Not Cool

Well... it was in focus. The sound was clear, it was well lit, and the camera didn't shake. Sadly, that pretty much is all that the filmmakers got right with this painfully unfunny attempt at a comedy.

I should make it clear that I have no problem with "gross out" humor and, in fact, I think there should be no limits and nothing is distasteful... if it's done right. I am not offended by vomit jokes, sex jokes, or any other kind of crude jokes... so long as they are actually funny. Directors, from Mel Brooks to the Zucker and Farrelly brothers to Seth MacFarlane and countless other have proved that filthy scatological gross jokes can work when they're done right.

But director Shane Dawson seems to think that just putting something that seems shocking or offensive on film is enough to be funny. It seems as if he felt that all he had to do was come up with an outrageous set up scene and the jokes would write themselves... but they don't. For example, I'm sure he thought it would be funny to have a key scene set in a public bathroom with the characters communicating through a glory hole. Perhaps with some sharp dialog or with a performance that wasn't cartoonishly over the top and grating, it might have worked. Instead, since, like so many scenes in this film, it relies solely on the set up and provides no punchline, this scene falls flat. This kind of painfully unfunny attempt at comedy makes films like "Meet the Spartans" look like comic masterpieces by comparison.

The best analogy I can give is to say a comedian can make a funny fart joke that will make an audience laugh... while an immature child thinks the act of farting itself is funny enough. This film was directed by an immature child.

The lack of actual humor and the paint-by the-numbers storyline could be overlooked, and the film could just serve as a mild distraction for ninety minutes, if it were not for the horrible performances of the two male leads. Director Shane Dawson miscast himself as the male lead and also cast his equally untalented androgynous friend Drew Monson as the other male lead, their two stories somehow overlapping. Remembering your lines and hitting your mark is NOT all there is to acting. That Shane Dawson spends many scenes opposite Cherami Leigh, a young woman who can actually act, only highlights how out of his depths he is. That neither actor is able to demonstrate that they are actually interested in any of the women their characters are supposed to be obsessed with is the least of their performance problems.

I'm sure there are plenty of 12-year-old children who may giggle at some of these scenes, provided this is the first R-rated comedy they've ever seen. But for the rest of us... we won't be offended by the vulgarity as it's nothing new... we'll just be offended that this many people put so much money and effort into making something so completely unfunny.

I'll admit walking into this I had no idea who Shane Dawson was. And after seeing this I really don't care to know who he is. This is his directorial debut and with luck it will be his last.

Basic plot of the movie is young hot girl who has an annoying family life goes home for Thanksgiving and accidentally hits Shane Dawson with her car and they become a couple. It's pretty basic as far as plots go but that's not all you get.

Do you like screaming? There's a lot of screaming in this movie because I guess screaming is considered comedy to the people who watch Shane Dawson. Do you like unfunny stereotypes? You'll find a lot of those here from the stereotypical Indian guy to the camp gay guy who doesn't realize he's gay to the overly sexed mother who wants to make out with every boy she meets. Did I mention there's lots of screaming? Just wanted to make sure.

And lets not forget the poop jokes. Oh my, this movie is full of them. There's a homeless man who eats and drinks his own poop. That's funny right? Or the parents who are working out and the mother lets a huge wet fart just rip with a bit of an extra if you catch my drift. Yeah, poop and fart jokes are right up there on the humor scale. It goes Abbot and Costello "Who's on First". George Carlin's "Seven Words You Can't Say on Television". Then in third place poop and fart jokes. They were funny when you were 10 and you haven't grown up since.

Can I say something nice about the movie? Well it did eventually end although I'll admit I wasn't paying much attention near the end. And it didn't make me want to gouge my eyes out and drive knitting needles through my ears so I guess that's something.

But no. There are no redeeming factors about this movie. Unless you happen to be a fan of Shane Dawson and I would assume those to be 12-16 year old girls and 10-14 year old boys then give this movie a pass.

And if you are a fan, please ask him not to make any more movies.

