MovieChat Forums > Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012) Discussion > Promising, funny beginning - terrible mi...

Promising, funny beginning - terrible middle and ending

posted 9 years ago by houstonhacker
6 replies | jump to latest

(Some spoilers here, as if it really matters)

It started out good. I really liked the end of the world party they had where everyone was doing heroin and the kids were chugging drinks. And all the cameos from different actors - I thought it was going to be a fun little silly movie.

BUT, then Steve Carell takes over. He was so funny in The Office. Here, he was a sullen, sad, depressing little man who took the whole movie down with him. And Keira Knightly didn't help things. I think I may have seen her before in another movie (I don't remember what), but she was annoying in this one. I don't really know why, but something about her laugh and smile annoys me. It may have been Carell's performance that turned me off so much it carried over to her.

And the whole scene with his father - I couldn't wait for the movie to end then. But no, they still had to get through a whole song montage of The Hollies Air that I Breathe. Hokey hokey. And they killed some more time later with another filler song when he was listening to the records.

I kept praying that the meteor would arrive sooner than predicted. What started out as a promising looking movie soon plummeted to earth with a wet thud. No wonder I had never heard of this movie before - I just happened to run across it on Netflix.

[–] luckiest_strike 9 years ago

same. i just watched it on netflix and gave it a go not expecting much. then at first i was surprised and kind of mad at myself for not watching it earlier. the party scene was awesome.

i was hoping for more YOLO crazyness. there is so much you can do with the concept of the impending apocalypse. but sadly in essence this is just another romcom with a cookie cutter boring ending that you could see coming miles ahead.

[–] IndyCelt 9 years ago

Agree with both of you. Good premise, good beginning, downhill from there.

[–] v42 8 years ago

Expecting a laugh-a-minute ride to the apocalypse would certainly leave one disappointed.

Seeking a thoughtful, well paced alternative view of the end of the world through one inherently sad and regret filled individual's eyes - he, with an eternally dry wit dosed out regularly - is the way to view this.

In the end, it's about coping with the same old regrets the rest of us have and taking advantage of the opportunities (never clumsily thrust upon the characters) to come to grips with them.

Carell was simply outstanding and Knightly carried a role I would never have seen her pulling off.

See it!....

Todd.

[–] waspfan33 8 years ago

IT DOESNT MATTER WHAT YOU THINK...

its as much of a comedy as heathers or jawbreaker,or night of the living dead. dummy. dark comedy at the most maybe if you consider the world according to garp and worlds greatest dad and the fisher king ,comedies.

spectre can

suck it.

[–] nomisueil 8 years ago

I don't know how else a person like him could react when a meteor 70 miles long is about to hit Earth in a few weeks. If the story was him moping around because his wife left him, then sure, it'd be a drag but I don't blame his character for being the way he is.

[–] fsu_91 8 years ago

I couldn't disagree more- I thought it was an interesting angle on an apocalypse. Usually those movies are all about trying to stop whatever will cause the apocalypse, and I appreciated this one because it didn't. It's main focus was on how people would react to the news. That ending stuck with me for weeks.

I thought it was very good chemistry between Steve Carell and Keira Knightley at least as far as the length of the relationship was; I don't know if they could have been together in the long run if the world had ended.