Rapture-Palooza

Plot synopsis:
Lindsey Lewis and her boyfriend Ben House are left on Earth after the rapture. The souls of the worthy have been taken to Heaven while everyone else has been left behind. The people left on Earth must fend for themselves in a world now plagued by evil locusts that constantly yell "suffer!", talking crows that use profanity, brimstone, wraiths, and storms that rain blood. A politician named Earl Gundy takes control of the government and begins calling himself The Beast.
Lindsey's mother, a fervent Christian, was raptured but becomes the only person sent back after starting a fight in heaven. Her father is killed by one of the falling meteorites, and her brother Clark begins selling pot to the wraiths. Ben's father, an employee of The Beast, attempts to recruit Ben and Lindsey into working with The Beast. At first they refuse, but after their dream of opening a sandwich cart is literally crushed, they are forced to accept. On his day off, Ben's father begins to give them a "tour" around the Beast's mansion outside their hometown of Seattle. The mansion is heavily guarded by the Beastly Guards, the Beast's own private army of humans who made the deal with the Antichrist and the wraiths that serve his command. As warned by Ben's father, it is secretly loaded with land mines. The Beast, his guards, and his son Little Beast unexpectedly arrive, interrupting the tour. The Beast becomes smitten with Lindsey and pressures her to marry him and bear his evil children, giving her eight hours to decide before he will kill everyone she knows and loves.
Lindsey consults a Bible and together with Ben hatches a plan to imprison The Beast. They are warned not to kill The Beast as he will just return as Satan. Ben's father had built an escape-proof dog kennel for their pet, so they decide to use it to hold The Beast. They hatch an elaborate plan to isolate The Beast from his guards and the wraiths. They enlist Lindsey's brother and their undead zombie neighbor Mr. Murphy to assist in the plan, and Lindsey returns to The Beast's mansion to be wooed. While Lindsey's brother and his friend smoke pot with the wraiths and their neighbor engages the guards in a distraction, Lindsey attempts to spike The Beast's drink. When he fails to drink it, she is forced to lure him to the hot tub so that Ben can help her.
Outside, Lindsey begins yelling for Ben who arrives and challenges The Beast to a fight. After mocking Ben, The Beast pulls a gun and attempts to shoot him before Lindsey intervenes. The Beast knocks Ben out with a champagne bottle before being shot by Lindsey. As Ben comes back around, The Beast begins to recover. Lindsey begins shooting him again as Ben brings her more guns. Out of ammunition, they resort to bludgeoning him with a shovel before Ben decides to try and shoot him with a giant poolside laser that The Beast had installed. As Lindsey and Ben try to aim the laser they are blinded by a light coming from the sky. Ben is startled to see a man in white riding a winged horse and shoots him in panic, killing him and the horse.
Ben and Lindsey slowly realize that they've accidentally shot Jesus Christ. There is suddenly lightning from the sky, and the pair are confronted by a man in a white suit whom they realize is God. God angrily explains that Ben and Lindsey have ruined his entire plan involving the fate of all mankind by killing Jesus. Ben and Lindsey at first apologize, but God begins mocking and insulting them. The Beast revives as Satan and sneaks up on God, waylaying him with a shovel and starting a fistfight between the two. The fight spills over into the hot tub, where Satan deliberately drops a boombox in the water and electrocutes them both.
The Beast's guards drive up and see the two bodies. Ben's dad arrives and the men begin arguing over who will take The Beast's place as ruler of the world. Lindsey interrupts to point out with God and Satan dead, everyone is now in charge of themselves. Lindsey and Ben kiss as the men decide what to do now that they are free.
Ben and Lindsey finally open their own sandwich shop (which turns into a thriving lunch destination) and Lindsey is shown visibly pregnant with their child. Little Beast is now happily working with them. Lindsey's mother has made friends with some of the wraiths that are still around and is shown smoking pot with them. Ben's father moves into the mansion and throws a huge party with many other people including Morgan, the Beast's former right-hand man and leader of the now-disbanded Beastly Guards, as they celebrate their freedom with barbeque and salsa loaded with PCP.

