My crazy work schedule this month has led to some out of character mid-week movie madness. Unfortunately it has also led to me not being able to post the reviews until a few days after seeing a movie. This week I was able to sneak away and check out the latest Steve Carell movie, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World.

The movie focuses on Dodge (Carrell), a newly single forty something looking to reunite with his first love after news that the end of the world is imminent. His journey gets off to an interesting start as he meets his newly single neighbor, Penny (Keira Knightley), and promises to help her get to an airplane to get back across the pond to her family.

I think I may have written about this before, but I think at some point actors get bored when they are so good at a particular role that they want to take on a different approach but sadly very few can pull this off. We all know and love Steve Carell as Michael Scott on the The Office, the goofy 40-Year Old Virgin or Brick Tamland from Anchorman, and for the first half of this movie it felt like we could add another chapter to that book. Unfortunately the second half of this movie happened and Carell's character decided to become a serious actor.

The storyline felt like it couldn't decide between being a comedy, a melodrama about the world coming to an end, or a romance movie. Whichever one it decided to go with wasn't very good.

Carell had some good lines, and Knightely is entertaining, but there is absolutely nobody else in the movie worth remembering. Without looking I can't tell you who I'll list below as the third "star" from this movie, that's never a good sign.

If in fact the world is coming to an end, I recommend checking out a different movie.

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World
Directed by: Lorene Scafaria
Written by: Lorene Scafaria
Starring: Steve Carell, Keira Knightley and Melanie Lynskey (?)
My Rating: 2 out of 5
Would Gene Pick it?: No