Jay Baruchel (Tropic Thunder) has come to Los Angeles to visit his long-time best pal Seth Rogen (The Guilt Trip).
Not one for the young Hollywood party scene, Jay and Seth spend the day together partaking in traditional pastimes of their youth.
Later that evening, Seth convinces reluctant Jay to come to James Franco’s housewarming party. There they meet a seemingly never-ending cavalcade of young celebrities.
Feeling uncomfortable and needing to pick up a fresh pack of smokes, Jay and Seth leave the party to walk the four blocks to a nearby store. While there, an earth shattering boom sounds out and people begin being sucked into the heavens by blue beams emanating from the sky. Mayhem ensues, but Seth and Jay are able to make it back to Franco’s house, where they are none the wiser.
Before long, the party goers can no longer ignore the fact that the apocalypse has begun.
We say, “Be good. Do good. Or else.”
TAYLOR: This is the End is a lot of fun. It has a few laughs, good special effects and is the first movie I’ve seen that takes the apocalypse literally. I’m not, by any stretch of the imagination, someone who claims to be an expert on the stories of the Bible, but I will say that I’m pleased that at least we are able to have some fun with such a serious matter.
HOWE: I agree with you, but more than just the fun aspect, I found the film more interesting with the biblical storyline. The way the trailer makes out, you’d think it is about aliens attacking rather than the apocalypse happening. There were moments dotted throughout that I didn’t really care for or find funny, but they were outweighed by the positives.
TAYLOR: The film starts out as a pretty typical party movie, lots of celebrities, some of them surprising (perhaps Rihanna was just hanging about that day), carrying on. Although there are a few laughs dotted throughout the setup, most of them come at the expense of actors we know, acting in ways that we should find surprising. For instance, little Michael Cera (Arrested Development) is remarkably hard core.
HOWE: His scenes were some of the funnier ones. I thought the special effects were pretty amazing, especially when you take into account the amount of talent that was on offer: Craig Robinson, Danny McBride, Jonah Hill and little Emma Watson just to name a few. All this for a budget of $25 million.
TAYLOR: It was one halo of a film, seen through an intentionally thick cloud of smoke. I don’t think you need to be a fan of the collected works of the Superbad/Pineapple Express crowd to enjoy this film, but it would help. I say, load up your thurible and your car with the green N on it and haul your butts to what is probably going to be the funniest movie of the summer. Amen.
— Howe gives This is the End 3.5 stuck together pages out of 5
— Taylor gives it 4 Jays out of 5.
The film is currently playing at the Galaxy Cinemas in Vernon.
— Peter Howe and Brian Taylor are freelance movie reviewers whose column, Reel Reviews, appears in The Morning Star Friday and Sunday.