Tags: good versus evil, satire, murder, adult comedy

Review:
I have to say that I thought this was very funny and I laughed throughout the whole movie, but it is my kind of humor.
Mainly a lot of random things happening and some really stupid jokes that make me laugh like a man getting killed by a huge flaming rock and the wife mad because he was holding the eggs when he died.
Overall, a stupid movie that I thought was very funny and I laughed a lot.
It does seem sky-breakingly original in a Hollywood controlled market that seems to fear openly satirizing Christian/Jewish/Muslim beliefs beyond the people who don't question them in any way or use them to get power and wealth.The actors clearly have a lot of fun with this and get into their parts without any fear of becoming toys of the antichrist or Satan.
Lindsey (Anna Kendrick) and her boyfriend Ben ( John Francis Daley) are non- believers so they remain on earth.
never mind the god awful "Peeples", which was a failure more due to a horrific, unfunny script than Robinsons performance, Rapturepalooza is the movie that allows Robinsons irreverent, thoroughly raunchy comedic style to truly shine.
Craig Robinson is about the only thing in this film worth seeing IMO, as I have yet to see one of his performances that he is not fully committed to, and just plain funny.Funny.That's what I expected in this film, however, it fails to deliver.With a premise like the "rapture", there is all kinds of room for some serious comedy, but this film wastes that opportunity, and instead seems to make the actors take the irritating / idiotic approach to their roles, and in the delivery of their supposedly "funny" lines.The actors deliver their lines, and react to events in the film, in a way that can only be described as "corny", ridiculous, and just plain irritating.
Instead of sympathizing with the characters, I found myself hoping they would be "removed" so as to save me from having to watch them any further on the screen.The ONLY actor that seems to know how to deliver a comedic line is Craig Robinson, but he is simply overwhelmed by the inferior comedic performances of the rest of the cast.
The latest Rapture Palooza brings together a great cast including Anna Kendrick, John Francis Daley, Ken Jeong, Thomas Lennon, Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson, and Tyler Labine to tackle the biblical end of the world, but does it have the story and execution to keep it all together or will it feel like the end of the world trying to get through it?
This movie had everything it needed to work and does entertain for the most part, but somewhere along the way things get a bit cluttered.
The first half of the movie is pretty entertaining and fast paced setting up this world, but as it moves forward it goes from clever to almost stupid.
Anna Kendrick does a great job with her character keeping the goofiness to a minimum while seemingly taking this world seriously.
The rest of the cast are hit and miss with a lot of their one-liners somewhat out of place, but a decent amount of them work as well.This is one of those films that will probably only entertain a select group which is most likely the only people that will check it out anyway.
With the exception of Anna Kendrick, the cast is peopled with comedic actors of "There's-That-Guy-From- That-Thing"-level renown which is about the right level for the material.
Although some of the proceedings are decidedly not funny including John Michael Higgins being crushed by a falling meteorite as the family looks on, drug- addicts pestering survivors for a hit as they leave their house and the deity of about a billion true-believers being burned to death with a laser as he rides a unicorn.
Rob Coddry, Ken Jeong, John Francis Daly and others in the cast could have rotated around their interchangeable characters during the filming with little loss of coherence.
ending, Kendrick inc increasingly comes to dominate the screen-time and brings an earnestness that keeps the movie at least watchable if not entertaining.
Just like the predicted Rapture of 2012 (as prophesied by Ronald Weinland of the apocalypticist COG-PKG), end of the world comedy Rapture Palooza proves to be something of a non-event.Despite a potentially very funny premise, and a promising start (the slo-mo credits sequence is surprisingly stylish), the film is extremely hit and miss, with the majority of gags being misses.
