This is the End Review

I didn't go into this screening with high expectations, didn't expect the next Hamlet or Citizen Kane, just wanted a relatively silly, quick-witted comedy. I mean, I liked Pineapple Express. It was fun. Thought this would be the same. Instead, when it isn't aggressively boring, it's annoying.

So the end of the world hits during James Franco's party. The only survivors are the guys on the poster. The movie could go a lot of ways and even touches on some of them--goofy videotaped confessionals breaking up bigger action scenes, explicit parodies of other supernatural/apocalyptic films including title card. The characters are stupid, which is fine, but they don't do anything. They literally just stay in the house.

You know those guys you run into at parties who think everything they say is the funniest thing ever and think even more of themselves when high?

Imagine being stuck in a house with six of them--and only them--for an hour and forty-five minutes.

This movie feels like Rogen and his crew sat around, got high, and kept going, "You know what would be funny?" and then made that the script without editing it.

By the way, the movie has horrible editing which is a weird thing to notice, but, with nothing else to notice in the movie, it becomes real clear.

A disappointing film--doubly-disappointing because the cast is solid, the idea is sound, and the trailer promises a much better film. Goofy actors facing the apocalypse in LA? I'm in. Give me all the Hollywood jokes you can. What's going on in Beverly Hills? Do they still worry about traffic? What happens to the Hollywood sign?

They don't even show the Hollywood sign. That's like setting your movie in New York and never having a shot of the Empire State Building. That's how lazy this movie is.

And don't give me grief about, "It's just supposed to be a stupid comedy." It's not even that. Want to see sharp, dumb-fun comedy done well? Watch Super Troopers, Bridesmaids, or Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle. These movies are funny, have characters, and stuff that happens. If This is the End met even one of those three criteria, it'd be a two-star movie. Sadly, it's not even that.