I'm pretty sure everyone has their own vision of how the world is going to end. Biblical Apocalypse? Nuclear war? Hit of a meteor? No matter how, the way of surviving it in 'This is the End' is by far the best I've seen on-screen.
The concept of the movie is rather simple - have a bunch of celebrities fighting for their life during the Apocalypse. It starts off rather inconspicuously - Jay Baruchel and Seth Rogen after spending a day on smoking weed and playing video games head to party at James Franco's new mansion. There are way too many cameos to include all of them in this review, but the most memorable ones are definitely Emma Watson (you need to see Hermione with an axe), Danny McBride and Michael Cera. However, they are mere additions to the main course of 'Pineapple Express'-like buddy comedy featuring Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, James Franco, Jonah Hill and Craig Robinson.
I wouldn't say the plot is non-existent, but it certainly isn't developed enough to pay much attention to it. The movie is rather a collection of gags with typical American humor, which is exactly what you would expect from anything created by the duo Seth Rogen-Evan Goldberg. But what's more, it is fairly obvious that the whole crew had so much fun making this movie. Be it playing soccer with a severed head, fighting over a Milky Way or filming the sequel to 'Pineapple Express' (hands down my favorite part of the movie) - it all seems to be pure fun to these guys. And it's amazing, because this atmosphere of good fun is passed to the audience. Plus it's nice to see big Hollywood names not taking themselves too seriously.
'This is the End' contains a fair amount of satire on the posh world of show-business. It also has a very simple, yet not so dumb message. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's anything overly ambitious or a piece of art that would leave you thinking about your life or state of the world. However, it makes the movie a bit better. That's always a good thing, right?
Overall, it's a very fun watch, especially if you have some friends and beer with you. It's simple - if you liked previous movies by Rogen- Goldberg, you're going to fall in love with this one. If you didn't - well, it's still worth a try.
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