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Wednesday, June 12, 2013
MOVIE REVIEW
This Is The End
The End Of L.A., Where All (Bad?) Actors Go
To Heaven
Clockwise: Craig Robinson, Danny McBride, James Franco, Seth Rogen and Jonah
Hill in "This Is The End".
Sony
by
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
FOLLOW
Wednesday,
June 12,
2013
Mayhem, madness and male juvenile
hijinks proliferate "This Is The End", a rollicking, hilariously out of control
experience that is addicting, and, well-conceived by Seth Rogen and Evan
Goldberg, both of whom direct it. An apocalyptic party-horror farce to end
all future
"Project X" movies, "This Is The End", a 24-hour-story, is fittingly
set in Los Angeles, since, except for on the Mayan calandar, any notion of the
world coming to the end is owned foremost by Hollywood.
In an all-star cast of comedian actors and other assorted stars playing
themselves, Mr. Rogen and fellow Canadian buddy Jay Baruchel (who were born six
days apart in April 1982) are reunited in Los Angeles after a year. The
cautious and anti-social Jay, content to keep a low profile, doesn't like L.A.
much but loves Seth's Tinseltown pad and its amenities. It turns out James
Franco's house is bigger and better, and there's a party there.
After Jay and Seth's arrival at Mr. Franco's place all hell -- and Earth --
breaks loose.
Spun as a satire about vanity and perhaps metaphor for the fleeting life of
actors on the big stage, "This Is The End" indulges a big stage of its own,
conjuring up a generous dose of 1950s-type horror in the vein of films like
"Them!"
There's also an unmistakable diet of gore, the kind that Troma films regularly
deliver to its most devoted fans. Mr. Rogen and Mr. Goldberg's
exhilarating and exuberant comedy is often hysterical and mostly foolish but has
plenty of laughs.
In an age of voracious self-absorption and obsessive material appetites (seen in
such 2013 films as Mr. Franco's starring effort
"Spring
Breakers"), "This Is The End" lauds the end of excess or at least
challenges its stars to manage their existences in the wake of their crumbling
auto-pilot world. Before we know it, Jay and Seth have allies in Craig
Robinson, Danny McBride, Jonah Hill and Mr. Franco, who has a BFF kick for Seth.
These men, in survival mode as apocalyptic doom is imminent, banter about life,
their film careers, religion, Heaven, ethics, food, water, weed, their penises
and other homoerotic preoccupations and outrages. Their very conversation
feels end-of-the-world-ish.
Emma Watson is one of only two women prominently featured in this mania, and
plays against the Harry Potter-type character she's so adroitly moved away from.
"This Is The End" is a fantasy couched in the neuroses and insecurities of
ill-mannered, high-profile, handsomely-paid performers, whose collective
self-consciousness is alternately masked and gleefully discarded. "This Is
The End" is a film I loved, and loved laughing at. There's disbelief in
that last sentence (as one who generally reviles such films) as well as in some
of the things you will see in "This Is The End", which will be a sure-fire smash
hit with 15-year-old boys everywhere.
Mr. Robinson and Mr. Franco in particular are good, and the cast in general has
no problem making fun of themselves and mocking their very existence.
"What is our purpose?," one of the actors asks. The question is never
fully answered, and some of them nervously laugh around it. "This Is The
End" wants us to laugh with and at its stupidity and frolic, but its makers are
keenly aware that some may well wonder why a few of the actors on display really
are so famous. This film is interesting, both as an only-mild departure
from the usual empty Hollywood tomfoolery comedies but also as a comment on
where the state of Hollywood self-congratulatory fervor is.
If "The Player" scandalously sent up the Hollywood mechanism and tension between
writers and directors, "This Is The End" celebrates the explosion or
exaggeration of the "first world" problems of Hollywood's rich and famous.
Lindsay Lohan is conveniently mentioned, among others. The film cheerleads
its satirical outposts with brio. You can't help but admire Mr. Rogen and
Mr. Goldberg's wack-a-doodle wonderful effort.
Instead of sappy, self-serious endless cameo films like the dreadful
"New Year's
Eve", "This Is The End" is entertaining, alive, revolting and
shameless. Its wild wackiness is not entirely new yet it is always smart,
sloppy and full of surprises. The filmmakers appear to take stock in the
idea that television these days is far sexier than film, and that for many the
"reality" television world is far ahead of the crazy real world we swim around
in. "This Is The End", however, is a reality show for grandiose
self-serving celebrities, only here the celebrities laugh, shriek and wink back
at that reality show. They know what they are doing and they do it well.
They are hardly caught unawares.
"This Is The End" never plays anything for subtlety, and its broad-strokes humor
and horror do not waver. So far, "This Is The End" is summer's big winner,
and on the Gregorian calendar at least, summer hasn't even officially started
yet.
Also with: A lot of other actors, comedians and faces you will recognize.
"This Is The End" is rated R by the Motion
Picture Association Of America for crude and sexual content throughout, brief
graphic nudity, pervasive language, drug use and some violence.
The film's running time is one hour and forty-one minutes.
COPYRIGHT 2013. POPCORNREEL.COM. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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