Rated R

107 minutes

Written by: Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen

Directed by: Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen

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Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg must have been incredibly stoned or tripping on hallucinogens when they initially came up with the idea of This Is The End.  Based after the short Jay and Seth Versus the Apocalypse (2007) that they also wrote, This Is The End follows two famous Canadian stoner real-life best friends Seth Rogen and Jay Baruchel, yes the actors are playing themselves, as they try to survive the apocalypse.

What follows next is nothing short of ridiculous as the two friends join up with a Judd Apatow’s Avengers-like super team of comedic actors including James Franco, Jonah Hill, Danny McBride and  Craig Robinson.  They are holed up in James Franco’s house and must depend on each other to survive.  This is the kind of movie that you make after making it big and having lots of famous friends and you can tell Seth Rogen and his crew had a shit load of fun making it.

Let the meta-real life shenanigans begin.

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Positives:

+Hilarious Dialoge – Much of the humor from this film came via the dialogue between the real life friends.  Being that they were comedic actors playing themselves, they frequently brought up some of their less then stellar movie roles to each other and made fun of their careers.  When a character died it was usually so over-the-top, such as  Michael Cera’s, that I was dying from laughter.  The funniest scene, however, is when James Franco flips out over Danny McBride masturbating all over his house, that scene was so spot-on I had to watch it twice.

+Tons Of Cameos – Have you ever wanted to see Michael Cera get coked out and have a threesome while sipping a juice box?  Or Emma Watson, from the Harry Potter series, wield an axe because she misunderstood a rape joke?  Or Jonah Hill receive an exorcism?  You get that all here, plus the BACKSTREET BOYS!  “Backstreet’s back, alright!”  Look out for a brilliant cameo by Channing Tatum… to say anymore would ruin it.

+Highly Ridiculous – This highly ridiculous concept worked because of how the movie played up the ridiculous and over-the-top moments, such as a misunderstanding that has to do with Emma Watson thinking she’s about to be raped. I know that sounds not very funny in written form and in different hands it might have been distasteful (the idea of rape is repulsive), but the ridiculous nature this movie delights in makes this scene laughable.  Most of the violence worked comedically because of this to.

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Negatives:

− Lots Of Immature Humor – I don’t necessarily view this as a huge negative because I enjoy immaturity when handled in the proper way.  But some audience members might tire from all the masturbating, penis and rape jokes.  And trust me there are plenty of those.  Just a warning for those mature individuals out there.

− One Location – After the initial 40 minutes of This Is The End‘s run-time I was beginning to tire from the characters being confined to Franco’s house for the majority of the film.  That works fine for a small contained horror movie such as Alien or Saw, but it just didn’t work here.  If they explored the outside destroyed world of Los Angeles more and got out of there earlier things would have been more exciting.

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Whether your going to enjoy This Is The End or not completely depends upon your love of Seth Rogen and his buddies.  I happen to love him, although not quite as much as Kevin Smith and his Viewaskewniverse who’s Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back film functions in much the same way as this film.  If you hate Setth Rogen’s brand of humor as seen in Pineapple Express, then stay far away from this film.  Simple as that.

While Grown-Ups was a disappointing who’s who of the Happy Madison crew, This Is The End is a highly entertaining film that Judd Apatow would be proud of.

7/10