1103. Smosh: The Movie (2015)

Starring: Anthony Padilla, Ian Hecox, Michael Ian Black

Director: Alex Winter

Running Time: 84 mins

Smosh: The Movie is an American film following Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox as they attempt to remove an embarrassing clip from the internet by magically going into YouTube itself and working from the inside.

Well, this is just a terrible film. The Smosh guys are a big part of YouTube history, and a lot of their videos are good fun, but it really doesn’t translate well into a feature-length movie. This film suffers from one of the worst stories I’ve ever seen couple with awful characters, average performances and a terrible sense of humour that makes it one of the dullest and most unfunny films of the year.

So, to put it simply, the humour and level of intelligence and depth in a three-minute video just doesn’t work when it’s stretched out for eighty four whole minutes. While complete and total idiocy works brilliantly in a short time frame, for a longer movie, you need at least some sort of cohesive story and characters to make something watchable, because otherwise, as this proves, it becomes a completely joyless adventure that never gives you a reason to keep watching.

Of course, we know that this film isn’t meant to be intelligent or deep in any way, but even the silliest of movie comedies have at least some sort of depth to them. When you’ve got random YouTube sketches littered across the span of a feature film, it’s hugely uninteresting to watch, as the story completely crumbles within seconds.

Now, if the comedy had been a little better, then maybe this would have been a slightly more watchable film despite the awful plot. However, there are absolutely no good jokes throughout this entire movie. I didn’t laugh once, and I can barely remember any of the attempted gags having only watched this a couple of hours ago, which is really saying something, because the original YouTube channel does have some great humour from time to time.

But the worst part of this film, by a country mile, is the characterisation of Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox. Again, in three-minute YouTube videos, characterisation is not so important. Yes, you need a basic outline for a personality, but they don’t have to be particularly likeable, seeing as you don’t have to endure a full-length movie about them.

However, in this movie, the duo are some of the most horrible movie characters I’ve ever come across. They’re beyond juvenile, appear totally braindead, and seem to have no concept of anything that is actually happening around them. That’s not a criticism of the men themselves, who I’m sure are very nice, but the way their characters are written is simply horrid, and makes for an even more painful watch, and that’s why this gets a 2.3 from me.