thoughts on This is the End

Jay Baruchel (all of the actors in this movie play versions of themselves, BTW) goes to visit Seth Rogen in L.A. Jay claims to hate L.A., and Seth's L.A. friends; he complains when Seth suggests that they go to a party at James Franco's house. They go anyway, and while they are there, the apocalypse begins; some people are raptured up to Heaven, while others (including a coked-up Michael Cera) are sucked down into Hell. Others, including Jay, Seth, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Jay Baruchel, Craig Robinson, Jonah Hill, and Danny McBride, are left to stick it out on Earth, where they will remain until they either a) do a good enough deed to be raptured up to Heaven or b) kill each other. These rules are never exactly spelled out, but the guys (who hunker down in James Franco's house) eventually figure it out. In the meantime, they (in no particular order) do all the drugs in the house; chisel through the floor to get to the jugs of water in the basement; are chased and attacked by demons; are visited by Emma Watson, who robs them with an axe after overhearing a disturbing conversation; and (and this was my personal favorite part) film a sequel to Pineapple Express, with Jonah Hill playing Woody Harrelson. Oh yeah, and eventually they have occasion to perform an exorcism. And also, when they finally leave the house, they have a run-in with a gang of cannibals (and Channing Tatum). And also, eventually there is a choreographed dance number with the Backstreet Boys.

In other words, it is basically a movie with few rules, where anything can happen at any time. Basically, any time you start to feel like things are getting a little bit tedious, something new happens to shake things up. Sometimes it's funny. Often it's crude. I laughed several times, but also was more than ready for it to be over by the end.

Probably the most interesting part of the whole thing was the group dynamic, and how it changes over the course of the movie. James Franco seems to be sort of in love with Seth Rogen (though nothing really ever comes of this; it just creates some funny/awkward moments). Jay dislikes everyone except Seth, but especially Jonah Hill. Jonah seems to be over-the-top nice, but secretly also hates Jay, to the extent of actually praying for his death. James hates Danny McBride; this starts out as more of a secret dislike, but grows over the course of the movie. Danny is generally obnoxious and disregards all of the rules the group tries to put in place.

I don't know. Like I said, there are some funny parts, and I like some of the actors in it, though not all. It seems like a better comedy about how people act when they're trapped together for a long period of time and facing the end of the world could have been made with the same cast, though. This all just kind of seemed random and thrown together.