Smosh: The Movie

Smosh: The Movie is a 2015 American adventure comedy film directed by Alex Winter starring the YouTube comedy duo Smosh (Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox) with appearances from other YouTube stars, such as Jenna Marbles, Grace Helbig, Markiplier, and Harley Morenstein. This is Smosh's first full-length film and revolves around the duo going inside YouTube virtually to alter a clip that will ruin Anthony's chances of winning over his crush, Anna Reed.

Smosh: The Movie
Theatrical release poster
Directed byAlex Winter
Produced by
Written by
Based on
Starring
Music byThe Outfit
CinematographyJoe DeSalvo
Edited byScott Richter
Production
company
Distributed by
Release date
  • July 23, 2015 (2015-07-23) (Vidcon)
  • July 24, 2015 (2015-07-24) (United States)
Running time
84 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1 million[1]

The film premiered in Los Angeles at Vidcon 2015 on July 23, and was released in the United States on July 24, 2015, to generally polarized reviews, with criticism of its writing, acting, and humor, but praise for the performances of the two leads.[2][3] It was then released in the United Kingdom, by Lionsgate through distribution on-demand through Vimeo and Netflix.[4]

Plot

Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox are best friends and live in a small house, with Ian's parents. Anthony has a dead-end job as a pizza delivery man and Ian is a stay at home YouTube-stalking manchild. After returning from the Game Bang game center, in which they were bullied by some street kids due to Anthony's pizza car, they find a video of Anthony reciting the Magic Pocket Slave Monsters theme (an obvious parody of the Pokémon theme song and a reference to Smosh's deleted video) at their high school graduation. In the video, Anthony attempts to impress his crush, Anna Reed (Nelson), by trying to do a backflip, but he fails, landing on his face, and resulting in the microphone going in his buttocks. After learning their 5th year high school reunion is on the same day the duo decides to pull down the video before it blows Anthony's chances of reconnecting with Anna.

They travel to the YouTube headquarters, where they meet a receptionist named Stephanie (Grace Helbig) who introduces them to the President of the company, Steve YouTube (Michael Ian Black). Steve explains that the only way to fix the video is by literally going inside YouTube through a portal and changing the video from the inside. Anthony insists that it is important enough to go through with it, so Ian accompanies him in travelling into YouTube.

Steve provides Smosh with two electronic phones equipped with an artificial intelligence named Diri (a parody of Siri, voiced by Kimmy Gatewood), and send them through the portal that is behind his closet door. After tumbling through a series of YouTube videos, they eventually end up in a Jenna Marbles vlog. Jenna warns them that once their Diri phones run out of battery, they will be permanently stuck in YouTube, just like her; they find out there are two Jennas.

They decide to split up, but Ian immediately abandons the mission and travels to his YouTube crush video, "Butt Massage Girl" (Brittany Ross), while Anthony escapes a furry party, gets advice from Steve Austin, and finds out that Anna really likes him too. Diri takes Anthony to the Butt Massage Girl video that Ian is getting a massage in. Anthony tells Ian that his and Butt Massage Girl's love is fake and that it's only a video.

The duo then finally make it to the embarrassing video of Anthony. When a furious Anthony discovers that Ian was the one who recorded and uploaded the video, Ian finally expresses his frustration with how boring Anthony has become, leading to an argument between the pair. They both engage in a fight that lasts through three other videos, ending with them returning to Anthony’s video. Ian decides to make it up to Anthony by beating up his past self, preventing his humiliation. Anthony then goes to help him, but past Ian interferes and attacks Anthony, while Ian is trying to knock out past Anthony. In the process, the other students also start to fight one another. During the battle, Diri reveals itself to be Steve YouTube, who tells them that sending the two into YouTube was part of his evil scheme to keep them in YouTube forever.

Frightened, they race to escape YouTube via their video history, with Steve putting several unsuccessful obstacles in their way, as they make it to the portal only for Steve YouTube to be there waiting for them. But a bear appears and attacks Steve, allowing Smosh to escape YouTube. Returning to the real world, Anthony and Ian discover that, due to their changes to Anthony's embarrassing video (and therefore history), they have become famous, turning the video into the "Clone Fight" video; in which they met the President of the United States, created a movie, a TV series, and a show on Broadway. Through this, Ian is dating Butt Massage Girl, Ian's parents live with them, Anthony has 30 girlfriends (whom he immediately gets rid of because he only wants Anna), they live in a much bigger and better house, and Steve YouTube (now pronounced You-too-bay) has Anthony's former job as a pizza delivery man and Jenna Marbles is the CEO of YouTube. Butt Massage Girl accompanies them as they go to their high school reunion.

As they arrive at their reunion, they discover they are the most famous ones there. When Anthony seeks out Anna and finds her, he is dismayed to find out that Anna loved him back in the day, but she was intimidated by him being rich and famous. Encouraged by Ian and an image of Austin, Anthony performs 'Magic Pocket Slave Monsters' (and successfully performs the backflip) alongside Ian and finally wins Anna over. Butt Massage Girl and Anna meet onstage to which Butt Massage Girl reveals her name is Brad, to which Ian exclaims "What the fuck?!"

In a post-credits scene, Ian marries Brad with Anthony crying in the background.

