This Is The End

The apocalypse is proving to be a somewhat popular theme to explore in film and tv over the last couple of years. Zombies are largely taking responsibility for the trend, but disaster movies like The Day After Tomorrow, Knowing and The Happening are showing that there's big money to be made from the whole "what if everything went catastrophically wrong" scenario. Granted, each of those last three mentioned are indescribably terrible films, but still...people went to see them. So I guess it was only time for someone to step up and make a good comedy addition to the genre, and that man was Seth Rogen (and writing partner Evan Goldberg, naturally). Rogen's career has hit a minor lull thanks to efforts such as The Green Hornet shaking his previously untouchable reputation for producing genuinely funny and original comedies, so now to find out if he could pull it back with his take on the end of days; This Is The End.

So here's the basic idea: we're watching a film wherein all of the actors are playing exaggerated version of themselves, and they're all attending the housewarming party of James Franco. Seth Rogen reuintes with his friend Jay Barouchel and takes him to the party, despite the hesitance of the latter. The party is awash with famous faces of American comedy, including Craig Robinson, Michael Cera, Aziz Ansari, Jonah Hill, Jason Segel and Christopher Mintz-Plasse, not to mention a showing from Rihanna. Once Barouchel decides to go out for cigarettes as an excuse for his feeling uncomfortable at the party, Rogen accompanies him to a convenience stores, just as the apocalypse kicks into life. People are "raptured" by beams of blue light, earthquakes shake Hollywood, and havoc breaks out on the streets. Returning to the party, Rogen and Barouchel find the guests blissfully unaware until a further quake claims the lives of several of the guests, leaving Franco, Rogen, Barouchel, Robinson, Hill and McBride as the survivors, sheltering in Franco's house. They must spend the rest of the movie attempting to survive what appears to be armageddon with limited food, water and a continuously strained group relationship.

The idea is a clever one in two ways. First: whilst this kind of story has been explored previously, from films/novels ranging as widely as End Of Days and I Am Legend, it has never particularly been explored successfully in a comedy format. Second: the casting is eye-catching. The majority of the actors were involved in either/both Freaks & Geeks or Pineapple Express, two of Rogen's most critically successful ventures so far. Furthermore, almost everyone in the film has appeared in a series of movies with a cult following (see Cera in Scott Pilgrim vs The World, for example), so the film pretty much guarantees it's immediate audience on cast alone. The majority of the actors provide excellent performances as themselves, as cameos or otherwise, even if Robinson and Danny McBride are essentially playing the same characters they've ever played in everything they've ever been in. Franco does a good job of making us wonder whether he actually is a slightly unhinged acting snob, longing for the closeness of his oldest friends in the business, and Hill is very funny as a cringeworthy, camper vision of himself. But it is still Rogen who steals the show here, even if he is also just playing himself. Rogen has a way of tapping into comedy, or at least to my tastes. He's constantly chortling away, making obscene jokes and just being the person you wish you knew in the real world, he immediately disarms you allowing you to appreciate the humour of the scenes he's in. But enough of my imaginary bromance with Mr. Rogen.

As the film goes on, it has some genuinely hilarious moments, whether that's seeing the various deaths of the party guests, the already infamous Emma Watson cameo or the group fighting off boredom through the filming of a Pineapple Express sequel in the house. It's never particularly intelligent, and rarely catches you by surprise, this film is a Rogen standard: friends ripping on each other; however, the twist on this one is obviously that hellfire is raining down on the planet at the same time. This simply means that the film can get away with the slightly more ridiculous, so high school anxiety is instead replaced with demons, cannibals and Satan. As you do.

Unfortunately, this only gets the film so far, as it has a storyline to try and tie up, and it rushes the process slightly. A lot of time is spent on the set up, and one or two comedy bits in the middle, and less on the actual climax of the film, which takes place in less than ten minutes of screentime. What's more, the ending seems to get sucked into a slightly sappy conclusion, albeit with a guy-love theme, rather than a full on love story. Though I will admit, the final scene of the movie, which I definitely will not ruin, might go down as one of my favourite (and most certainly the one of the most random) finales of any I have ever seen, and, no joking, genuinely made happy.

3/5 - Extremely funny in places,but a little stretched and forced in others. However, it marks a solid return to form for Rogen, and has apparently made me realise that I could end up being his stalker until I get to share a beer with him. Which is completely normal.