Release Date: July 23, 2015 Smosh first hit in the scene in, oh, 2005, when friends Anthony Padilla and Ian Hicox uploaded a video onto YouTube of the pair miming to the Pokemon theme song. 10 years later, and the duo run a successful YouTube enterprise, and have - at three different times - held the record for "most subscribed channel." Their thing mostly consists of uploading sketches and comedy songs, and they've made millions of dollars doing just that. But now here's Smosh: The Movie, which seems like one step too far. These sorts of things rarely - if ever - pan out well, after all, and going by the premise ("an embarrassing video of Anthony surfaces online right before his fifth high school reunion. The Smosh duo then race to pull down the clip before it blows Anthony's chances of reconnecting with his teen crush Anna") sounds like a recipe for disaster, no matter how self-aware they try to make it. When YouTubers are getting their own theatrical motion picture releases, you know something has gone seriously wrong with the movie business, and Smosh: The Movie predicts what is sure to become an annoying, cinema-killing trend in future Hollywood.
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
