A strangely self-reflexive, self-indulgent, yet admittedly rather successful and repeatedly amusing comedy caper that sees some of the most popular comedians currently working in Hollywod today playing themselves at the End of Days.
Jay Baruchel flies into LA to visit his old buddy Seth Rogen, but instead of hanging out together, catching up and getting high, Seth drags Jay to a party at James Franco’s house – only to then be faced by the Apocalypse. There are plenty of laughs to be had, with the cast enthusiastically poking fun at themselves and each other, and the film is riddled with a number of big name cameos. The film marks the directorial debut of Rogen and old pal Evan Goldberg (who previously wrote Superbad together), but rather unfairly the film appears to have eclipsed Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg’s The World’s End, which arrived a few months later and covered somewhat similar comedic ground.
If there is a problem with This Is The End it is that despite a relatively lengthy running time and the cast ensuring all of them get plenty of screen time, the comedy never quite goes far enough and almost every set-up – normally involving the friends turning on each other to ensure their own survival – pulls its punches, stepping away from the brink of bad taste where, ironically, so many of these comedians made their names.
