Number Rolled: Not Applicable
Movie Name/Year: John Dies at the End (2012)
Tagline: Just so you know...they're sorry
for anything that's about to happen.
Genre: Horror
Length: 99 minutes
Rating: R
Production Companies: M3 Alliance, M3 Creative, Midnight Alliance, Touchy Feely
Films
Producers: Daniel Carey, Dac Coscarelli, Paul Giamatti, Brad Baruh,
Aaron Godfred, Joshua Lewin, Andy Meyers, Roman Perez
Director: Don Coscarelli
Writers: Don Coscarelli, David Wong
Actors: Chase Williamson, Rob Mayes, Paul Giamatti, Clancy Brown,
Glynn Turman, Doug Jones, Fabianne Therese, Jonny Weston, Jimmy Wong, Tai
Bennett, Bark Lee
Blurb from Netflix: Promising a trip that transcends
time and space, a drug called Soy Sauce is sweeping the landscape -- and
quietly robbing users of their humanity.
Cat’s
Point of View:
Selina’s
off on a family vacation this weekend. While the blogger’s away the Cat will
play? No, not really. We did randomly fish up an old title that she had already
reviewed before we began our collaboration. This has generally been our modus
operandi when The Random Review’s fearless leader requires a sabbatical.
This movie
was tweaky – as in it almost has you feeling like you’re the one tripping on
something as you watch. I’d been hankering for a bit of a suspenseful movie
with a touch of horror gore and the like. This film certainly fit that wish
list, and then some (at least on the part of the gore). The whole movie was a
bit of a suspense-fest because from the outset I wanted to know whether or not
John really does die at the end or not.
I’m
reminded of a song, when I think of this movie. Beck’s “Loser” is a jumbled
mishmash of utter nonsense, yet somehow comes together to make something rather
awesome. A particular verse comes to mind: “...Don't believe everything that
you breathe, you get a parking violation and a maggot on your sleeve...” but
before we get to shaving faces with mace in the dark, let’s carry on with the
movie – which was not, in fact, a loser.
Time-bending
and mind-bending shenanigans tend to have the potential of having an audience
either love a movie or hate it. There generally isn’t a lot of in-between. I,
for one, loved this movie. If I had to compare it to something; I’d say it was
somewhat like if you took Dude, Where’s My Car? (2000), gave it a horror movie
spin, and stuck it in a blender with Supernatural (2005-).
Rob Mayes
(The American Mall, Ice Castles, Burning Blue) and Chase Williamson (The Guest,
Video Game High School, Siren) were excellent castings for the timeless comedy
formula of the mischief maker and the ‘straight man,’ respectively. Mayes
seemed to effortlessly embody that one crazy friend that we all have that just
makes you cringe when they say something like “hold my beer and watch this.”
I confess
that I also had a bit of a squee seeing Clancy Brown (99 Homes, The Flash, Hail,
Caesar!) as Dr. Marconi. This man has been in a little bit of everything since
the 80’s. Today’s audiences likely recognize his voice more for his cartoon
work – but my geeky heart will forever recognize him as The Kurgan from Highlander
(1986). I loved the dimension (no pun intended) that his character brings to
the movie.
It’s
amazing that a twist of fate in the form of an online book recommendation brought
this story to the attention of director Don Coscarelli (Phantasm, The
Beastmaster, Bubba Ho-Tep). The title of the book caught his attention and the
rest, as they say, is history. The book was originally published a chapter at a
time online, so that readers would be kept guessing as to what John’s fate
would actually be.
Does John
survive? You’ll have to watch this movie to find out. I would
recommend this movie in a heartbeat.
Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 61%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 54%
Netflix’s Prediction for Cat – 4.5/5
Cat's Trust-the-Dice Score – 4.5/5
P.S. There’s a scene that plays during the beginning of the credits.
P.P.S. Pirates beware! At the very end of the credits, there’s a
warning that starts out as any other anti-piracy legalese does these days; but
it ends with “…may result in civil liability, criminal prosecution and the
wrath of Korrok.”
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