MYST #1: John Dies at the End

John Dies at the End:

Review by Nicky Nocerino

     I actually had several different movies I was trying to decide watching for this review, I even watched Silence of the Lambs in preporation to do a review on it. All of that changed when me and some friends decided to watch some random movie we found on Netflix with a wierd name. This movie was, of course, John Dies at the End, one or the most facinatingly wierd movies I have ever seen.

     Director Don Coscarelli, know for movies such as Bubba Ho-Tep, a movie in which a retired Elvis Teams up with JFK to fight of the curse of an ancient mummy, really holds nothing back with this movie, making it one of the most memorable movies I have ever seen. The dialogue, plot, and characters are all rediculously over the top in way so that if they had held back even a little bit it would not have worked at all, but they didn't hold back and it is spectacular.

    Based on the book by the same name, John Dies at the End starts off with our main character Dave (Chase Williamson) sitting in a chinese restaruante monologuing to himself about how crazy his story is and how the man he is waiting to meet will not believe it. Arnie (Paul Giamatti) a newspaper reporter shows up and, what do you know, doesn't believe him at first. This sets the stage of feeling a little dry, but things start getting interesting  after he gives Arnie the standard run of showing of some of his powers to prove his story. From here the story is mostly told as flashbacks while Dave tells Arnie what happened.

     From here on the film really catches its stride as it shows one of Dave and John's(Rob Mayes) ghost hunting "jobs" and then the story of how they got their abilities, refered to in the film as effects and side effects. The film really shines here as it explains just enough about the source of these ablities, a drug called "Soy Sauce", for the audience to be able to understand its effects, but not enough to understand anything else about the drug. This lends some element of mystery and confusion to this movie, which in any other movie I would consider a flaw, but here it really fits the schitzophreic tone of the film. The way in which this drug is introduced also follows the theme of mystery, as the only link to where the soy sauce came from, a rastafarian drug dealer who only identifies himself as Robert Marley(Tai Bennett) soon disapears, along with any chance of its origins begin explained. Most of this part of the movie consists of Dave attempting to understand what is going on with the soy sauce, but here the film goes a very interesting angle. Instead of giving Dave the answers he wants it becomes more and more clear that the answers do not exist, forcing him to change his mindset from trying to make sense of everything to simply rolling with whatever situation he gets into over the course of the whole movie.

     The climax of this movie is when it goes into full cheese mode, while still holding on to the tone from the rest of the movie the main characters now must stop an evil biological computer from another dimension named korrok by dropping a bomb full of hallucinogenic drugs into its core. If that last sentence does not sum up this movie then i don't know what does. This movie embraces its roots in pulp sci-fi, and runs with it non stop, enough to really take it to 11.

     The one thing that really makes this movie work is its sense of style. Just like other stylized films like other extremely stylized movie such as 300 or V for Vendetta, this movie only really works as a whole. Everything from the dark lighting to the unconventional story structure really makes this movie more than the sum of it's parts. Special mention must be made for Dr. Marconi (Clancy Brown) whose casting fits this role perfectly.

     All in all, this is not a movie for everyone, it only barely holds together and only works with suspension of disbelief. But this movie was for me and i was able to let go and enjoy the style over the substance. I give it 4 Pluses and 3 Minuses

Plot	-
Characters	+
Acting	-
Music	=
Cinematography	+
Effects	-
Style	+
Personal enjoyment	+

 

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