This Is The End [Celluloid Hero]

This Is The End (2013)

First came the Rat Pack, followed by the 80s Brat Pack. I had heard of the group of Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson and some others referred to as the "Frat Pack". I'm not sure if the current collection of Seth Rogen and friends have a nickname, but they're all featured in "This Is The End', teamed together to face the end of the world.

To combine all these great comedic actors in one movie had potential for overload, but the main grouping of Rogen/James Franco/Jay Baruchel/Jonah Hill/Craig Robinson/Danny McBride kept me entertained the whole time. Each of those guys have a different level of star power, but still manage to work well in the ensemble. Franco is pretty much the most famous, but has never been above mocking himself. It works well, knowing that they're all friends in real life, and just enjoyed working on a movie together. I had read interviews where the actors admitted the experience was somewhat therapeutic. They were able to let out some issues that they had with eachother while taking the same abuse back, letting things get aired out without hurting feelings.

The movie begins with Baruchel flying into Los Angeles to visit Rogen. Rogen brings Baruchel to a party at Franco's house, full of other celebs including Michael Cera, Aziz Ansari, Mindy Kaling and Rihanna. Even without the world ending, this movie had potential to be entertaining just to see caricatured versions of all these people interacting, talking about others behind their backs, getting stoned and just letting it all out.

The idea of this end-of-the-world scenario actually boils down to the actual definition of Biblical Armageddon. Hell opens up, fire rains from the sky, demons stalk the earth to find damned souls, and the righteous ascend to heaven in a beam of light. I found that rather interesting, to overtly make it a religious apocalypse as opposed to zombies or natural disasters or aliens or something. It definitely brought into question the idea of "earning" a place in Heaven or Hell, and what an individual can do to ensure placement in either.

Superbad, Knocked Up, Pineapple Express, et al were all great comedies because of the writing, directing, and acting. If you weren't into those movies, obviously you won't enjoy The Is The End. If you're a fan of these actors and those movies, this should fit perfectly for you.