When Jeff Tried to Save the World

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When Jeff Tried to Save the World

2018

1h 33m

Comedy

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

86%

Tomatometer

7 Reviews

68%

Popcornmeter

50+ Ratings

When Jeff, the manager of an old-school bowling alley, discovers the owner's plans to sell, he has to use the things around him, including a high school stoner, a perverted janitor, a 90-year-old bowling champion, a sassy kitchen worker, and the occasional drug-induced conversation with Pac-Man, to save it.

Cath Clarke

Guardian

04/14/2021

2/5

The actors often look like they're mimicking real feelings.

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Matt Fagerholm

RogerEbert.com

12/12/2018

3/4

Occasionally the dialogue can be too on-the-nose... yet Goldberg's utter disinterest in condescension is precisely what makes her movie so lovable.

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Taylor Baker

Drink in the Movies

09/03/2021

55/100

Episode 20: When Jeff Tried To Save The World / Creed II / The Ballad of Buster Scruggs / The World Is Yours / Burning

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Richard Propes

TheIndependentCritic.com

09/27/2020

3.5/4.0

It's a quiet little story, quirky and sweet and funny and real.

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Douglas Davidson

Elements of Madness

01/07/2019

4/5

[Kendall] Goldberg's direction, the cinematography, and the sound design channel nostalgia by capturing the feel of gaming ... and how the same lessons we learn from any game can assist us in life.

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Danielle Solzman

Solzy at the Movies

12/12/2018

Led by the performance of Jon Heder, When Jeff Tried to Save the World is inspiring in the ways it teaches us that change is still okay even if we don't like it.

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Jeffrey P

@vanillavoodoo1 08/25/2024

It knows what it is and is quaintly amusing, much like a cheap bowling alley or Hot Pockets.

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Antonio S

@RT05261875 05/09/2021

Not entirely sure how I feel about this film. Is short for saying it was a good one, and not bad at all to say it wasn't . So it passed the time.

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s r

@ScottR 11/23/2020

It had good intentions, but I only saw it for Heder.

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09/24/2020

I really enjoyed it because of its nuance and it makes the audience care for this guy's life and desire to save a bowling alley. It looks into multi-faucets of his life and has a real heart to it.

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06/08/2020

The girls from PEN 15, Napoleon Dynamite, a run-down bowling alley, and some banal work dreams all in search of a reason to exist. I couldn’t find it.

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11/06/2019

I have bowled many times in the bowling center where this was filmed so I was interested in seeing the film. It held my interest as the story line was established but I was disappointed in the pace of advancing the story. It was difficult for me to stay interested enough to watch until the end but I did make it.

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Kendall Goldberg

Director

Jon Heder

Jeff

Jim O'Heir

Carl

Steve Berg

Frank

Brendan Meyer

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Synopsis

When Jeff, the manager of an old-school bowling alley, discovers the owner's plans to sell, he has to use the things around him, including a high school stoner, a perverted janitor, a 90-year-old bowling champion, a sassy kitchen worker, and the occasional drug-induced conversation with Pac-Man, to save it.

Director: Kendall Goldberg
Producer: Kendall Goldberg, Jimmy Seargeant, Shane Simmons, Sam Slater
Screenwriter: Rachel Borgo, Kendall Goldberg
Production Co: Burn Later Prods.
Genre: Comedy
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Dec 7, 2018
Runtime: 1h 33m