This Is the End

This crass, raunchy, ribald comedy featuring actors playing “themselves” begins with Seth Rogen picking up longtime friend Jay Baruchel at Los Angeles International Airport. Despite Baruchel's reluctance, they head for James Franco's housewarming party, where they mix and mingle with Michael Cera, Paul Rudd, Kevin Hart, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Jason Segel, and Aziz Ansari—at least until the cataclysmic biblical apocalypse described in the Book of Revelation hits, creating an earthquake followed by a sinkhole. Not surprisingly, many perish, leaving Rogen, Baruchel, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson, and uninvited Danny McBride trapped inside Franco's fortress-like mansion, while demons and zombies roam the acrid Hollywood Hills and True Believers ascend into Heaven in the Rapture. The survivors turn out to be exaggerated sociological archetypes of any group of male friends, even when their caricatured conversation delves into topics including selfishness, stoner excess, selling out, and entitlement in our contemporary celebrity culture. Unevenly written and indulgently directed by Rogen and Evan Goldberg, This Is the End is essentially a sustained series of sketches of boorish frat-pack lunacy, with Rihanna, Mindy Kaling, and axe-wielding Emma Watson as token females. Reportedly, the filmmakers expected to get an NC-17 rating—not only because of vulgar profanity and drug use but due to the perverted sex scenes (including one between a human and a satanic beast with a giant phallus). To their amazement, the film received an R rating. A self-deprecating, sexist, horror zonk-fest, this is an optional purchase. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include audio commentary by filmmakers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, “This is the Marketing” promo clips (17 min.), a “Directing Your Friends” production featurette (7 min.), and trailers. Exclusive to the Blu-ray release are deleted scenes (16 min.), “Line-o-Rama” outtakes (13 min.), the production featurettes “Party Time” (13 min.) and “Let's Get Technical” (11 min.), Jason Stone's 2007 original short “Jay & Seth vs. The Apocalypse” short film (10 min.), a “Meta-Apocalypse” crew segment (8 min.), “The Making of “The Making of Pineapple Express 2” spoof (7 min.), a gag reel (6 min.), “The Cannibal King” bonus footage (4 min.), and bonus DVD and UltraViolet copies of the film. Bottom line: a fine extras package for a half-baked comedy.] (S. Granger)