Much of the humour relies on smut and profanity, which I have no problem with, but when I fail to find a vagina joke funny, we definitely have a problem!To make matters worse, the whole production has an air of cheapness about it, particularly the special effects scenes which look like someone knocked them out quickly in After Effects on their iMac (I suspect this may not be far from the truth).Overall, this is very much like that other terrible rapture themed comedy of 2013, This Is The End, only none of its stars are anywhere near as obnoxious as Seth Rogen.3/10, plus an extra point for getting Anna Kendrick into that white dress (which distracted me slightly from the dire comedy)..
It pairs Anna Kendrick and John Francis Daley as a couple left behind after the Rapture occurs on Earth, literally summoning all of the good religious people and devout Christians into the sky, while leaving non-believers stranded on a less-populated Earth.
In the time of destruction and mass-hysteria, the only way to get out of this predicament is to defeat the new world leader, the Anti-Christ, played by Craig Robinson.
So, the two try to stage something of a date between Kendrick's Lindsey and Robinson's Anti-Christ in order to hopefully try and make a better tomorrow by riding the world of the evil dictator he has grown to become.This is the satirical premise of the year, surely equipping itself with enough fuel to pilot hilarity on religion, science, phenomenons, logic, and biblical characters.
More like a raised eyebrow and look of bewilderment before the next set piece or sight-gagged commenced.But take out all the vulgarity and look at Rapture-Palooza as a lighter, more flexible R-rated comedy and this isn't such a bad movie.
Now replace all the vulgarity and senseless four-letter words and you have an indie-comedy that's just about on the same level as The Hangover: Part III and Identity Thief as a humorless, plastic diversion in the field of comedy.Rapture-Palooza's title even comes from the realm of desperately uncreative movie titles, and falsely indicates a sense of fun and excitement.
This isn't just one of the worst films of the year; it's also one of the saddest.Starring: Anna Kendrick, John Francis Daley, Craig Robinson, Rob Corrdry, and Ken Jeong.
Long time IMDb user, have created an account just to rate this with a scarcely deserved 1 little, shineless star and to let everybody know how bad this movie is.
The performances were excellent; I actually only watched the movie for Anna Kendrick, and she definitely didn't disappoint.
The whole film was just funny, it pretty much just took the mickey out of Christianity and it did it proudly.Would definitely recommend for anyone who doesn't take things too seriously and knows how to have a laugh..
From foul mouth crows telling you to go **** yourself to grasshoppers biting you and yelling suffer to Anna Kendrick telling God **** you, this movie has all of the dumb comedy that makes it so special.
'RAPTURE-PALOOZA': Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five) The second religious apocalypse film, in the same summer, co-starring Craig Robinson (after 'THIS IS THE END')!
Robinson plays the 'Anti-Christ' in this movie and Anna Kendrick and John Francis Daley play the film's central two survivors.
The film also co-stars Rob Corddry, Ron Huebel, John Michael Higgins, Ana Gasteyer, Thomas Lennon, Paul Scheer, Tyler Labine and Ken Jeong as God. It was written by Chris Matheson (who co-wrote both 'BILL & TED' movies) and directed by Paul Middleditch (who's previous directing experience is only in serious dramas).
That and the fact that it wasn't that funny; the premise was great but for the first 15 minutes or so I wasn't digging the jokes or the movie.
I don't know if it's Matheson's script that wasn't working before that but the movie got a lot funnier once all these great comedic actors entered it.
The directing was pretty weak as well but watching all these comedic pros chewing up the scenery and working the crap out of that crazy premise just made the movie so much better.
It's definitely hit-and-miss but when it does work it's hilarious!Watch our movie review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJalgBjCCrg. The rapture is coming, be prepared to laugh.
Where God has left a lot of people behind: namely, Lindsey (Anna Kendrick), her boyfriend Ben (John Francis Daley), and her family.
That's a common complaint about this movie, but when you have so many random things to make fun of, how is it not going to appear random?The plot introduces Craig Robinson as the Beast, aka the Antichrist, aka the devil.
