This Is the End: Review

Cannibals, giant demonic penises and a coked out Michael Cera are but a glimpse of what you will find in the new comedy, This Is the End.

This Is the End is written and directed by Seth Rogan (who also stars) and Evan Goldberg (The guy who wrote Pineapple Express & Superbad). It also happens to be the first film either of them have directed, and is an impressive directoral debut, if I do say so myself.

The film centers around Seth Rogan and Jay Baruchel, who decide to attend a party at James Franco's house. When they arrive, the festivities are already underway, and many a celebrity are getting their party on. This includes the likes of Michael Cera, Rihanna, Jason Segel, Jonah Hill, Emma Watson...you get the point. A lot of familiar faces. As the night goes on, Jay decides that he wants to leave, but is rudely interrupted by the end of the world.

After light beams from Heaven and sink holes from Hell appear, all of L.A. becomes a frenzy of random violence, and fire. TONS OF FIRE. Many of our favorite celebs are killed, leaving the main ensemble to fend for themselves inside Franco's mansion. This includes Jay, Seth, Franco, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson, and Danny McBride. The group decides to fortify Franco's house and survive the apocalypse, together. I won't ruin everything that happens next, but I will say that it's a drug fueled, violent, demon infested tale complete with the actors snuggling like fearful children.

The thing about This Is the End that I really enjoyed was how the actors played off of one another. The movies has a runtime of 107 minutes, and at least 85% of it takes place within Franco's house, so the film relies heavily on the small group of comedians like-ability and ridiculousness to bring about laughs. In my opinion, it worked perfectly. The actors all seem to really like each other, and you can tell by how well they all played off of one another that they had a blast making this movie. One problem that I could see however is if you aren't a big fan of the lead actors, you probably won't like this movie. Over half of the jokes are about their work as actors, or about their relationships with one another.

One of the strongest aspects of a film about real life actors is that you can throw in cameos right and left, and boy does This Is the End do a great job of that. I won't ruin anything for you, but the cameos in This is the End are on par with Bill Murray making an appearance in Zombieland (2009). If you haven't seen Zombieland, then you're behind on the times and I feel no shame for ruining that cameo. But I digress.

SPOILERS AHEAD!

High Points:

There are so many funny gimmicks in this film that it's hard to pick and choose, but one of the funniest moments would have to be James Franco's weird obsession with Seth Rogan throughout the film. He's even gone so far as to hang paintings on his wall that read "James Franco" and "Seth Rogan," and when the paintings are taken down to help fortify the house, Franco replies, "Take mine, leave the Rogan."

Another great point is when the group decides to do all of the drugs that they have in the house (and oh boy is it a lot).

Then there is the hysterical scene in which Emma Watson breaks into the house, only to confuse the groups conversation as them wanting to take turns raping her. She ends up beating the crap out of them and stealing all of their food and drink, even after they try explaining that it was a misunderstanding.

At the end of the film, Jay, Seth and Craig make it to Heaven. There, they learn that they can wish for anything, and Jay wishes up the greatest cameo of the film, the Backstreet Boys. They come in dancing in full angel garb, and the entire Heaven sequence that follows is hysterical, and a perfect ending to the film.

There really are too many to high points to list here, but see the film for yourself and decide which scenes are your favorites.

A coked out Michael Cera provides a hilarious cameo.

Low Points:

I've always thought that Danny McBride was the weak link to this hilarious group, and it holds true in this film as well. He's hysterical when they first introduce him, but his character quickly wears thin, and he becomes incredibly annoying. As time goes on, he begins to alienate himself from the rest of the group, and his rants become almost unbearable to listen to at points. The problem here is that they let his rants drag on far too long, and jokes that started out funny become stale.

He finally leaves the house, and when the rest of the group leaves too, they run into him again, only this time he's the leader of a Mad Max styled cannibalistic troupe.  This entire scene was unfunny to me, as he takes a joke about having anal intercourse with Channing Tatum way too far,  to the point where I was cringing at what he was saying instead of laughing.

Besides Danny, the rest of the film runs incredibly smooth. It does drag a bit at parts in the house, but is otherwise very entertaining. It's certainly looking like one of the best comedies of the summer, and is absolutely worth a viewing in the theatre.

Overall, I give the film a 4/5 stars.