This Is The End sees Jay Baruchel visiting long time friend Seth Rogen in Los Angeles. He is hoping for a relaxing weekend chilling but Seth drags him to a housewarming party hosted by James Franco. Then the apocalypse occurs and a small group of survivors including Jay, Seth, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson and Danny McBride are left to work out what is going on and what the hell they are meant to do.
I'll be honest. I've been holding off on this movie because it sounded like a pretentious exercise with a bunch of A-List actors going "Oh look, this is what we are really like and this is how we would react" when we all know that they are still just putting on an act. What I found was a movie that was surprisingly entertaining, quite funny, ridiculously over the top with a bunch of A-List actors going "Oh look, this is what we are really like and this is how we would react" when we all know that they are still just putting on an act.
Jay Baruchel is definitely the main star of this movie. His performance remains consistent and entertaining throughout and he functions wonderfully as the straight guy within a group of people way out of their depth. The rest of the cast perform pretty much as you would expect them to if you are aware of any of their work. Jonah Hill is responsible for some pretty impressive stuff later in the film and Danny McBride, well telling you too much about his highlights would require a big trip into spoiler town. Let's just say there are good performances all round.
Since a crowd like this obviously have plenty of showbiz friends there are a number of cameos. Michael Cera and Emma Watson make great appearances but there is an amazing brief appearance by another well know actor quite late in proceedings where a perfectly delivered still has me laughing.
The apocalypse itself is incredibly well done and there is no holding back. This is the full biblical experience complete with the rapture, demons, considerable fire and brimstone and plenty of other apocalyptic goings on. Effects that by all rights should have been super cheesy end up being wonderfully effective and give this movie one incredible atmosphere.
Adding further to the atmosphere are some wonderfully chosen songs to accompany certain scenes. I am willing to say that this movie contains the best use of a particularly annoying Whitney Houston song ever. And as for the finale... well, I wouldn't want to spoil it for anyone.
The biggest triumph though is that through the absolute insanity occurring on screen This Is The End manages to remain a story about friendship. The ups and downs of Jay and Seth's relationship pushes the plot and keeps the story relatable even while the entire world is literally going to hell.
In order to remain objective some of the above praise may come from the fact I had extremely low expectations to begin with, but I feel if you approach this movie with the aim of just enjoying a very silly spectacle then you should have a good time.
Alternate Title - Actors acting like actors freak out while everything goes to hell.
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