Film Review: This is the End

This is The End. Rated MA15+ (strong crude humour, coarse language, sexual references, comedic violence, nudity and drug use). 107 minutes. Written and directed by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg.

Verdict: One for the boys.

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, Seth Rogen (The Green Hornet, Pineapple Express, Superbad, Da Ali G Show) and his gang of (mostly) B-Grade Hollywood celebrities have a field day sending themselves, their employers and the doomsday genre up mercilessly with this rough and ready outing into vanity film-making. How they get away with it (and what their managers might think) is anyone’s guess – especially in the case of James Franco, who risks never being taken seriously in a movie again.

When Rogen’s friend Jay Baruchel (How to Train Your Dragon, She's Out of My League, Million Dollar Baby) comes to stay for a weekend in LA, the best buddies end up at a wild party at James Franco’s (Oz the Great and Powerful, 127 Hours) house where the guests include Emma Watson (Harry Potter’s Hermione Granger), Jonah Hill (Moneyball, Get Him to The Greek) and Rihanna. But when Judgement Day arrives, the fun and games are seriously turned upside down.

On one level, This is The End is a massive ego-trip made by a bunch of actors that many audience members will struggle to recognise – and if you haven’t seen their similarly styled breakout project Pineapple Express, a good percentage of the film will sail right over your head. But it’s precisely the extent of their collective conceit that also provides the film with its peculiar attractiveness. If you can get past the almost prehistoric premise that these actors are playing themselves, it ends up being a snide, funny, crass, breath of fresh air with genuine laughs, a couple of jump-out-of-your-seat frights, and some fabulously over-the-top visual effects.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.