One of The Funniest Films in a While

Rating: 9/10 (19 August 2014)

Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, as co-writers and co-directors adapting director Jason Stone's short, capture denial as coping mechanism in the face of the unimaginable, while also satirizing stardom, poking fun at rich-stoner foibles and, generating genuine dread and despair. For all its visual effects' evidently low-budget seams, and with full acknowledgment of gross-out moments that make this movie not for everyone, This Is the End is masterful comedy film making, all the more impressive for its loose-limbed apparent casualness.
With all the stars playing fictional versions of themselves, Baruchel and Rogen—friends since at least Judd Apatow's cult-classic TV series "Undeclared" and since then part of Apatow's informal movie repertory company—attend a party at James Franco's concrete mansion in L.A. There, the guest roster includes Craig Robinson, a suspiciously obsequious Jonah Hill, Michael Cera—depicted as a gold-plated jerk who feels up Rihanna, getting punched in the process, and blowing a cloud of cocaine into the face of non-user Christopher Mintz-Plasse—along with Mindy Kaling, David Krumholtz, Martin Starr, Paul Rudd, Kevin Hart, Aziz Ansari and Jason Segel in cameos. When suddenly faced with what they think is just an unusually destructive earthquake that's spawned fires and a huge sinkhole, most of them die in the ensuing everyone-for- themselves panic and the aforesaid sinkhole.
Franco, Hill, Robinson, Baruchel and Rogen survive and barricade themselves, as Baruchel, who was in a convenience store with Rogen when the earthquake hit, describes seeing people borne up into the skies in rays of blue light. At first no one believes him—Rogen had been covered with detritus from the tremor and saw nothing—but by the time some neighbor begging to be let in gets decapitated and evidently eaten by some growling thing outside, a growing sense of infinitely terrible possibilities takes hold. Then Danny McBride, whom no one knew had shown up invited, appears the next morning behaving pretty much like his on screen persona in HBO's Eastbound & Down, which is to say of the first order—while an ax-wielding Emma Watson proves surprisingly. "Hermione just stole all of our (food)," McBride deadpans to a confessional camera recording their last days. As pointed out McBride steals the show here, every scene he is in is a pleasure to watch, including his back and forth conversation with Franco. I feel that the film goes somewhat down hill once he leaves. The ending was not too great, although unpredictable. This is the End is a great comedy definitely not for everyone's comedic taste. If you are a fan of Seth Rogen type comedies (Pineapple Express, Knocked Up), I don't see how one would be left completely disappointed (at least not to have several laughs).