This is The End Released 28 June 2013 Director Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg Starring James Franco, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson, Michael Cera, Emma Watson, Paul Rudd, Jason Segel, Christopher Mintz-Plasse Writer(s) Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg Producer(s) Evan Goldberg, Lawrence Grey, Seth Rogen, James Weaver Origin United States Running Time 107 minutes Genre Comedy, action Rating 16

75

Closing Time.

Never mind your “Frat Pack” of Vince Vaughan, Owen Wilson, Will Ferrell and Ben Stiller, it’s all about the “Apatow gang” these days. These are the bunch of actors that mostly broke through in the films of producer/director Judd Apatow. From around 2004 to 2007 the Hollywood comedy world started to revolve around his projects with films like The 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up and Superbad becoming both critical and box office smashes. It introduced us to actors like Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, Jason Siegel and Danny McBride.

Since then the group of actors, many of whom also write and direct, have come to dominate the comedy scene and even when Apatow isn’t personally involved in their films, his signature mix of vulgarity and sentimentality is still there. Seth Rogen tried to go mainstream as the lead in a blockbuster in The Green Hornet, but it didn’t really work. However he got decent reviews for more dramatic roles in 50/50 and Take This Waltz. Jay Baruchel has been the quieter of the two, continuing to work on the Canadian Indie scene while his old friend Rogen has become a Hollywood player.

It’s this tension that forms the basis of This is the End, a film that reunites practically all the Apatow Gang, although oddly practically none of the female leads from those films have turned up for the party. Written and directed by Rogen and his long-time writing partner Evan Goldberg, all the main cast play fictional versions of themselves. Baruchel flies into L.A. to spend the weekend at Rogen’s house. After an afternoon of playing video games while high on pot, Rogen persuades him to accompany him to a party in James Franco’s plush new house. Baruchel reluctantly tags along and they find the party in full swing, full of celebrities of different fame-levels including Emma Watson, Rihanna and Michael Cera (playing himself wonderfully against type as a coke-crazed sex pest). Various other Apatow alumni like Jason Siegel, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Paul Rudd make brief appearances, and some are so brief, like Martin Starr, they could be mistaken for an extra.

Very soon, most of the cast are dramatically wiped out as what appears to be an earthquake creates a massive chasm outside the house which swallows most of the celebs. Rogen, Baruchel, Franco, Hill, McBride and Craig Robinson (from The US Office) survive the initial disaster and they hole themselves up in the house to try to survive the disaster until they are rescued. As these pampered celebrities go into lockdown the strength of their relationships are tested as events get increasingly strange.

You might be concerned that a film as self-reverential as this could be more fun to make than to watch or could be suffocated by smugness (Ocean's Twelve anyone?). Thankfully these fears aren't realised and there are more than enough laughs to go around. Admittedly the type of humour varies wildly and there are several big "gross-out" set-pieces. The more subtle humour is more effective though when all the six main leads take the piss out of themselves. Franco plays himself as a vacuous, pretentious fool, Rogen is a spineless sell-out, Baruchel is a self-righteous hypocrite, Hill is a too-nice-to-be-true fake, McBride is an obnoxious psycho and Robinson is a cowardly whiner. There are several wonderfully bitchy comments about each other’s careers as the group slowly but surely falls apart. There are also a couple of terrific surprise cameos.

Somewhat surprisingly, the special effects are quite good but be warned the longer the film goes on, the gorier it gets and there are some scenes that wouldn't be out of place in The Walking Dead. Some people may well find the humour uneven and distasteful but overall this is a very funny film.

In the press release for this, Rogen has said this is probably the last time we’ll have all these actors in the same movie. If that proves to be the case, they’ve gone out with a good one.

- Jim O’Connor