This Is The End

Originally posted to the DMI Review on 8/6/13

Curb Your Apocalypse

by Hunter Isham

        The general premise of celebrities playing exaggerated, or even completely fake, versions of themselves is not a new concept, although it has had somewhat of a renaissance in the past two decades with television comedies like The Larry Sanders Show and Curb Your Enthusiasm putting these elements at the forefront, rather than just having a quick cameo. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg's This Is The End takes the generally fun framework of a show like Curb (minus the fully improvised dialogue), and applies a story that sees all of these familiar faces trying to survive as the apocalypse hits. The results are amusing, and certainly not just your average Apatow-era comedy, but ultimately the film leaves you wishing it were more than some funny moments strung together by a strange plot.
        Jay Baruchel arrives in Los Angeles to stay with his old (if now distant) fellow Canadian friend Seth Rogen, and before long he reluctantly agrees to accompany Rogen to party at James Franco's house, attended by a bunch of people he neither knows nor likes. At Franco's we see familiar faces like Jason Segel, Aziz Ansari, and Mindy Kaling, as well a coke-addicted and promiscuous Michael Cera. Emma Watson pops up, and later has a very funny scene when she returns to the mostly abandoned house following the deaths of most of those famous people I just mentioned. Through many apocalyptic events, Baruchel, Rogen, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson, and Danny McBride are ultimately the main characters who survive and barricade themselves in Franco's fortress-like new home.
        Problems arise with rationing food and supplies, demons appear, and there are even some heart-to-heart moments between some of the trapped comedians, but hard as Rogen and Goldberg may try, the film ultimately just amounts to an intriguing journey that isn't as funny as it could be. If anything, the problems seem to arise from the fact that there's just not much to get out of the film as a story, so I can easily recommend seeing the film for some of its humorous moments, but it doesn't leave you feeling like you've experienced something special, or that you've gone a journey with the characters. There are some good performances here (beyond the comedic stuff) by Baruchel, Rogen, and Robinson, brining enough heart to make you care, but the overall arc fails them because the laughs don't come fast enough to gloss over the fact that the film's story isn't wholly successful.
        There are many elements and moments to like in This Is The End, but compared to The Heat—another summer comedy that I didn't think was excellent, but which is funny and charming enough to make up for its fairly generic plot—the film seems like a clever concept that didn't amount to much given its execution. The Heat isn't revolutionary in its storytelling, but its characters and situations are often funny, and almost always somewhat charming. This Is The End moves along in spurts of funny that have too many gaps between them, never quite reaching full speed. This Is The End is not the funniest thing out there this summer, and if it wasn't so strange I likely wouldn't remember it as well as I have, but it's worth a look when you have the chance, if only for the sight of Emma Watson waving an axe around at Rogen and company. 6/10