Review #659: 'This Is the End' (2013)

We all know the comedy formula by now - obnoxious man-child goes about his business until a life-changing event (i.e. a girl) teaches him the way of the world so that we gradually learn that he's really quite sweet after all. It's a cliché fully embraced by silver screen comedy megastars like Ben Stiller, Will Ferrell and Jack Black. Audiences, clearly comfortable with predictability, flock to see their hugely profitable films, because, as bad as their movies tend to be, they are still loveable actors. Judd Apatow and his entourage of actors - although they have made their fair share of bad movies too - seem unsatisfied with simply offering the same thing over and over again. First-time directors Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen here give us a strange and dangerously self-indulgent end-of-the-world comedy with some of Hollywood's most famous offering themselves up for lampooning, resulting in a Marmite movie that I believe is the funniest of the year so far.

L.A.-loathing Jay Baruchel arrives at the airport to be greeted by his lifelong buddy Seth Rogen. The two go home and smoke some weed, and eventually head over to James Franco's new Hollywood mansion for an A-list party. Baruchel doesn't want to go because Jonah Hill will be there, and Jonah is apparently an arsehole. While Rogen mixes with his new Hollywood buddies, Baruchel mopes on his own and watches Craig Robinson sing 'take yo' panties off!' with Rihanna. But as Baruchel and Rogen go to the store for some munchies, beams of light suddenly start sucking people up into heaven, and the ground below them starts to open. It seems the Rapture has passed them by and the apocalypse is upon them. Holed up in Franco's mansion as demonic monsters prowl outside, they must survive starvation, Emma Watson wielding an axe, an exorcism, and most of all, an uninvited Danny McBride.

With disaster movies opening every other week these days, the vision of the apocalypse brought by Goldberg and Rogen is actually rather well done. A coked-up Michael Cera, who is previously seen receiving some oral assistance in a bathroom, is given a particularly gruesome death, while the likes of Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Jason Segel and Paul Rudd are sucked into wormholes in the ground. It would seem obvious to most normal people as to what these idiots need to do to escape their predicament, but they are far too self-absorbed to realise. It's funny how aware these actors are of their public perception, and they fully embrace it. So Rogen is ribbed for playing the same guy in every movie and is practically always seen with a joint in his mouth; Franco is the robe-wearing, art-collecting 'pretentious nerd' (as McBride labels him); Hill is subtly creepy; Robinson is just an extremely nice guy; and McBride is psychotic and selfish. Baruchel, it seems, is the only 'normal' one, completely untainted by Hollywood.

But the point here is not that Hollywood is evil or that Hollywood corrupts the soul. I don't really know what it's about, but at it's centre there is the relatable story of lifelong friends that have grown apart, but are still desperately clinging onto that special bond they share. And it is this that makes the film so engrossing. The humour is as bad taste as you would expect (at one point, Franco and McBride threaten each other with ejaculation), but it's the emotional core that dilutes all the cock jokes and gives the movie such much-needed humanity. It won't be for everybody, and some of the general strangeness will go over a lot of audience's heads. Goldberg and Rogen have clearly seen far too many movies and therefore throw everything but the kitchen sink at the film, but I found this a completely unexpected joy, and an original one at that. Although it gets a bit too ridiculous at the climax, the end note will have a big part of the audience screaming with pleasure with a cameo or five by some unexpected guests.


Directed by: Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen
Starring: Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson, Danny McBride, Emma Watson, Michael Cera
Country: USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie