This Is The End:
Jay Baruchel travels to L.A. to visit his good friend and fellow actor/comedian Seth Rogen. Seth drags him to a huge house party at Rogen's friend and Pineapple Express co-star James Franco's mansion. At the party, they meet up with Seth's good friend and fellow actors/comedians such as Michael Cera, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson, and Danny McBride. But unfortunately, Jay has trouble fitting in and feels shut-out of the circle of friends. Even more unfortunate, after a series of strange earthquakes, the group of friends discovers the apocalypse is happening right outside their doorstep. After the party disbands, the gang shut themselves inside Franco's mansion and try to survive the horrors of the world's end. Similar to how Adam Sandler gets his comedian friends for movies (which he's attempting again this summer with Grown Ups 2), Rogen has decided to get his comedy crew together for a single film, with one major difference: it's actually funny. One of the reasons the movie is so funny is because instead of playing characters, the cast (with the exception of Brian Huskey, who makes a cameo as a survivor) all play fictional and exaggerated versions of themselves, in which they basically make fun of themselves. Rogen even mocks the fact he, according to the critics, "basically is the same person in every movie". Franco makes himself out to be an egotistical asshole, and Hill even does the thing he does in every movie: somebody says "(Blank) is happening" and Hill will say sarcastically "Is it? Is it happening? Is that what's going on?" It's even funnier here because it's self-mocking. There's even a small scene where the 3 stars of Superbad (Hill, Cera, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse) have a strange little reunion. Speaking of which, Michael Cera plays an over-the-top, weird, coked-out version of himself, who everybody hates. Other self-mocking celebrity cameos include Emma Watson (as mentioned before), Channing Tatum, Kevin Hart, Aziz Ansari, Rihanna, Paul Rudd, Jason Segel, Evan Goldberg, The Backstreet Boys, David Krumholtz, Mindy Kaling, and Martin Starr. McBride paints himself as a crazy, violent, semi-sociopath who everybody (especially Franco) dislikes, and Robinson is portrayed as a just a nice guy. Jay Baruchel makes fun of his "hipster" look and makes himself into an awkward outcast. Emma Watson has a funny but short role as, well, just herself. The film is based on the 2007 short film/fake trailer Jay and Seth versus the Apocalypse, a short comedy film created by Rogen, Goldberg, and Jason Stone, which has Baruchel and Rogen boarded up in their apartment during the end of the world. The film obviously changed some things to ensure a longer running time, such as more actors and a larger setting, and featured Rogen and Goldberg as writers and directors. This film does get a bit into the dark comedy range during the 3rd act, but mainly sticks to it's guns: funny dialogue, some body humor, and pop culture references. Speaking of which, this is like a cinephile's wet dream when it comes to references. There are clever references to films and television programs that featured the comedians (such as Freaks and Geeks, Pineapple Express, Million Dollar Baby, Your Highness, Flyboys, The Green Hornet, Moneyball, Spiderman 3, and 127 Hours) and classic genre films (such as The Exorcist, Rosemary's Baby, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, and the not-so-classic Doomsday, which in itself is one giant film reference, combining multiple 80's films and genres) The film has some surprisingly good CGI during the apocalypse scenes, especially for a summer comedy, and even incorporates Biblical themes, not being too serious, though. The writing in the film is witty and hilarious, incorporating both self-deprecating humor and numerous comedic references for film and TV buffs, and Rogen and Goldberg made a surprisingly effective directing duo. This Is The End may not be the funniest movie ever, hell, maybe not even in the past 2 years, but it's definitely the funniest so far this year (although it's not too hard to compete with Scary Movie 5 and Movie 43) and possibly the funniest of the entire year. 3.5/5 stars.
(Image: Wikipedia)
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