This is the End: A raptured delight
Seth Rogan and Jay Baruchel star as exaggerated versions of themselves in the intensely bromantic, verging on homoerotic, comedic horror This is the End
The end of the world is rarely a topic for American comedy, but with Seth Rogan and friends in control, the apocalypse has never been funnier as mojo discovered.
by Georgie Moore
Seth Rogan and Jay Baruchel star as exaggerated versions of themselves in the intensely bromantic, verging on homoerotic, comedic horror This is the End.
Rogan and Evan Goldberg's directional debut, originally a short online film, is a parody of the Christian apocalypse where true believers are saved while natural disasters and demons take over the earth.
The story centres on Rogen and Baruchel’s strained relationship over a boys’ weekend in Los Angeles. However, the disappearance of half the city and a massive earthquake that gruesomely kills most of Hollywood—notably an outrageous Michael Cera—leaves Rogan, Baruchel, Jonah Hill, Danny McBride and James Franco stranded in the remains of the latter’s house. What could be a try-hard flop is saved by the novelty of the apocalypse—the rapture is not a traditionally popular plot line for the mainstream—and the actors’ pisstakes of themselves.
Rogen explained the decision to have actors play themselves as a take on the fact people think they know actors based on their characters.
“So we thought it would be funny to play into that—to have these characters that are behav[ing] in the way that everybody thinks is what we’re like off screen,” explains Rogen.
“There are elements of our real selves, but we all twisted them or exaggerated them.”
The is the End’s apocalypse is also an allegory to the disintegration of the veneer of Hollywood’s glamour, as well as the protagonists’ relationships in the face of growing survivalism and fading hopes of rescue. Yet the comedic overrides the horror, with references to and spoofs of 127 Hours, Pineapple Express, The Terminator and The Exorcism of Emily Rose—as well as the actors’ own careers—all mixed with a dash of 90's and noughties' pop.
The supernatural is similarly self-deprecating making This is the End an up yours to the cheesy earnestness of similar Christian productions, such as the 2001 movie adaptation of Left Behind.
Rating: 3.5 stars
This is the End is on general release from July 18.