The film pits our everyman heroes, Lindsey and Ben, versus the Beast and they're either going to save the world (what's left of it) or destroy it in the process.In the long line of end of the world movies, this one is closer to "This Is the End" (2013) at least in terms of the humour, but religious ideas have probably never been as relentlessly attacked as they are in this film.
If the movie just stopped there, it would already be a comic hit, but the jokes come dangerously non-stop with the evil Earl at the helm of the Rapture's aftermath.
The rapture finally happen but Anna Kendrick, her boyfriend and her family didn't get sent to heaven.
The Beast A.K.A the Antichrist played by Craig Robinson wants to marry and basically sleep with Anna Kendrick.
He gave her a choice to marry him or kill everyone she knows so she and her boyfriend came up with a plan.A decent satire about the rapture with sarcastic humor by Anna Kendrick and Craig Robinson raunchy humor.
A good cast and cameos, it could of been better but the movie did have moments especially with Craig Robinson and Anna Kendrick together.
There are a couple of uncomfortable moments in the movie that are awkward and unnecessary but thankfully they are few and far between.Overall Rapture-Palooza was a pretty good movie and was much better than I expected..
The one thing that I didn't like most is the fact that Ken Jeong is an above title character on many sites even though he is only in the movie for a couple of minutes....
Lindsey Lewis (Anna Kendrick) and her boyfriend Ben House (John Francis Daley) are left behind.
So, when the faithful are lifted into the heavens, the "meh about Jesus" crowd are left on Earth to deal with those truly sinful as well as the droves of wraiths (zombie-like drones), foul-mouthed locusts, falling meteors, evil henchmen, as well as their master, the lord of the underworld himself, Craig, or "the beast" as he prefers to be called, personified by Craig Robinson (who is also in 'This is The End,' just not as Satan).
The story focuses on Lindsey Lewis, Anna Kendrick, and Ben House, John Francis Daley, a young couple left behind who decide to use this opportunity to finally start their own business.
"Rapture-Palooza" wasn't as funny as I hoped it would have been but it has its moments...even if most those moments are shown in the trailer.There's a lot of performers I really enjoy in this movie.
Comedic actors like Thomas Lennon, Rob Corddry, John Michael Higgins, Rob Huebel, Paul Scheer, Craig Robinson, etc.
However, the script didn't feel as developed as it should have been and there's only so much these people can do to make it work.Craig Robinson jumped back and forth from being entertaining and annoying as the The Anti-Christ.
Anna Kendrick and John Francis Daley are decent as the couple out to stop The Anti-Christ but they didn't really feel like they were attempting to shine or lead the film in any way.
They were directed beyond any pale of restraint to yell their expletive-laced lines and, 1) view scenery, 2) chew thoroughly.The few mildly funny elements - crows cawing expletive-filled torments at those left on Earth after the Rapture and the nasty, pot smoking wraiths - are not lifesaver enough to save this excrement from a trip to the sewer.The story is simple enough: Rapture; Kendricks and boyfriend are left behind; the biblical plagues and the Anti-Christ follow; Anti falls in love with Kendricks and picks her to bear his children; boyfriend leads assault to get her back; poolside battle between God and Satan.
Simply meant to upstage "This Is The End," (also featuring Robinson) there should not be any expectation of entertainment value or a laugh to be milked from viewing the nasty and mean-spirited "Rapture-Palooza." The failure is not in the concept, it's in an unfunny script solely using consistently gross humor as the grease to move a poorly directed tale.
The movie Rapture-Palooza will probably most appeal to those between the ages of 9 and 25 and for those who may not be Christians.
All God-fearing men and women are sucked into Heaven and the rest of us are stuck on Earth - tormented by annoying locusts, torrents of blood raining from the sky, burning rocks that hail down from the sky, and then there is The Beast; Mr. Antichrist himself (played by Craig Robinson).
