. The rangers wife did great snubbing the husband for the money man. She was awesome. The lumberjacks were hilarious running around trying to kill killer trees in the streets and at the gym. The big guy Fang was a tough customer, and his partner Petey was pretty funny too. He farted everywhere he went. Cheers to the hottie playing the agent. Vavavoom! The graphics were totally cool too. The last time I went camping I was very cautious about how the wind blew and which way the trees were migrating. Those sons of saplings ate my picnic.