Movie Review: This Is The End

His Review:

Ever wondered what movie stars would be like during the Apocalypse? This is the End is a movie that is supposed to be just that.  The movie was written and directed by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg.   This movie stars many actors playing themselves, such as Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel (Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Million Dollar Baby), Craig Robinson, Danny McBride, James Franco, Jonah Hill.  There is a ton of cameos as well, by Rihanna, Michael Cera, Paul Rudd, Emma Watson, and the list goes on and on.

The movie begins with Seth Rogen picking up Jay Baruchel at the airport, who is visiting after what is supposed to be about a year of not seeing each other.  They hang out at Seth Rogen’s house, smoke weed, play video games, and other nefarious things, when Seth Rogen talks Jay Baruchel into visiting James Franco’s open house party.  Jay Baruchel in the movie is portrayed as a sort of Hollywood hater, not really liking James Franco or any of his friends, such as Jonah Hill or Michael Cera.

They wind up going to Franco’s house, with Franco being portrayed as some crazy artsy guy who finds art in everything.  He also seems to have some weird obsession with Seth Rogen, which is conveyed through various odd but funny ways.  The drama hinted at in the movie between Jay and Seth Rogen’s “new” friends (Jonah Hill and other Hollywooders) begins to heats up, leading to Jay needing to leave for a little while.  He convinces Seth to go with him to the store for some cigarettes, and that is the beginning of the end, as they have their first foray with the apocalypse at the store they walked to.

Back at the house, everything seems fine at first, and Seth and Jay are surprised no one seems to know anything about what happened.  The earthquakes begin though, and a light post, impales a “coked up” Michael Cera while he is trying to figure out who stole his cell phone.  The earthquake leads to a massive sinkhole develops, creating chaos, killing 90% of the celebrities, leaving only Craig Robinson, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Jay Baruchel, Seth Rogen and eventually found Danny McBride.   Meanwhile Paul Rudd, Rihanna, Aziz Ansari  and many other movie stars plunge to their death.

The movie continues following the usual storylines of apocalyptic movies, dealing with supplies shortages, internal conflicts within the core group, and how to deal with external conflicts such as rival groups.  It is all done with a humorous tone though, so it is not a depressing movie in the least bit.

I really enjoyed this movie, and thought the humor was great, with only a few misses.   Probably the most fun part of this movie is trying to decide how much each star was like their character counterpart in the movie in the movie.  I also thought it was great how they inadvertently show their real life awareness of certain aspects of themselves, such as the constant bringing up of Pineapple Express with James Franco and Seth Rogen, and the bringing up of Seth Rogen’s laugh within the film.

Surprisingly, the CGI used in the movie was pretty good considering this film was on what would be a moderate budget of $32 million, and the fact that it was comedy first and a sci-fi apocalyptic movie second.

Considering this is a Seth Rogen film, I would have to say that if you at all are offended by sexual jokes, or have children, then this is a movie to skip.  There is a lot of this type of humor throughout the movie, so it is something to consider.  There is a scene with Emma Watson (from Harry Potter for those who don’t know), which while is funny, is also really grotesque, and I could certainly see sensitive people not liking this scene at all.

I would give this movie a 7 out of 10.  All of the actors did a great job, but I sure hope most of them are not quite as they are portrayed in the movie.  I would guess that they are playing over the top versions of themselves, as they seemed to indicate when we saw the WonderCon panel for this movie.  Unfortunately, most comedies do not resonate with me as much as a good sci-fi, action or thriller movie would, and audiences that are more in tune with Seth Rogen and his type of humor would love this movie I think.

Her Review:

We’ve all seen apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic type movies, and it seems like they always have a serious tone. This is the End is a comedic take on those movies, exploring how a group of real-life celebrities might handle the apocalypse when it comes. The film was written and directed by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, although much of the movie features improv by the various actors. The movie stars Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson, and Danny McBride, as well as features cameos by a whole host of other celebrities, such as Michael Cera, Emma Watson, Rihanna, and many more. Interestingly, all of the celebrities play themselves. Or at least, slightly exaggerated versions of themselves. Maybe some more exaggerated than others. The movie is based on a short film Rogen and Baruchel made in 2006 entitled Jay and Seth v. the Apocalypse, which has essentially the same premise.

The movie starts off with Seth Rogen picking up his good buddy Jay Baruchel from LAX. They haven’t seen each other in awhile, so it’s a nice reunion, and the two spend the afternoon hanging out at Seth’s place. Everything’s going great until Seth wants to go to a party at James Franco’s house, which Jay objects to because he just wanted to hang out with Seth, plus he doesn’t like the LA crowd. However, Seth finally talks him into it.

They get to the party and there are tons of celebrities there. Seth’s having a good time, but Jay isn’t, so they get into a bit of a fight and end up walking to a nearby convenience store to buy cigarettes. While there, blue beams of light randomly appear and take people up in them. However, Jay, Seth, and a couple other people in the store are not taken. Chaos erupts outside, and Seth and Jay run for their lives back to Franco’s house — where everything is as they left it, and the partygoers are unaware that anything out of the ordinary is going on.  However, disaster soon finds the party, and we see several celebrities get killed off, some in more graphic ways than others. Finally, there is just one small group of celebrities left alive, and they take refuge in Franco’s house as the apocalypse descends on the world outside. The group then has to deal with dwindling resources, and each other, as they try to figure out how they can survive.

The movie is different from other apocalyptic movies in that almost everything is handled with a humorous tone. However, not everything is a joke, as there are some more personal, emotional scenes that reveal and challenge the friendships between the characters, especially Jay and Seth, as they work out their issues. But don’t worry, the movie never gets TOO serious. It’s hard for this group of jokers to stay serious for very long. Even when they are being serious, or seems like they’re trying to be serious, there’s often an undertone of humor. Sometimes the movie reminded me of the spoof type movies, such as Scary Movie or Epic Movie, except this would be Apocalyptic Movie. For example, although there are several instances of graphic tragedies, these are handled in very comedic, and often unrealistic, ways. However, the movie as a whole wasn’t quite that over the top, as it took itself a little more seriously than spoof movies, considering that it actually had a decent storyline.

Overall, the movie was quite entertaining, with tons of surprise celebrity appearances that you would have never seen coming. I liked how you actually find out why all these catastrophic events are happening, rather than it all remaining a mystery.  It’s often difficult to get the genres of sci-fi and comedy to go together, but I thought Rogen and Goldberg pulled it off pretty well, as I felt like it was a good balance of both genres. Yes, a little silly at times, and of course there are a good amount of vulgar jokes, but that’s to be expected from this group of guys.

My rating: 7/10