½

At this point of my life, I’d already have gone past the time in which I thought Smosh was funny so inevitably I skipped Smosh: The Movie when it was first announced. Morbid curiosity had gotten the better of me and eventually I watched it together with a group of friends, who (somewhat) have made the experience feel less painful than it already had been. Unfortunately with that said, there is just about nothing in Smosh: The Movie that even works, and given as I’ve already outgrown Smosh’s humour all that I can truly feel when watching this was that part of me was slowly dying. I was reminded of the painful memories that had lasted all as a result of Fred: The Movie, and while nowhere near that level of being terribly awful, the experience is beyond painful.

The Smosh duo starring in their own film.

Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox, the Smosh duo are playing themselves. In this reality, we have an embarrassing video of Anthony having surfaced YouTube, and now the two of them go on a venture to have the video taken down. Yet apparently things are more complicated right from there as the moment in which they decide to confront the head of YouTube, they are told that instead of having the video taken down, they should go into the world of YouTube videos and change the video on the inside. There are many notes to which I had taken in regards to this premise that only go on to show much more stupidity as it goes on and instead of even being funny or creative with such aspect, it only becomes all the more annoying of a watch.

One of the first things to which I was asking myself regarded the rules of how the world of these YouTube videos work. If one video is changed from the inside, how exactly does it suddenly play any sort of effect into the real world? What happens from the moment a YouTube video stops playing? How exactly does travelling through YouTube videos work, given as the duo takes a long time in order to get to the original embarrassing video of Anthony? What ever happens to deleted videos? There were too many of these questions coming into my head especially when put into consideration that the film was merely making them up as it went along. No proper explanation had been given as suddenly video jumping is equivalent to time travel, but trying to comprehend how the film’s logic would ever work is where the real pain about Smosh: The Movie had come in.

What first hit me about Smosh: The Movie was that by the time the travelling through YouTube videos had commenced, I was thinking of none other than Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, another (far better) film about a duo of slackers travelling through time in order to resolve something in the present for themselves. It soon became clear when I discovered that the film was directed by none other than Bill S. Preston himself, Alex Winter. How one sinks themselves down this low, by ripping off a concept that had brought him and Keanu Reeves into the spotlight all for the sake of something so poorly made in done in almost all regards without any sense of an attempt coming into play with what is being held is merely baffling to me.

All of this having been noted, the only thing I could ever find myself picking out from the film’s attempts at humour was that it was never at all trying to be funny. But given as this is indeed a film starring the Smosh duo, I’m wondering how come they were not responsible for writing the film. Not that it could make what is already on the screen anything better, but it would at least feel like a Smosh video because there is nothing presented in here that even seems like it were representative of what the Smosh duo were known for. While the content of a single video can be too much for such a long running time, why not make it a series of sketches exclusive to the film? At the very least it would seem more fitting than having a concept that rips off Bill & Ted.

There are many times in which I have felt deadening with the experiences that I have put myself through when I watch a film, but when I saw Smosh: The Movie, all I ever felt was the very lowest of its own form. The fact that a film like this had even been made is absolutely beyond me, because it feels so anti-cinematic in many regards, whether it range from the poor execution, writing, direction, acting, and so forth. Yet somehow, it came out. And the results were not even as painful as expected, instead they were so much worse. I hate this movie, I hate the very existence of this movie, and if anything, it is because of this movie I’m already put off from watching Smosh again altogether, but I’ve already outgrown their schtick years back.

Watch the trailer right here.

All images via Smosh Productions.

Directed by Alex Winter
Screenplay by Eric Falconer, Steve Marmel, from Smosh by Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox
Produced by Brian Robbins, Shauna Phelan
Starring Anthony Padilla, Ian Hecox
Release Year: 2015
Running Time: 84 minutes