Review of John Dies at the End (2013) by Greenisgood — 13 Jan 2020

TL;DR - Absurdity at it's best Character Development at it's worst. If you want to watch something when you are bored without thinking too much while you are browsing on your phone or tablet this movie works. Sadly the film is filled with missed opportunities. Given what must have surely been a moderately low budget, A decent one time watch involving an absurdist and weird plot if you can stomach pointless gore and nudity just for the sake of it.

The Good.

The plotline and the story are relatively the best aspects of the film. Absurd parallel dimensions, Paul Giamati and Clancy Brown are the worthwhile things that you may watch this film for. Both Giamati and Brown are well aware of the dumbness of the film and really have fun in their roles. Some of the creature effects are practical and unnerving unfortunately all of these things just don't come together to create any kind of experience or connectivity with what you are watching.

The Bad.

The two leads are probably the most un-charismatic duo I have seen in a long time. Character Development was probably not even mentioned during the planning of this film since both leads start being certain kind of character's and end up in the same place they fail to have even an iota of growth or meaning from such a reality shattering experience in their lives.

This is more fault of the script than either of the actors since there were so many opportunities to have our leads grow, change or have some kind of emotional payoff but the humorous nature of the film keep them stagnant throughout just so the viewers can find it funny when they deal with their circumstances with a deadpan 'been there done that' attitude.

Could have benefited from some kind of character building or good character interaction and it would have made a stronger film. But it just starts on a certain note and ends on the same effectively making everything you see mean nothing.

Especially since the story tries hard and somewhat succeeded in creating a sense of intrigue and suspense but ultimately does nothing with it because our lead characters are mostly just going through the motions in the face of things that would illicit shock, wonder, awe, confusion, exhilaration, happiness, sadness.