Cast
Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox played themselves in the film.
  • Anthony Padilla as himself, a former pizza delivery man who is now a Rich & Famous Alumni, and is also Ian's best friend.
  • Ian Hecox as himself, a best friend of Anthony, and is also Brad's love interest.
  • Jillian Nelson as Anna Reed, Anthony's love interest.
  • Brittany Ross as Brad/Butt Massage Girl, a love interest of Ian.
  • Michael Ian Black as Steve YouTube/Steve You-too-bay, the CEO of YouTube who is now a pizza delivery man and is also the main antagonist in the film.
  • Stone Cold Steve Austin as himself, an adviser of Anthony.
  • Jenna Marbles as herself, a previous YouTuber who is stuck on YouTube, and now the new CEO of YouTube.
  • Harley Morenstein as The Mailman, the main enemy of Ian after being thrown some milk balloons by Ian.
  • Grace Helbig as Stephanie, the main receptionist of YouTube.
  • Peter Breitmayer as Mr. Ellis, the master of ceremonies in all high school reunion.
  • Mark Fischbach (Markiplier) as himself, a gamer on YouTube, who is responsible for nearly killing Anthony and Ian by playing "Gorilla Chainsaw Massacre" (a title name spoof of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre)
  • Kristen O'Meara as Mrs. Hecox
  • Kevin Will as Mr. Hecox
  • Kimmy Gatewood as Diri, a personal computer assistance software who is sassy (a parody of Siri and is controlled by Steve).
    • Gatewood also portrayed The Hair Stylist, a personal hairstylist of Anthony & Ian.
  • Damion Poitier as Super Boring Man
  • Dominic Sandoval as Nearby Student
  • Kimoon Kim as Psy Lookalike
  • Elisha Yaffe as High Driver
  • Hal Landon, Jr. as Butler
  • Mari Takahashi as herself (cameo appearance)
  • Matthew Sohinki as himself (cameo appearance)
  • Joshua "Jovenshire" Ovenshire as himself (cameo appearance)
  • David "Lasercorn" Moss as himself (cameo appearance)
  • Shane Dawson as Sex Simulator Guy (unrated)

Production
Director Alex Winter

On September 18, 2014, Lionsgate announced that it has picked up the international distribution rights to the movie, while 20th Century Fox picked up U.S. distribution rights to the movie, with production jointly financed by DreamWorks Animation's AwesomenessTV, and Defy Media. The picture was written by Eric Falconer, creator and executive producer of Blue Mountain State and writer of How I Met Your Mother. The film's executive producers are Padilla, Hecox, Barry Blumberg of Defy Media, Brett Bouttier, Joe Davola and Shauna Phelan. AwesomenessTV founder Brian Robbins serves as producer. Winter was signed to direct the film. It was entirely shot in YouTube Space in Los Angeles, California.[3] In May 2020, Ian Hecox revealed on the podcast Cold Ones that the movie originally got an R rating.[5]

Release

On April 15, 2015, it was announced that the film would be released on July 24, 2015 and would be having its gala world premiere at Vidcon 2015 in Anaheim, California.[6][7] An official trailer was released on Smosh's website on June 12, 2015.[8] They have also announced, via their YouTube channel, that they would host a live stream on July 21, 2015. In August 2019 the movie appeared available on Netflix.

Home media

Smosh: The Movie was released on DVD on August 18, 2015, exclusively at Walmart stores by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, with some deleted scenes.[9] The film also released on YouTube in the U.S. through the channel fhsfoxconnect. The film was also available in iTunes, for the on-demand version.

Reception

Critical reception

The New York Times described the film as "a fairly successful effort to apply the tone and comic style of those hastily produced weekly shorts to a feature-length script with an actual plot."[10] The review went on to note that it was "clever and surprisingly easy to sit through".[10] The review concluded that "Is it worth your $9.99? Maybe not, but if you can buy it on your parents' credit card, you’ll probably enjoy it."[10] Common Sense Media, which assigns an age recommendation as well as a 5-star rating, gave it a 2 out of 5, stating that although they are a "popular YouTube sensation, they have a Millennial Dumb and Dumber/slacker shtick that's funny for a second and then quickly grows tedious."[11] The review also stated that the movie lacked acting, and then finally summarized that "[i]f Hollywood was looking for a movie that truly elevates web celebs to the status of pulling off a feature-length film, this isn't it", but also recommended that for Smosh fans to watch it, "...it's sure to be an enjoyable endeavor others won't understand."[11]

References
  1. Spangler, Todd (22 July 2015). "'Smosh: The Movie': The Biggest Test Yet for Crossover Appeal of Digital Stars". Variety. Retrieved 15 April 2018.
  2. Spangler, Todd (18 September 2014). "Lionsgate Acquires Rights to 'The Smosh Movie,' Starring YouTube Comedy Duo". Variety. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
  3. Spangler, Todd (15 April 2015). "'Smosh: The Movie' Starring YouTube Comedy Duo Set to Premiere in July". Variety. Retrieved 16 April 2015.
  4. Brouwer, Bree (25 August 2015). "Netflix Will Stream 'Smosh: The Movie' Starting September 22". Tubefilter. Retrieved 26 October 2017.
  5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JM68meH3FY8
  6. Gutelle, Sam (16 April 2015). "'Smosh: The Movie' To Arrive On July 23rd At VidCon". Tubefilter. Retrieved 23 April 2015.
  7. "DEFY MEDIA AND AWESOMENESSTV'S SMOSH: THE MOVIE TO PREMIERE WORLDWIDE JULY 23 | DEFY Media". defymedia.com. 17 April 2015. Archived from the original on 15 June 2017. Retrieved 23 April 2015.
  8. "SMOSH: THE MOVIE (OFFICIAL TRAILER) | SMOSH". Smosh.com. 12 June 2015. Archived from the original on 10 September 2018. Retrieved 12 June 2015.
  9. "Smosh: The Movie (DVD + Digital Copy)". Walmart.com. Retrieved 31 August 2015.
  10. Hale, Mike (23 July 2015). "Review: 'Smosh: The Movie' Wades Through YouTube's Shallows". The New York Times. Retrieved 23 July 2015.
  11. "Smosh: The Movie - Movie Review". www.commonsensemedia.org. 22 July 2015. Retrieved 23 July 2015.
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