This Is The End

June 17, 2013 by  

I’m going to start this review by saying that if you don’t enjoy the presence of actors Seth Rogen, Danny McBride, Jonah Hill or James Franco, you may want to steer clear of this movie. The film could be considered a vanity project since they’re playing fictional versions of themselves–but that’s the whole fun of it.

And fun is the best word to describe this movie if you do like these actors; and in this case, obviously I do. I like that they laugh at themselves, and make fun of each other. I like that the other main character of the film, Jay Baruchel (probably a bit lesser known than the other main actors), has no issue saying he doesn’t like these guys. This is a movie that doesn’t take itself that seriously. For a movie revolving around the apocalypse of mankind, that’s a pretty big gamble. But it works if you don’t believe in that kind of thing happening.

So the story is fairly simple: Jay is coming to LA to visit his best buddy, Seth, for a weekend. They haven’t seen each other in a while and deep down, they’re both afraid that they’re losing touch with each other. Jay doesn’t like staying in LA; Seth is comfortable in the lifestyle. He’s taken to partying with his “new” friends including Franco, Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, and Craig Robinson among others. When Jay and Seth first see each other, it’s a great reunion. Seth shows him around his new apartment, they smoke weed and watch 3D TV and just play around. But then, Seth drops that he wants to go to this mega house party hosted by James Franco. Jay admits he’s not really a fan of James and doesn’t think he likes him either. He doesn’t know most of the other people and the ones he does know, such as Jonah Hill, he also admits he doesn’t like nor does he think they like him. Seth thinks it’s even more important to go to the party in order to bury the hatchet and start over and Jay will see that everything will work out and they’ll all be friends together.

When they first get to the house, the party is well in progress. Franco calls Jay by another name indicating he doesn’t know him, and Jonah Hill is overly friendly to Jay, which makes Jay think he’s just overcompensating and being phony. Seth promises “Jonah is just that nice”. Other guests include Aziz Ansari, Mindy Kaling, Jason Segel, and just about everyone who’s been in a comedy film in the past 10 years…and, Rihanna. Things are going smoothly at the party until Jay runs out of cigarettes and decides to take a walk to a store to buy some more. He gets Seth to go with him and they leave the party, while Jay once again reinforces that he isn’t really into the party.

At the store, something happens. It’s like an earthquake, but then blue beams shoot out of the sky grabbing hold of people and “sucking” them up into the sky. Both Jay and Seth are blown away by this, and when they get back to the party, they can’t believe that no one has noticed anything strange has happened.

But then, an earthquake-like rumble happens again at the party and the guests go outside. Massive sinkholes swallow some of the guests, and Michael Cera is impaled by a street light. After the commotion, there are only a few people left from the party:

James, Jonah, Craig, Jay, and Seth. They decide to bunker in the house and ration everything in the house while waiting to be rescued. Then, there’s a complication. Unbeknownst to James, he had an unexpected guest who passed out in the bathtub: Danny McBride. McBride is unaware of the goingson of any earthquakes and decides to make a large breakfast using a lot of the supplies, and even goes as far as to use the bottled water they have to wash his feet and face.

It’s pretty evident early on that Franco’s not a fan of McBride, and he becomes a source of tension between the crew. Not only that, but Emma Watson appears from outside as another sole survivor from the party. After a misunderstanding about what she thinks these guys may do to her, she runs away. The men are left with each other and very few supplies, and have to go on a water mission to the basement at some point in order to replenish.

Jay is the only one who is convinced it’s the apocalypse. Everyone else thinks it’s just earthquakes. But then, they see demons. Jonah Hill has a rather…interesting encounter with one that leaves him possessed; and by the end, they all know that their souls are doomed or saved based on how good they are to each other and others.

I would say anyone who considers themselves to be a Christian would be appalled by this film; but the movie’s not really for that audience. It’s so full of raunchy and off-color humor that no one devout would even begin to consider going to see it. But if you’re willing to accept that this is a joke, and a cute little tale about friendship and what it means to sacrifice yourself for others, then none of that stuff will bother you.

The demons actually look pretty good. I can’t imagine a lot of thought went into the actual apocalyptic part of the film, and toward the end, some of the movie drags a bit. This is really more of a vehicle for the actors. But there are some very big laughs and the movie moves along otherwise at a very good pace.

There’s nothing earth shattering about this movie that would elevate it above it being just your average comedy; but since you are watching the earth literally shatter, you can at least look at it this way: if you’re going to watch a movie about the end of the world, it may as well be entertaining. Because if the apocalypse does happen, I have a feeling it won’t feel as funny in real life. Just a hunch.

My rating: :-)


Feel free to leave a comment...

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/thereviewbin/public_html/wp-content/plugins/smilies-themer-toolbar/smilies-themer-toolbar.php on line 450