Reviews of Movies, TV shows & metro Detroit Restaurants

Short movie & TV show reviews and metro Detroit restaurant reviews

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Movie Review: "This is the End" (2013)



"This is the End" is raunchy, over the top and pretty damn funny. It's not as funny as "The Hangover" or "Bridesmaids" but it holds its own as a modern, obnoxious comedy. And it's a cool idea...actors playing versions of themselves. There are also some cool cameos, especially at the end (don't worry, I won't give it away...it's NOT Bill Murray though).

As I mentioned, every actor in this movie plays themselves...or at least a version of themselves. Jay Baruchel lives somewhere on the east coast (I assume New York) and comes to visit his good buddy Seth Rogen in LA. But Jay doesn't like LA and lets pretty much everyone know this. He just wants to hang out with Seth drinking beer, eating fast food, playing video games and smoking weed. But Seth wants to go to a party at James Franco's (awesome) house. Jay gives in and goes to the party, which is a party like we all envision actors' parties to be...filled with gorgeous women, drugs, alcohol, movie stars, etc. The party continues on until...the apocalypse descends upon the world. Once this happens, the only people who survive and who are holed up in Franco's house are Jay, Seth, James, Craig Robinson, Jonah Hill and eventually, Danny McBride. They are fighting to survive when the world is ending all around them and good people are being teleported to heaven. Oh yeah...Emma Watson manages to survive and kicks some serious ass, way more than she ever did as Hermione. And is a lot funnier.

The idea that all of these actors play a version of themselves is pretty brilliant. Rogen & screenwriter pal Evan Goldberg can be thanked for this. The premise of the movie is obviously far-fetched and silly, but the actors executing this hilarious tale are what makes this work. None of them take themselves too seriously and that's what makes this movie so damn funny. Some of the actors play themselves pretty accurately (probably) and some are very exaggerated versions (like Danny McBride who really resembles Kenny Powers, his character from "Eastbound & Down"). I also believe that these actors were able to ad lib most of this movie, allowing them to just go with the material in the best way that they saw fit.

This movie has a lot of raunchy, inappropriate humor...and that's what it should be like. One thing I found to be especially funny was how James Franco is wearing a different, silly t-shirt in pretty much every scene! How ridiculous is that!? The cameos (mostly at the party) are great too with a cast of actors you'd come to expect to show up at one of James Franco's parties. I think I laughed the hardest at Danny McBride and Craig Robinson as they just don't take themselves that seriously, which is great.


So yeah, I thought this movie was very funny and I definitely liked it...7.5/10 stars

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