BY ADAM QUANDT | The Statesman Director: Alex Winter
Genre: Comedy
Length: 83 minutes
Netflix rating: 3.5/5
My rating: 1/5
For those of you who don’t know, Smosh is a YouTube channel that features sketch-based comedy from Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla. As of Nov. 15, the channel was up to almost 21,500,000 subscribers and almost 5 billion views.
After seeing those numbers, one would think these two would make a pretty good comedy movie. This couldn’t be further from the truth.
I think in the almost hour and a half I spent watching this movie I laughed maybe twice, both of which were at the end.
I was extremely tempted to give this movie the first zero star rating I’ve ever given out for “Netflix and chill.” However, what saved this film and earned it its only star is the connection I felt to all of the YouTube videos referenced in the movie.
The movie follows Anthony and Ian as they attempt to get an embarrassing video removed from YouTube before Anthony’s high school crush sees it.
After going straight to the YouTube office and meeting with the CEO of YouTube, Steve YouTube (clever, I know), the duo finds out that they have to actually go into YouTube and change the video themselves (kind of like Tron).
Steve YouTube gives the pair a device called Diri, which is supposed to help guide them through YouTube. However, just like Siri, Diri really isn’t much help.
As they travel from YouTube channel to YouTube channel across a number of very recognizable, or at least relatable, videos, Ian and Anthony learn that they can interact with the videos they enter.
The duo struggles to find the video they want to fix, so they decide to split up. This is when Ian finds the video of his online “girlfriend,” butt massage girl.
When Anthony finally reconnects with Ian and they make it to the correct video, he discovers a truth that brings the friends to a quarrel.
The rest of the movie brings the two back to friendship and continues their quest to fix the embarrassing video, and win over their dream girls.
Do they succeed? I’ll leave that for you to find out should you decide to waste an hour and half watching “Smosh: The Movie.” However, I suggest just hanging out and watching YouTube videos instead. It’s pretty much the same thing, and you might actually laugh more.