Review: This Is The End

This Is The End
Cert: 15 / 106 mins / Dir. Evan Goldberg & Seth Rogen



Maybe it's a trans-Atlantic thing? The 84% user rating over at Rotten Tomatoes does not correlate with the atmosphere in my local cinema at the end of today's performance, or the subsequent rumblings I've heard (although I've yet to read other reviews).

To call 'This Is The End' a vanity-project, would be to suggest that it was made to raise the profile of the cast, and that it'll be proudly listed on any of their CV's. Sadly, it's unlikely that this 100 minute circle-jerk will fulfil either of those criteria. After a shambling, opening fifteen minutes which establishes a location (if not an actual plot) and sees most of Seth Rogen's non-speed-dial buddies fall into a fiery sinkhole, our intrepid gang (Rogen, Baruchel, Franco, Hill, McBride, Robinson) proceeds to sit in the house and do fuck-not-nothing for an hour and a half. This extended 'mid-section' of the film is so monumentally dull, it's almost the funniest thing in there. Once they realise that there's no plot to resolve, they decide to leave the house and see all the CGI demons that the budget has been saving up. And since no-plot requires no-ending, the Backstreet Boys come on and then there's the credits. Not even kidding.

It seems apparent (indeed evident) that the budget was blown at either end of the film, and I only wish they'd had enough cash left over to employ a script editor. Or a script writer. Or a writer. The fact that the cast are playing exaggerated (I hope) versions of themselves only goes to underline how self-indulgent it all is, and at the point where Jonah Hill takes the piss out of Danny McBride for Your Highness, my eyes rolled so hard I could see my brain. The irony also didn't escape me that in the middle of the dull-stretch, the group use a video camera to make an improvised, zero-budget DIY sequel to Pineapple Express; the bitter truth being that the whole movie is only $32m out from being exactly that anyway. What makes the whole affair worse is that I actually like Rogen, Hill and Robinson. *seethes*

I won't even go into the uncomfortable section with Emma Watson. I'm sure other bloggers/writers will dissect that far more capably than I can. For the most part, I spent my time wishing for the actual apocalypse to arrive, if only so that something would happen. The IMDB page for this says that people who liked 'This Is The End' also liked 'Here Comes The Boom'. I rest my case*¹.

TL;DR? 'This Is The End' is shitting awful. Avoid.

I sort of is, yes.



Nope.



Who fucking knows?



Telly. At an absolute push.



Yep.



I will cut my own hands off before I watch this again.



I think I heard one when Jonah Hill was on fire. And even that's nowhere near as interesting as it sounds.

Is this all they have to show for 32 million dollars? No, really? Is this some kind of elaborate tax-loss?

*¹ Yep. Snob. What of it? You know this.

DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
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