Lewd and Crude, Butt Funny

Rating: 7/10 (14 June 2013)

This film is recommended.
Take a group of today's younger comedians and actors, mix in an apocalyptic nightmare scenario, and add plenty of raunchiness and sexual hi-jinks and you have a film like This is The End. Brought to you from the same team that produced Superbad and Pineapple Express, two films that left me underwhelmed, This is The End tries so hard to raise the level of shock value and tastelessness and although the film completely loses sight of the bigger picture, it has an abundance of laughs amid all the lewdness.
This is The End wants to create genuine laughs at the expense of the next Hollywood Brat Pack with a better-them-than-us mentality. It wisely trades on their likability factor and the public's general perception of these performers from their previous films. The actors play themselves, real-life best friends caught in the aftershock of the turbulence surrounding them, as the world as they know it, spins out of control.
There's a party at James Franco's home and Seth Rogen Jonah Hill, and Craig Robinson are just some of the invited guests, along with Jay Baruchel. As more party-goers arrive, so does the Rapture. Other party-goers turned survivalists include: Danny McBride, Emma Watson, and Michael Cera, who is hilarious as he plays against his own geeky type . There are also many surprising cameos from other celebrities with mixed results and funny visual riffs of other films like Rosemary's Baby, The Exorcist, and even Ghostbusters. One by one, the actors send up their own screen personas. (Franco, Rogen, and Hill fare best.)
The cleverness of this conceit adds some humor and it is that camaraderie that helps to make the film succeed up to a point. The inside jokes and banter skews their stereotypical public images as stoners, doofuses, and nerds are thrown from one catastrophe to the next.
Where the film begins to falter is in its execution. The film downplays their dire situation at the expense of its own plot structure. While laughs are frequent and the childish antics remain character-driven, the story itself begins to ramble. The ramping up of sex and violence (quite graphic at times) tends to upend the well-earned comedic elements.
Written and directed by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, the film entertains while it perverts the notion of celebrity worship, ethical dilemmas, religious dogma, and the lack of moral conscience and one-upsmanship in today's self-serving society. That's a lot to digest from a film which is really a basic teen comedy in disguise. Still, the film's biggest asset is its savage wit in pushing the satirical elements to exaggerated proportions. Unfortunately, the film never knows when to say when. It continually overdoes its grossness and vulgarity and becomes a bit exhausting with all its excesses on full display, leading to a rather silly ending after all the hoopla.
This is The End is a series of endless outrageous pranks that may shock and appall some moviegoers while thoroughly delight others. Audience reaction will run the gamut depending on your own comfort level of irreverent humor. As for me, I enjoyed much of the fun, the crude humor, and even the offensive jokes of This is The End. GRADE: B
ANY COMMENTS: Please contact me at: jadepietro@rcn.com