I've never seen a movie so pointlessly crude as this one. It's almost as bad as Movie 43.

I likely would've never heard about this movie if it wasn't for one thing...

It co-stars Cherami Leigh, to anyone unaware, is a voice actress for video games and anime as well as doing a few live-action roles on occasion. And honestly, this is easily her worst role by far.

Say what you will about Lucy Heartfillia or Asuna Yuuki, at least those characters felt dignified and had some likable qualities to them.

Tori, the character Cherami plays, is just some nihilistic edgelord who's only there to make sarcastic quips and say vulgar things for meaningless shock value.

I'd talk about the story, but what story is there to tell? It's just a bunch of high schoolers screaming, cursing, talking about sexual references, making homophobic slurs, and basically going out of their way to be as vulgar as possible. There's also some random partying, and is full of gross-out.

I've never heard of Shane Dawson, but this movie really didn't make a fan. But I am a fan of Cherami Leigh, and I feel bad that she was part of such an awful movie like this.

I have nothing against vulgar humor, in fact, I'm pretty open-minded towards that kind of thing. However, what holds those kind of jokes together is context and structure, which this movie has neither.

Everything feels so jumbled together and scenes drag on for way too long or don't make any sense.

While I might understand the intention behind it, when it's not shoving vulgar jokes down my throat, portraying the awkwardness of teenagers and stuff, that's been a thing ever since the John Hughes era back in the 80's, but the difference there is that they didn't cram in vulgar jokes just to pad the runtime or sound edgy.

This movie doesn't really seem to grasp the concept of comedy and as a result is on par with the likes of Ghostbusters 2016 and the Paul Blart: Mall Cop movies.

Bottom line, it's something I wouldn't recommend at all.

Ugh. I wanted this movie to be good. I always want Youtube movies to be good, because I know how hard some people work to do so. I suppose I should begin saying that I am not a fan of Shane Dawson, I can see the appeal (he sure is a looker)but is he funny? Let's get back to the movie. It's awful. I saw this after Hollidaysburg and this one was blown out of the water, hell it wasn't even in the water in the morning. Where the casting and characters of Hollidaysburg worked because of the chemistry and depth the actors were able to bring to the roles. And while it had pacing issues, Not Cool has no pacing. It starts, it ends, I feel dirty for watching it, I get a shower(x9). It doesn't help either that the characters and actors were awful. OK I should amend that. The girl playing Tori is OK and by far the best actor in the movie. Hollidaysburg, while unfunny at times, knew where to draw the line. Something Shane Dawson has never known. And I'm not opposed to shock humor, but goddam! IT has to be funny! Just because you can have a script that says (Mock minority to a theater of laughing fools) doesn't mean you can make a movie. Never since Transformers 3 have I felt like the smartest person in a room. This movie never shuts up either. It's having a moment-oh sorry we have to make fun of gay people again! Don't see this movie, it will only encourage the people who made this.

I'm surprised to see such high ratings for this movie. But when I read the reviews from people who gave the movie 9 and 10 stars, it became obvious that they were big fans of Dawson who were more interested in propping up the film rather than review it.

. SO to get a non-fan review To me, the movie was one of the worst I have seen in a long time. Was there a plot? The movie seemed to drag on, with a couple of funny scenes throughout--a couple.

I was most offended and turned off by Shane's treatment of ethnic minorities / people of color in the film: The African-American homeless man (and two other cartoonish Black characters) was INSULTING, not funny; the stereotype of the Latina woman was insulting, not funny--unless you're a bigot; the stereotype of the Indian character was insulting, not funny. The thing that made it even worse for me was that the movie would have played the same had these characters not been played as their negative stereotypes.

It was almost like 2 movies: the beginning was very silly; the middle was simply silly; and the ending was not bad.I will say, however, that the female lead character has talent and was the best part of the film. As for the lead male characters, I had a hard time believing that either of them was into women. Whether or not they are in real life is not the issue, but it made their relationships with the female characters feel forced. Maybe it was their poor acting.