SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

NateWatchesCoolMovies It's almost impossible for me to describe Don Coscarelli's John Dies At The End without either giving too much away, sounding ridiculous or just confusing the reader. It is a ridiculous film, in the sense that Buckaroo Banzai or Bill & Ted are, a completely batshit, near stream of consciousness horror hoot that somehow just makes sense on its own terms and in it's own world. It all kicks off when best buds Dave (Chase Williamson) and trouble magnet John (Rob Mayes, pretty much a late 20's version of Rob Lowe) decide to try a dubious wonder-drug amusingly nicknamed 'soy sauce', a narcotic known for its space/time/dimension altering powers, and pretty much a surefire way to descend into hellish but very funny chaos where nothing makes sense and the story takes a dime store turn into bizarre schlock worthy of a Troma special. Among the delightful surprises in store for them are time travel, a meat monster, an ominous rastafarian stranger named Robert Marley (think they're so clever, don't they), aliens, dildos that materialize out of nowhere and all kinds of weirdness exploding from a seemingly endless grab bag of retro looking special effects. Poor Dave rushes to find John before they're hopelessly cornered by the forces of….. whatever lol, aided by his adorable amputee girlfriend (Fabienne Theresse) and a cop named "Detective Morgan Freeman", who isn't played by Morgan Freeman, before you ask. Somehow the film finds time for a brief appearance by Clancy Brown, playing some sort of super sonic Ghostbuster crossed with David Blaine (he's actually great) and an overarching subplot in which Dave recounts all this hullabaloo to a skeptical journalist, played by none other than Paul Giamatti, whose reactions upon eventually coming face to face with the results of soy sauce are priceless. Did I do a good job describing it? Who knows.. I'm not even sure the film itself does a good job of describing it, but it sure has fun trying and I sure did watching it too. If Mystery Science Theatre tried to put on an X Files episode while loaded up on whatever William Hurt took in Altered States, it might look something like this. Director Coscarelli is most famous for Phantasm and Bubba Ho Tep (a personal favorite), so if you've seen those then you'll have some kind of diving board of an idea as to what this one's all about. Only, here he flips the diving board upside down, throws it into space and abandons any usual drawing board for something that gets pretty off the wall, even for him. I say bring it on.

Fortune_Sparkles I love SciFi but this seemed to be a movie more about drugs and trippin. It was hard to follow. I understand that this is based on a book and maybe the Director/Producer(s) had a hard time translating the book into a movie. Now, I never read the book so I have nothing to compare it to but for me it was just a bunch of non-sense happening.I understand it was suppose to be two losers who get a hold of a new drug that is on the street one uses it willingly the other by accident. Afterward, a bunch of strange stuff happens. Some of it seems to be alternate dimensions while other stuff possibly alien. Really, who knows. It was to random and drug induced for me to follow.However, the acting and the cinematography were both good. Clearly, the movie was meant to appeal to young men; especially those that use drugs.If you're a high young guy, you're gonna love this movie; everyone else,not so much.

moviesmaniax A mind-bending film with so many awesome craziness and bizarre all in one film! This is a highly entertaining movie with engaging story and so much FUN to offer, if you like a fantasy/sci-fi/comedy/action/horror genre smashed up sort of film. There are also some nice GORES scene to enjoy and it gets pretty bloody and weird most of the time. The film is a comedy/horror mainly so don't expect much SCARE here, instead expect some good laughs and thrills along the way! After finishing this film, I can't help but rushing to book store to find this book it's adapting from! I felt like there's much more details that might be left out from the movie and I just can't wait to read it to get more clarification from the story. Overall, it's a mind-bending film with gores, craziness, laughs, and loads of bizarreness to be excited and had fun with, in which you will either LOVE it for what it is or HATE it for its silliness >>A-<<

Charles Herold (cherold) This terrific, bizarre comedy is not necessarily something one can explain to the uninitiated. Most simply it is a story of two guys who deal with supernatural phenomenon, with the movie mainly focused on how they started out. The movie is done in the form of a horror/monster movie, although it's not especially horrific and gory. It does, however, offer exciting and surprising moments.I found myself comparing it with one movie and then ten minutes later thinking it was more like a different one. The slackers dealing with the supernatural made me think of Ghostbusters. The special-effects-laden comedy made me think of Army of Darkness. The intricate, twisting concepts threaded through involving time and reality made me think of Inception. The bugs and hallucinogenic quality are sometimes reminiscent of Naked Lunch. (If I have to compare it with a single movie, I'm inclined toward Army of Darkness.)It's a fascinating and original movie. The only film I've seen previously by the director, Don Coscarelli, was the (IMHO) overrated Bubba Ho-Tep, and his earlier film don't sound appealing to me (nor do his next couple, yet another Phantasm movie and a Bubba sequel), but I sincerely hope he's optioning the sequel to John Dies at the End because I would love to see something similar to this.