As gross-out comedies go, This Is the End is adequately entertaining. Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, James Franco and other movie comedy stars play themselves – all partying at Franco’s over-the-top Hollywood mansion when the Apocalypse and The Rapture intrude.
The cast does a good job with the very broad material. Franco, Hill, Harry Potter’s Emma Watson and especially Michael Cera all poke fun at their own images. And, just when you think you’re watching a low brow comedy, Danny McBride arrives and takes that brow even further into the gutter.
It’s co-written and co-directed by best friends Rogen and Evan Goldberg, who co-wrote Superbad as teenagers. Jay Baruchel plays a character based on Goldberg, down from Canada to visit his boyhood chum and distrusting Rogen’s Hollywood posse. It’s a solid send-up of the apocalyptic movie genre, with a nice little homage to The Exorcist. The guys will enjoy This Is the End more than will the gals.