Release Date: June 12th, 2013
MPAA Rating: R
Directors: Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen
Starring: James Franco, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, and Craig Robinson
Rating: B+
Now playing in theaters, This Is The End follows a group of actors struggling through the sudden, catastrophic beginning of the apocalypse. This film starts off by introducing the audience to Seth Rogen as he awaits the arrival of his longtime friend, Jay Baruchel, at the airport. After catching up throughout the day, Seth invites a dispirited Jay to a Hollywood party at James Franco’s house where everything is A-Okay until a terrifying rumble halts the partying. During a midst of confusion and disarray from both the actors and audience, tragedy strikes and leaves the actors fighting for survival. Although they are unwilling to work together at first, the group of actors eventually learns to cope with each other as they realize that massive destruction is taking over.
Despite the movie’s lack of reasoning on why the event was happening, it did do an adequate job of transforming its egocentric characters into mature adults when they were forced to face monstrous creatures attacking them. Similarly, special appearances from Emma Watson, Kevin Hart, Rihanna and Channing Tatum attracted viewers as they enhanced the overall concept of celebrities handling the consequences of the apocalypse. The directors purposefully made a mockery of other movies such as Pineapple Express, The Exorcism and 127 hours, but still revealed originality with a completely new plot. Additionally, including several amusing actors such as James Franco, Jonah Hill, and Danny McBride and having them portray themselves helped reinforce a realistic aspect to this very fictional movie.
This film is definitely not your ordinary action-comedy based movie. Instead, it’s a fast-paced parody of multiple genres varying from horror to science fiction. Using witty and crude humor, it shined a completely different light on the occurrence of the apocalypse and made something dark seem comical.
Overall, This Is The End is a great summer thriller to watch with a group of friends who simply enjoy laughing while also being at the edge of their seats.
