There might be a few people disappointed that “This is the End” effectively closes the door on a “Pineapple Express” sequel in one quick, hilarious scene. The “Superbad” reunion is even shorter. And for what it’s worth, “This is the End” might just be the last time you see any of these actors make a movie this silly and outrageous again.
But I guess that’s appropriate for a comedy about the end of the world. If Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg were going to make a movie that allows Seth, Jay Baruchel, Craig Robinson, Jonah Hill, James Franco, Danny McBride and all their other assorted friends the chance to play the fool one last time, they’d better do so in the most spectacularly destructive way possible.
Although they’re all playing themselves, this time officially, Rogen and Company have effectively driven the stake in their on-screen personas that have followed them through so many films since the “Knocked Up” days. They’ve been impaled by street lamps, sucked into sinkholes, eaten by cannibals and raped by demons, and maybe now they can usher in a new era of comedies from the ashes of their hilariously vulgar corpses.
More so than a scathing look at Hollywood, “This is the End” is the crew taking the piss, lampooning their screen selves for yucks all around. The film begins with Jay visiting Seth in L.A., in which the two have an epic weekend of pot and video games ahead of them. Is this their lifestyle? Perhaps not, but we as an audience can’t truly see them any other way.
As a diversion, Seth suggests they go to James Franco’s house party. Franco, the Renaissance man that he is, is no safer from mockery. He has exotic works of art layered around his mansion, and he briefly lectures Jay on how sucking on his mother’s breasts as a baby is its own form of artistic expression.
The other party guests are just as ripe for parody. Jason Segel laments his success as a likeable lug on lame sitcoms. Jonah Hill is trying hard to win the nicest actor on the planet award. And Michael Cera will remain adorable and innocent even as a cocaine addled party animal.
But when all hell breaks loose and Seth, Jay, James, Craig, Jonah and Danny are all trapped inside the house, their personalities erode even further. The fact that they cannot stop riffing and being funny at all times even under grave circumstances begins to challenge the raunchy improv nature of the Judd Apatow movies that made them all stars. Even when it has no right to be, the bromance and the smut is there, and with a movie that earns as hard of an R-rating as this, they’re in on the joke.
They’ll get into trouble when Emma Watson shows up and they debate the “rapey-vibe” they give off. They’ll make fools of their hardened, serious roles when heads quite literally start rolling. They’ll be unable to stop chatting and snickering about how to breathe through your nose even as a possessed Jonah searches the corridors. And they’ll treat a conversation about jacking off in every corner of the house with Biblical importance.
“This is the End” works so brilliantly because it seems to combine all the movies, TV show cameos and Funny or Die sketch ideas into one titanically moronic bromance and raunchfest while turning a meta eye to it all. It has fun with this manchild toybox of a genre once more and goes so over the top as a way of saying this really is the end.
3 ½ stars
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