The movie begins with Jay Baruchel (Tropic Thunder) visiting Los Angeles to hang out with his old friend, Seth Rogen. The pair plan to have a drug/ candy/ videogame-fueled extravaganza, which is just fine with Jay. At least, it is until Seth brings up a housewarming party at James Franco's house. Jay doesn't want to hang out with all of the Hollywood phonies that Seth is now friends with, especially Jonah Hill, whom he despises. Seth twists Jay's arm and they go to the party, with Seth promising not to ditch Jay. Well, of course, that is just what happens as soon as they get there. During the course of the party, the apocalypse strikes with literally all hell raining down on Los Angeles (and presumably, the rest of the world as well). Naturally, no one at the party was taken to Heaven before the carnage begins and a number of people are slaughtered either in the attempted rush to safety or the ginormous sinkhole that appears in front of Franco's house. Franco, Rogen, Hill, Baruchel and Craig Robinson all manage to make it back to the safety of Franco's concrete abode and plan to barricade things up and ride out whatever it is that is happening.
Sadly, they don't have much in the way of rations aside from a good bit of booze and drugs. To make matters worse, it seems Danny McBride (Tropic Thunder) is in the house, despite the fact that he wasn't invited to the party. Suffice it to say that nothing is going to go smoothly with McBride around. As the days pass, the group gets testy and draws straws to venture out to get water from the basement or from neighboring houses, but the abominable creatures roaming the earth are plenty of reason to stay inside. Jay and Craig start to get philosophical about the recent events and Jay surmises that the end of the world is upon them. With the good people of the world haven been taken to Heaven already, they realize that they need to make amends while they can so they, too, can go to the big party in the sky. The ways in which they go about doing this don't exactly line up with Biblical writings, but the guys think they are doing what's right. Pile on demonic possession, roving bands of cannibals, a dinosaur-tall Satan with disturbingly large genitals and a Heaven where boy bands rule and you have one *ahem* hell of a ride.
Did This is the End make me laugh? Oh yes, it's funny stuff. It takes a little while to get kicking, but it's laughable. Star cameos abound and include Michael Cera (never wanted to see him pants-less though, CG butt or not. Thanks for that Sony.), Rihanna, Emma Watson (Harry Potter), Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Kick-Ass), David Krumholtz (Numbers), Jason Segal (The Muppet Movie), and Paul Rudd, among others. The film is intensely raunchy, sacrilegious, and a bit gross at times, but it is the kind of humor we've come to expect from the folks who show up in this film and if you can put that aside, it's funny.
The film mostly takes place inside Franco's house, but the special effects outdoors abound with fire raining from the sky, burning Hollywood hills and sinkholes. Hats off to whoever did the make-up for the star who gets demon-possessed because it looked great. I'll leave that tidbit for you to discover when you view the film, though. Special features are plentiful, especially on the Blu-ray version, and include commentary by Screenplay/ Directing/ Producing team Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, plus featurettes on Directing Your Friends and the marketing around the film. The Blu-ray exclusives are really piled on and include a gag reel, deleted scenes, Line-O-Rama, the original short the film was based on, plus featurettes on the making-of the meta-meta-film, Pineapple Express 2, the Cannibal King and just all around goofiness. The special features are pretty much the film itself on steroids. If you've seen guys from this crew do Line-O-Rama and just improv to get the best of the best, you'll get a lot of it here. It's ridiculous and a bit over the top, but you can't argue with what works. I even enjoyed the commentary with Rogen and Goldberg, although I am typically not a commentary fan. They talk about everything from production to working with their friends and everything in between. You can tell this film was their baby and they really had fun with it.
While This is the End certainly isn't for everyone, you probably won't even be interested in this film if you are the sensitive type. For those who enjoy Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, Danny McBride and their special brand of comedy, you’ll get a kick out of it.
