This Is the End

The most telling thing that happens in the new, sort of brilliant, totally meta take on celebrity culture, This Is the End, takes place in the film’s first scene. As Seth Rogen is leaving LAX airport, a TMZ-like paparazzo swings in to snap Rogen’s picture. As he’s getting the shot, he says something rude to Rogen, to the effect to: “Hey Seth Rogen, why do you act the same in all your movies?”

Exactly.

I knew from the start that a movie like This Is the End was going to go one of two ways. A movie in which really famous people play themselves as the world crumbles around them… that’s risky. If those involved pushed too hard, then the gag would have an adverse effect. But if played just right, the movie could be a self-effacing satire of pure gold.

Thankfully, This Is the End falls (mostly) in the latter category. The main reason is simple: everyone in the cast knows exactly what they’re doing here. They’re not playing themselves, they’re playing the public’s perception of themselves. Rogen is the aimless stoner, Jay Baruchel is the whiny realist, James Franco is the materialistic oddball, Danny McBride is the douchbag, Craig Robinson is the loud moralist, and so on. How closely these personifications mirror their real personalities is of no concern. The point is that the actors were ballsy enough to even toe the line.

To mix things up, a few of the actors play caricatures of themselves that are, by all accounts, in no way related to their real personalities, or how we as a public think of them. This includes Jonah Hill as an earring-wearing sweetheart, and (most hilariously) Michael Cera as a coke-snorting asshole. Throughout the film, not five minutes went by without at least one of these guys making me laugh. Hard. Out loud. Occasionally, I laughed so hard I cried, which never happens to me. The best bit is between Franco and McBride, who engage in an ongoing public verbal battle that is fucking hilarious. If nothing else, their unending feud makes the movie.

I haven’t really mentioned the plot, because that’s where This Is the End slightly lost steam. A bunch of elitist actors having to save themselves from the apocalypse is as thick as irony gets, and I dig it. But the plot-inspired gag wears thin quickly (and is all but dead in the final 15 minutes). Basically, the hell fire outside is merely a set piece for the real magic at hand here – the go-for-broke comedy that takes place between a bunch of friends in a room.

To be honest, I’m not usually I fan of the movies these actors appear in. While there are exceptions (McBride’s Eastbound & Down has been gold from the start) I think the majority of their comedy films are good for a few laughs and not much else. This Is the End sold me. Is it perfect? No, of course not. Few films are. But it sustains throughout, which is all I can really ask for. B+