THIS IS THE END

I’m not always the biggest fan of Judd Apatow-esque comedy so going into This Is The End I didn’t actually know a majority of the cast/ cameos! Obviously there is Seth Rogan (who I have liked ever since 50/50) and James Franco (who I’ve liked ever since I saw his face – I’m only human!) but Jay Baruchel? Danny McBride? Craig Robinson? I know Jonah Hill as a name but am not the biggest fan of his films. When I first watched the trailer I thought that it looked funny and the concept of actors playing themselves really appealed to me, however, as I didn’t know half of the main cast I was doubtful over whether or not I would enjoy it as I thought the jokes might be mostly ‘in-jokes’ that non-fans of their films wouldn’t understand… It took a couple of weeks of reading nothing but good reviews for me to decide to just give it a chance and hope for the best!

This Is The End tells the story of a group of famous actors who are having a party at James Franco’s house when the apocalypse begins. Having witnessed the grisly death of fellow party-goers, Rogan, Franco, Baruchel, McBride, Hill and Robinson find themselves standard together in Franco’s house with limited food and water, fighting for survival.

It took a while for me to develop any faith in this movie, the pre-apocalypse scenes felt a bit awkward and clumsy; making it obvious that much of the script had been improvised. The party scenes were very much just a game of Spot The Celebrity and, as Seth Rogan’s films tend to go, the comedy was mostly coming from weed references and sex jokes, which isn’t my kind of humour to say the least. However, once the erm, apocalypse began and the film got into the swing of things the laughs came thick and fast; the half a dozen actors who make up the main cast have a fantastic rapport and work really naturally together, and that is what made the film so funny. Without the fuss of the party and fitting in as many celebrity cameos as possible the central cast had a chance to flourish and although it was never going to be the most integral or witty film of the year, it does exactly what it says on the tin – simple, silly but very enjoyable.

The Holy Trinity

As you may have guessed from my previous reviews, comedy films have to work the hardest to impress me. I’m not naturally drawn to comedy films and there are few that I find laugh-out-loud funny, especially new releases. But This Is The End had me and the rest of the cinema laughing out loud constantly, the script (improvised or not) was so strong for a film of this standing and a lot of the time I found it to be the small moments that made the film. The muttered-under-the-breath comments, the blink-and-you’ll-miss-them moments, the holy trinity being compared to Neapolitan ice cream – the humour came in a variety of ways and almost all of them were spot on for me.  In fact, I saw this film last night and have since found myself giggling at the memory of particular quips and comments (the ‘elephant in the room’ comment has been getting to me the most I have to admit) - That’s when you know that you have seen a good film!

The cast had great chemistry

As well as the humour, the storyline was strong – it kept my attention and had me wondering what would happen next. However, towards the end it became a little bit repetitive and very predictable, if the film were to have gone on for even ten minutes longer I think that it would have been ruined so I am glad that it finished when it did, although a post-credit scene showing the fate of the other characters wouldn't have gone amiss! The cast worked flawlessly together, obviously they are all friends in real life but this really translated to the big screen and the natural chemistry that the actors all have with eachother is what made This Is The End so believable to watch (not the apocalypse part, obviously, but the way that the cast reacted to the apocalypse and to eachother was very realistic) and there were some very welcome references to classic horror movies such as The Exorcist and Rosemary’s Baby, that film fans will appreciate but unfortunately appeared to go over most of the audience's head!

In short, this is a fun, enjoyable and hilarious film that delivers 100%. I feel that there is a bit of pretention against it with people criticizing and passing the film off as nothing more than a group of self-righteous actors getting together, fooling around and cashing in…. And do you know what? That is exactly what This Is The End is, but when the end result is so strong what on Earth is the problem with that?!

All in all I award This Is The End with ★★★★☆



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Love,

P.S. I do kind of wish Neil Patrick Harris had a cameo :(