This Is The End

THIS IS THE END

Directors : Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg

Year : 2013

Genre : Comedy

Rating : 1/2*



Starring Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, Jonah Hill, James Franco, Danny McBride and Craig Robertson, 'This Is The End' boasts one of the most impressive and star studded casts ever to appear in a mainstream comedy. It also boasts one of the worst written scripts in recent memory, painfully unfunny jokes and a set of comedians who are pure cinematic poison with comedic values that have more in common with the London sewage system than that of what is usually universally accepted as funny. With endless puerile innuendos, numerous rape jokes and a mean streak that runs right through the core of the picture, 'This Is The End' is a corruptible, mean spirited, vile piece of trash that shows how unfunny this gaggle of comics really is. 

Seth Rogen and Jay Baruchel play themselves as the two leading protagonists who one night decide to visit James Franco, who is having a large get together with some of the biggest names in music and Hollywood. This allows for some of the most blantant money grabbing cameos you are ever likely to see courtesy of such talents as Christopher Mintz Plasse, Michael Cera, Paul Rudd, Jason Segal and even Emma Watson. However, as the party heats up and the alcohol and marijuana levels rise, the apocalypse happens killing many at the party and forcing Rogen, Franco and Baruchel to barricade themselves in the house along with Jonah Hill, Craig Robertson and Danny McBride while waiting for the destruction and death to finish outside. In the meantime, the group indulge in copious amounts of drug abuse, alcoholism and generally displaying everything that is wrong with humanity and why the apocalypse should have happened many years before. 

As well as starring as a central protagonist, Seth Rogen also directs for the first time and this film clearly shows that he has just as little talent behind the camera than he does in front of it. His framing techniques are sloppy, the editing is incredibly unbalanced and choppy and the screenplay which is written by, guess who, Seth Rogen is lazy. unbelievably infantile and above all, indescribably vindictive and black hearted. The main comedic backbone is of the course the same immature, childish vulgarity that we have come to expect from these type of comedians, so that didn't really bother me; I didn't laugh, but it didn't bother me. However, I knew that things had gone completely rotten when the 'comedians' spend a good five to ten minutes debating about which member of the group would be most likely to rape a sleeping Emma Watson. Now. I have mentioned in other reviews that I cannot abide rape scenes or any kind of rape joke. It is the lowest form of humour and just one up from mocking AIDS or cancer. Of course, these kind of gags (and I use the term literally) are now common place in most 'mainstream' comedies and you can even find them in TV shows such as 'Family Guy'. But the fact that 'This Is The End' not only has this one scene but has an endless tide of sexual molestation jokes throughout the running time pushes the film from desperately unfunny territory to how the hell did they get away with this and more importantly, who the hell thought that this was funny enough to put in a so called comedy that 15 year olds can watch? territory. If kids that young can watch movies like this where sexual abuse gags are prevalent and are meant to be laughed at, then in return they will use these jokes in their everyday conversations to generate laughter amongst friends. Comedy has already pushed enough boundaries where almost nothing is taboo anymore and I worry that soon nothing will be considered offensive or just downright not a subject to mock. Rape is not one of those things that can be just laughed at and I hope that the makers of 'This Is The End' will soon have to answer for their so called 'comedy'.

The cast is universally atrocious and do nothing to emote any sense of character or even a modicum of likability. The central gag is that the actors are playing exaggerating forms of what the general public perceive them to be. So Seth Rogen is a stoner, Jay Baruchel is a loner who much prefers spending his time playing video games and smoking pot, Jonah Hill is the nicest guy you could possibly meet and Danny McBride is an obnoxious, self centred egotist who is more than willing to eat whatever food remains in the house, even if it means certain death for the others. The problem is, I don't think that's a joke. I believe that Rogen is a stoner, Baruchel is a recluse etc.  When the central concept doesn't even work, the movie just feels like a bunch of celebrities having a laugh in front of a camera at our expense. Nothing else. I can't stand any of these actors in the first place so the idea of an entire movie starring all of them together is a total nightmare. In reality, it is so much worse than a nightmare. It is a horrible, never experience that I'm sure Alex DeLarge was forced to watch during his Ludovico treatment in 'A Clockwork Orange' to put him off crime and a bit of the old 'ultraviolence'.

An absolute travesty from start to finish, 'This Is The End' is like putting your head down a full toilet and flushing so that all of the human excrement can wash over your eyes. Vile to watch, vile to listen to and vile to comprehend, 'This Is The End' is like nothing I have ever seen before and I pray to God, I never will have to again.