So basically if you take out the plot, characters, and basis for all the jokes?
Can ANY movie be good if you take out the plot character and basis of the jokes?
It’s not a joke. It’s the premise. There were many jokes within that premise. It works in the same way that the show Extrasworked. Or the way Liam Neeson talking about doing stand up on Life’s Too Short works. I happen to love watching them shred each other in the movie. Both their public and personal personas. I was well aware of the work of all the actors involved. I am also aware of how they seem to be in real life. It worked very well for me. My girlfriend is much less aware of them. It still worked for her too.
I rather liked it. I saw it about 5 times in one week last winter as I was recovering from a couple of broken ribs (damn ice).
I knew that Cera was playing way against type, and I had seen some Rogen movies. I was only vaguely aware of who Danny McBride is, don’t think I knew who Jay is, and I was baffled at how they all knew Craig Robinson. I had never seen Pineapple Express, so that part left me a little baffled too. But I still laughed at a lot of little things, and the overly weird plot line (what there is of it). If I ever see Pineapple Express (doubtful), I may revisit this one again.
I’m pretty sure that pain meds did not factor into my review, since I wasn’t taking any while watching the movie.
Not only did I really love this movie (I enjoy plenty of stupid humor movies when they own what they are supposed to be), but I saw it in the theater because I was excited to see it. Anyway, I’d give it at least a 7/10, so IMDB score is fine by me.
Yeah, IMDB is well known for having vastly inflated scores.
The problem is basically the self-reporting problem… only people that feel strongly about something are going to work up the time to give it a score on a website. IMDB seems to skew high (i.e., users only vote for stuff they like). I know on Metacritic there seems to be a tendency for people to give votes of 0 for things they dislike (such as Diablo III, which got a LOAD of 0 votes when the servers were down on release day).
I thought the choices for the Michael Cera and Channing Tatum characters were inspired. Imagine if the roles were reversed. It would be logical, but ho-hum boring. Comedy requires surprise and this movie had a lot of unexpected things like that happen.
As for the subjectiveness of comedy (and art in general), imagine if the OP were brave enough to name his or her favorite comedies only to have the internet take a collective dump on it. There is nothing so good that the internet cannot find some fault with it.
You misunderstand. Keep the characters, the plot, and the jokes, just dump your knowledge that the characters are actors in real life. Instead of being James Franco, Seth Rogan, and Emma Watson, they’re Jimmy Frank, Ham Eatabug, and Emma Watson (I like Emma Watson!). Get rid of that one joke, and the movie goes from Meh. to “My god this is horrible”
Sure. Take the “premise” out of Extras, and would you consider Extras to be a good television show? Luckily Extras (which I liked), has more variety of people using the premise in different ways, and the stories of Gervais and Jensen were much better than the “I came all over this place” dick jokes of This is the End, so I wouldn’t have a problem with it.
In this thread:
Not only do we have the OP, who spent an hour and 45 minutes researching reviews of a movie he only spent 15 minutes watching in order to come here and complain about it, but now we also have people saying that if you took away the premise of the movie you’d end up w/ a terrible movie. Well no shit, it’s a movie built on a premise.
Dopers gotta Derp I guess.
Unpossible. I would still know that Jimmy Frank and Ham Eatabug were actors in real life because they are acting in the movie I’m watching.
mcgato, this is my favorite thing Craig Robinson’s done. It’s a scene from Knocked Up that kinda horrifying until he gets to tell his side. He’s been in a lot of things, but it’s the scene I always remember, the one that made me think “Who IS that guy?” and look him up on IMDB when I got home. It’s short but to me, memorable.
I don’t understand it when people talk about taking away the premise of a movie. Then it would be a different movie! If Gravity wasn’t set in space, if The Godfather were about a bunch of accountants, if Brokeback Mountain were about a straight couple, if To Kill A Mockingbird was about a sewer worker living in New York City, if The Usual Suspects was about a group of artists living on a commune, if Scarface was about a comedian living in Las Vegas, if Fargo was about a waitress living in San Diego, if The King’s Speech was about a dog catcher from Paris, if A Christmas Story was about a kid in a bleak, war-torn country…I could go on and on. Every single movie (and book and TV show) has a premise. It’s not a problem if you don’t like that premise, but to say it should have a different premise makes it a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT ENTITY!
Lots of people have already said that they liked the basic premise of This Is The End. Why in the world should we even have to mind wank thinking about the movie with a different premise? Go into the thread about The Imitation Game and say “What if it wasn’t about Alan Turing and set during World War II? What if it was about a bus driver living in Cleveland in the 1970’s? What about that then huh? Would you like it as much??”
Good grief.
Forget it, Equipoise, it’s DurperTown.
Please, go on. 
I liked it. I didn’t love it, but I thought there were some really funny bits.
I saw The Word’s End also. I expected great…but I got meh.
Which was kinda my fucking point. If an entire movie relies on one particular, limited premise in order to entertain, you have a repetitive, overdone movie. Glad you caught on.
Because I don’t think a single premise, especially one as tired as “Hey, look, I recognize someone famous doing something I don’t expect them to do! How odd!!!”, is enough to carry a movie. Gravity wasn’t just about being in space, it was about survival, building tension, bravery, and sacrifice. The Godfather wasn’t just about a lack of accounts, it told an entire story about a family and crime. And on and on. Not every premise is equal, and “Hurp, I know that guy! He’s not like that!” isn’t a good premise.
If you like the premise enough to see it stretched out for 90 minutes repeating itself over and over, by all means, like the movie. Love it. Embrace it. Go crazy.
6.8 sounds about right to me. I watched the whole thing, so it was above average. I didn’t think it was that great, so it wasn’t much above average.
The movie is worth watching just for Michael Cera and Channing Tatum’s cameos.
I actually enjoyed The World’s End more than Shaun of the Dead, but not as much as Hot Fuzz. Most people seem to feel it’s the weaker of the three.
It actually has 3 premises when you get right down to it.
Famous people played by themselves but not really playing themselves.
An apocalypse-ish something or other, where no one knows what’s going on, and how a group survives together when their food’s running out and a monster (or something) is hanging around outside. Not to mention dealing with Hermione Granger.
Discovering it’s The Rapture, and finding their place within it. Or not.
If all these actors had played generalized characters like in any other movie, it still would have been funny (to me) for the survival bits and the Rapture. That they played heightened, exaggerated or opposite versions of themselves, made it even funnier. To me, and to others.
At least now you seem to “understand it when people talk about taking away the premise of a movie.” The reason I asked about getting rid of that one premise was to get to the very point you’re addressing, was it a good movie without it. For you, the answer is yes. For me, it was a resounding no. Such variety is the spice of life.
Sure. To me, though, that was the only funny part of it. Give me World’s End, Zombieland, Shaun of the Dead, It’s a Disaster, A Boy and his Dog, or a slew of other, funnier, less dickish, movies about the apocalypse instead.
I thought this was one of the funniest movies i’ve seen in awhile. I’m curious on what movie is funny to the ones who didn’t like it. Brittish humor?