STARRING: Jay Baruchel, Seth Rogen, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson, Danny McBride, Michael Cera, Emma Watson, Mindy Kaling, David Krumholtz, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Rihanna, Martin Starr, Paul Rudd, Jason Segal, Channing Tatum, Kevin Hart, Aziz Ansari, The Backstreet Boys. Directed by Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen.
WRITTEN BY: Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg
DIRECTED BY: Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg
2013 comedy has been a little bit of a let down thus far, lets be honest. There hasn’t been an entry into the “Oh, this might be a classic” category. No one will be following The Hangover 3 or The Internship 10 years from now, and still quoting it. But, they just might be quoting This Is The End. Why? Because it’s brilliant.
Written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, the film starts off with superstar Seth Rogen picking up his friend Jay Baruchel at the airport. Of course, Seth is more famous than Jay, which is a running gag in the film. Seth has planned an awesome weekend with Jay, which includes a party at James Franco’s house that Jay really doesn’t want to go to. But, Seth wants Jay to become friends with his LA buddies, and insists that Jay come along. So, Jay reluctantly goes to Franco’s, where he meets up with Jonah Hill (who is trying really hard to be nice to Jay), Craig Robinson, Michael Cera, Emma Watson, and a ton of other celebrities who are only around for like a half-second.
Soon after, the rapture comes and takes all the “good people” to heaven. Guess who God left behind? Everyone at James Franco’s house. As the apocalypse happens, celebrities start dying, and before long we’re left with our core group: Jay, Seth, James, Craig, and Jonah. They go through James’s house, find all the food, figure out rations, and board up and make James’s house into a fortress. Somehow, no one noticed Danny McBride was still inside, and he wasn’t even invited to the party! Danny being thrown into the mix definitely messes up the vibe, and Jay still hates everyone, and tries to figure out how they can fix being left behind.
Everyone is playing themselves in the movie, which is hilarious. Hopefully, these are all versions of themselves, because if that’s the real Michael Cera, we need to get him to the Lindsay Lohan rehab center immediately. Cera has literally never been funnier than he is in the few scenes of This Is The End. Even if you don’t like him, he’ll still make you laugh. Also, Channing Tatum’s fifteen seconds is priceless. Emma Watson was pretty great too.
The core six guys though are where the film is at. Seth is the glue that holds everyone together, as it seems that Jonah, James, and Jay are all jockeying to be his best friend. Craig is just chill, and Danny is the guy everyone loves to hate. The six have an odd chemistry that can’t be duplicated. It’s like spending a weekend with your best friends and filming it, only the film turns out to be as epic as this film.
Another strong choice was to take the apocalypse seriously. Even though the six guys are hilarious, and some insanely funny jokes happen throughout the movie, the danger is real, people are really dying, and they are sometimes dying violently horrible deaths. People fall into a fiery pit, someone gets impaled, another is decapitated, someone is crushed by a falling ceiling, people are run over by cars, someone gets eaten, it’s all very dangerous, and the threat is present at all times. It’s like the guys watched Independence Day and just thought they could make it funnier.
This Is The End is the funniest film of the year, and the best time I’ve had in a movie theater in a long time. Make sure you see it with your friends, the same ones you would want by your side when the reckoning comes. Because if this film is nothing else, it’s a buddy film, made by six guys who deserve to make it to the end of any film.
FINAL GRADE: A