Lindsey (played by Anna Kendrick) and her boyfriend Ben (played by John Francis Daley) finds themselves having to confront The Beast in order to thwart his wicked plans.Now, I am not a Christian, but I found the things that took place in this movie hilarious and tremendously enjoyable.
And I was laughing a lot through most of this movie - this was just simply brilliant comedy.
And the scene where Jesus descended from the Heaven upon the winged horse, that just had me laughing myself to tears.The people hired for the roles in this movie were doing great jobs.
I enjoyed seeing Craig Robinson playing the role of The Beast/the Antichrist, and also the hilarious appearance of Ken Jeong as God. But aside from them, then the cast list was really impressive and had a good amount of talents to it.I found it surprising that this movie would make it out of Hollywood, given the seriousness of religion in the USA.
And if you are easily offended by such jabs at your faith in God or your religion, then quite simply don't watch this movie."Rapture-Palooza" gets a 7 out of 10 stars rating from me, because it was hilarious, well acted, had good special effects, and most importantly, had a wonderful comical approach to religion..
This leaves the non-believers stuck living through the plagues before we meet the Beast the Anti-Christ himself, taking over the world making everyone do what he wants.
The couple have to come up with a plan to stop The Beast's plan.What tries too hard to be funny ends up being a pretty plain story that offers nothing original and most of the time it just ends up being awkward comedy.
(3/10)Actor ReviewCraig Robinson: The Beast the Anti-Christ who takes over the world after the rapture.
(5/10)John Francis Daley: Ben House boyfriend of Lindsey who along with her takes a very laidback comical look at the apocalypse.
In the end they all just take up screen time the leads needed to evolve their characters.Director Review: Paul Middleditch – Fails to create any laughs in this comedy along with a dull story and poorly created characters.
Too little of the heaven and hell and why the rapture happened.The anti Christ was played so badly that I was embarrassed.
But when The Beast decides he wants to take Lindsey as his wife, Lindsey and Ben come up with a plan to defeat the Anti-Christ....If there ever was an example of a missed opportunity of a high concept movie, then this is the baby.
This story centers around Lindsey (Anna Kendrick) who has caught the eye of the portly foul-mouthed Anti-Christ (Craig Robinson) who prefers to be called "The Beast." Her complaining mother has returned from heaven, having been kicked out of the rapture.The idea was clever, especially how man learns to calmly deal with the various plagues thrown his way.
Those left behind have a lot to deal with: wraiths, molten rocks from the sky, blood rain, locusts who talk, crows that verbally abuse everyone, and the like.Worst of all is that a one-time politician, Earl Gundy, becomes the anti-Christ.
------Scores------Cinematography: 10/10 Just fine.Sound: 8/10 The actors are well-miked, but the music could have been better.Acting: 7/10 Craig Robinson, Anna Kendrick, and John Francis Daley (Bones) were the best.
very funny movie with great acting by craig and anna.
ken jeong irritated me to no end and john francis looked like he had boobs throughout the movie.
Just some good, irreverent fun.Even the irreverence isn't overwhelming - but be warned that if you consider yourself a fundamentalist Christian or otherwise believe in the reality of The Rapture - you will almost certainly be offended.I enjoyed Anna Kendrick's mostly deadpan acting.
The Rapture happens while Lindsey (Anna Kendrick) and Ben (John Francis Daley) happen to be out bowling.
There are some great funny moments and the film does entertain, just not as much as it could have given a little more polish to the script.
There are some great funny moments and the film does entertain, just not as much as it could have given a little more polish to the script.
The ending is as predictable as one would come, but in a way the film gets out of hand within the last act..
Anna Kendrick and John Francis Daley were very good together.
Anna Kendrick, looking as stunning as she can be, fights the Antichrist, played by Craig Robinson, who apparently was the mayor of Idaho and poisoned everyone in the White House when the ishh hit the fan.Marry me, Lindsey.