Sundance Review: John Dies at the End

Score:F

Director:Don Coscarelli

Cast:Chase Williamson, Rob Mayes, Paul Giamatti, Clancy Brown

Running Time:108.00

Rated:NR

Where do I begin?  I guess I'll start with the story.

A new drug has hit the streets.  Referred to as "soy sauce", the pill promises an out-of-body experience as its users travel across time and dimension.  Those who come back aren't always in the same state.  It appears that an alien invasion is silently gaining force, and the world doesn't even appear to notice.  Enter John and David, a pair of college dropouts who now hold the future of mankind in the palm of their hands.  Could we ever be more screwed?

Actually, the answer to that last question is yes.  If I were forced to watch Don Coscarelli's John Dies at the End again I'd strongly consider any and all other viable option to escape.  It isn't that I didn't understand the film or connect to its characters; it just wasn't a good movie"”period.

Chase Williamson and Rob Meyes play our leading duo, and while neither do a bad job with their respective roles, they weren't given too much to work with.  The story started out as a popular web series that quickly became an internet phenomenon.  It should have stayed online.

Paul Giamatti does make an appearance in the film, and is honestly the only reason I wanted to see it"”his screen time rivals that of Gwyneth Paltrow in Contagion. Throw in the fact that John doesn't even die in the end and I felt entirely misguided from the onset.

So the joke is obviously on me.  And it will be on you if you dare venture out to see this one.  Maybe it will grow on me, but for right now, I can't think of any film I'd stay clear of more, and that is really saying something.

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About Stephen Davis

Stephen Davis
I owe this hobby/career to the one and only Stephanie Peterman who, while interning at Fox, told me that I had too many opinions and irrelevant information to keep it all bottled up inside. I survived my first rated R film, Alive, at the ripe age of 8, it took me months to grasp the fact that Julia Roberts actually died at the end of Steel Magnolias, and I might be the only person alive who actually enjoyed Sorority Row…for its comedic value of course. While my friends can drink you under the table, I can outwatch you when it comes iconic, yet horrid 80s films like Adventures in Babysitting and Troop Beverly Hills. I have no shame when it comes to what I like, and if you have a problem with that, then we’ll settle it on the racquetball court. I see too many movies to actually win any film trivia contest, so don’t waste your first pick on me. My friends rent movies from my bookcase shelves, and one day I do plan to start charging. I long to live in LA, where my movie obsession will actually help me fit in, but for now I am content with my home in Austin. I prefer indies to blockbusters, Longhorns to Sooners and Halloween to Friday the 13th. I miss the classics, as well as John Ritter, and I hope to one day sit down and interview the amazing Kate Winslet.

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