What starts as funny soon becomes tedious.

Rating: 4/10 (6 September 2013)

The concept was simple enough. All the big A list comedy stars group together and go to a huge party in the house (or fortress) of James Franco, just before the apocalypse erupts. All playing themselves, Seth Rogen, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, and Craig Robinson, survive the first stage of the end of the world and seclude themselves safely within the walls of Franco's house, and from that moment on the movie goes from one mistake to the next, which just makes you wonder:
Have these guys run out of comedic ideas?
When you look at the credits given in This Is The End, you really would expect more from these guys. Seth Rogen, hilarious in Knocked Up, Green Hornet and Paul. Jonah Hill in 21 Jump Street and Super Bad ( a minor plus in the film is seeing the Super Bad trio reunited), Craig Robinson in Hot Tub Time Machine (although he is one of the funniest of the cast) and James Franco has done enough to show his acting talents in the past. The problem with This Is The End is that it all feels like they're just re-treading old material, whether it be masturbation gags, male genitalia jokes and pornography references, and, of course, "funny" clips involving dope smoking. (It wasn't funny in Pineapple Express, and it isn't here either).
It all just seems so forced and more like a private joke between the cast members, and as the film "progresses" the jokes become all the more stale. I really went into This Is The End with high expectations, and I sat there hoping to find it more amusing, but the truth of it all is I just got really, really bored. Throughout the decapitated heads, jizzed up magazines, cannibalism, and a mildly funny parody of The Exorcist, the film reaches it's much awaited ending, and we are given the cringe worthy sight of giant devil testicles as the it comes to Earth to claim the last survivors. And then, when the last scene finally ends, the cinema falls quiet and the credits roll.
And it's a real shame. These guys have shown in the past that they can be funny, and whilst this film does deliver the occasional few laughs, they are short lived and then forgotten. Although, on a more positive note, whoever came up with the idea of a douche bag Michael Cera (as seen in the trailers) on cocaine that nobody likes was probably the funniest aspect to film amongst it's stupidity. So props to that guy.
My Verdict: An overlong, boring journey following Hollywood's best in the midst of the apocalypse with few highlights. If anything, it's just disappointing.