It's a Disaster
2012 Directed by Todd Berger
Synopsis
Are You Prepared
Four couples meet for Sunday brunch only to discover they are stuck in a house together as the world may be about to end.
Genre
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Honestly, this film was very refreshing, with a fun plot that had me on the tip of my toes, to the great chemistry between all the leads that all turn in solid peformances. I really liked this film, this is exactly what '10 Years' should have been, just an insanely entertaining 2013 film.
To MrDummy566: Thanks! I respect yours too, but I definitely agree on the ending.
To Kelan Wood: Thanks ! But I'm starting to have second thoughts on this one. -
Review for NPR.org posted here. Excerpt:
"[David] Cross may not earn the broad recognition he deserves for his performance in It's a Disaster, a droll apocalypse comedy of exceedingly modest scale and even more modest commercial appeal. But it's still a master class in how to play the straight man right: As madness and chaos swirl around him at increasing speed, Cross's Glen Randolph stands firmly in the center, alternately flummoxed and serene, getting all the big laughs."
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I was really surprised by this! For me, it was everything the disappointing 'Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World' should have been, with some added 'Carnage' elements thrown in. The plot is pretty simple; four couples meeting for a couples brunch get interrupted when dirty bombs are exploded around the country, and they are forced to seal themselves in the house and contemplate the fact that they all could die.
I have recently been rewatching my favourite TV series ever, Arrested Development, in preparation for the new season, and seeing David Cross in this was a welcome sight. He isn't as 'dumb/funny' as he is in other roles, just quirky and awkward, and I thought it was…
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Review from Next Projection
“Couples’ Brunch”. What a dreadful thing to call a gathering. It’s unsurprising, the ill-conceived name considered, that such an event should be quite so awkward as it unfolds in It’s a Disaster, Todd Berger’s lofty low-budget comedy, a film as ambitious as it is amusing. He gives us a setup of little note, gathering four couples in one of their homes for a friendly meal, before turning the screws with the announcement of a divorce and the revelation of an affair, and then flipping things entirely with the full-scale breakout of biological war downtown. In a sense, it almost lightens the mood.
Primarily mined for comedy as an extreme extension of an already quite uncomfortable situation,…
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I really enjoy these "one-room" type movies and this one about a group stuck at a couples brunch faced with the end of the world sounded like it had great potential.
However, it just left me expecting a bit more. While not a bad film in any way, It's A Disaster doesn't go anywhere surprising or even gets to the point that we haven't seen before. It also wasn't as funny as I'd hoped either.
This will more than likely draw comparisons to Carnage which follows the same "one-room" set up, but while that suceeded in being funny and interesting the entire way through, this one was only mildly interesting.
Still, I enjoyed it but it could have been a lot better.
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What started off as a wonderfully difficult brunch with tensions rising becomes something a lot more fun once the plot goes into a crazy new direction. There's dark humor and plenty of great gags at their vain selfish acts against a backdrop of a different film going on in the background. There's a point where the jokes stop and the film wants us to look at these characters as real people and that doesn't work because that drama isn't as interesting. Then it ends with a perfect scene.
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Honestly, this film was very refreshing, with a fun plot that had me on the tip of my toes, to the great chemistry between all the leads that all turn in solid peformances. I really liked this film, this is exactly what '10 Years' should have been, just an insanely entertaining 2013 film.
To MrDummy566: Thanks! I respect yours too, but I definitely agree on the ending.
To Kelan Wood: Thanks ! But I'm starting to have second thoughts on this one. -
David Cross is in it. That's all you need to know. ;)
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A quietly hilarious film about the end of the world and how it might be much better than couples brunch!
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Meh.
Basically it's a black humor riff on RIGHT NEXT DOOR.
There's a few good jokes - especially one about The Wire and things one didn't get to on their bucket list.
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Its like The Divide in some aspects, but heavily neutered and most of the topics of humour in this movie didn't really interest me on the whole. On the one hand it tries to satirize the white privilege paradigm, but it seems to not go all the way with it. Some bits seemed too akin to sketch comedy, which made those parts stick out from the whole. It seems either as, or more vapid than the vapidity its seemingly criticizing. A fun, light watch though.
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It’s a Disaster (2012)
Todd Berger
CHas the same inherent problem as EXTRATERRESTRIAL, which, similarly, employed a high concept (there an alien invasion, here a deadly nerve gas attack) to explore a low-budget, farcical group dynamic/contents under pressure situation. Broadly conceived and even more broadly executed, the film uses the setting of Sunday brunch attended by four Austinite couples (plus a fifth who is perpetually late) to explore how hipsters respond to the end of the world, complete with complaints about how the vegan stew is getting cold and that there isn't any white wine. Material has the warmed over feel of a dusty Funny or Die sketch (one despondent woman bemoans that she'll never get the chance to…
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I was not expecting much from this film, but I was pleasantly surprised. The writing was great and I felt as out of the loop as they did. However, the plot was a tad droll and the ending, although praised, did not resolve itself, something that gets on my nerves but apparently is an artsy move. Overall, solid acting but it would have done wonders if the plot was a little more broad and not just "she had sex with him, but he had sex with her".
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Pleasant enough. Diverting. Easy to watch.
But never really swings for the fences like you want it to.