The film focuses on the friendship between actors Jay Baruchel (of “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” “How to Train Your Dragon,” “She’s Out of My League,” and “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian”) and Seth Rogen (of “The Guilt Trip,” “50/50,” “Kung Fu Panda 2,” “Paul,” and “The Green Hornet”)—like the vast majority of the people in this movie, they’re playing themselves—old buddies who are attempting to reconnect. Baruchel is visiting Rogen, who lives in Los Angeles, but something about their friendship has been off lately—and it’s only exacerbated when Rogen, instead of wanting to hang out together, convinces Baruchel to accompany him to a party at actor James Franco’s house. Naturally, the party will have tons of pretty girls, illegal substances, and art (Franco’s favorite pastime), but Baruchel just wants to sit home and play video games. He’s a bit antisocial that way.
And so Baruchel, who doesn’t like any of these people—Franco (of “Oz the Great and Powerful,” “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” “Your Highness,” “The Green Hornet,” and “127 Hours”), Jonah Hill (of “The Watch,” “21 Jump Street,” “The Sitter,” “Moneyball,” and “Megamind”), Craig Robinson (of “Peeples,” “Escape from Planet Earth,” “Shrek Forever After,” and “Hot Tub Time Machine”), and Danny McBride (of “30 Minutes or Less,” “Kung Fu Panda 2,” “Your Highness,” “Due Date,” and “Despicable Me”)—ends up being stuck with them once a massive earthquake hits Los Angeles. Except for where the earthquake feels a lot, Baruchel notes, like the end of days described in the Bible. There’s lots of fire everywhere. Tons of people are dying. Others are being pulled up into the sky through beams of blue light. Is there a chance for Baruchel and his frenemies to be redeemed? Or are they resigned to their sinfulness and their upcoming doom?
So the film is grappling with some cut-and-dry religious questions, but of course, there are jokes upon jokes upon jokes. (And it should be said, of course, that if you don’t like the specific kind of comedy practiced by the actors in this film, it absolutely will not work for you. Too much of the film is based on their chemistry and real-life friendship, and if that’s not something you already appreciate, this film will be torture.) Anyway, the faith-based revelation comes toward the final third of the film, so before then, there are tons of sequences that are utterly outlandish: the men gather all their food, drugs, and other items together and decide to ration it, only to have McBride waste most of it cooking what he thinks is a nice breakfast for them. Baruchel, Rogen, Robinson, and Hill all climb in bed together because they’re scared, while Franco peacefully sleeps in an eye mask. There’s a good parody of “The Exorcist” that incorporates Hill’s sarcastic, scoffing comedy style. All of this stuff is deservedly R-rated, but for appropriately aged viewers, it works; there’s a nice ease to the actors’ chemistry together that makes this all infectiously energetic and giddy.
But when the film makes weird choices, they are very, very weird indeed, and there’s an abundance of rape jokes here that get increasingly aggressive, and graphic, as the film goes on. Could the film have lost some of those? Certainly; there are other ways to introduce plot elements like demonic possession than through unwanted, violent sexual encounters. And so there’s a weird disconnect between the film’s ultimate message, which is that we should be better people not just because we may one day encounter an apocalypse but because it’s the right thing to do, and the rape-, drug-, and violence-focused jokes that get us there. There certainly are some logical inconsistencies to the whole thing.
Nevertheless, for the most part, “This is the End” is amusing enough. Baruchel does his geeky self-righteous thing well, he has good chemistry with Rogen, and the film’s secret weapons are McBride and Robinson, who continually one-up themselves. The film’s purposeful B-movie effects poke fun at itself, and directors Rogen and Evan Goldberg (the latter also co-wrote the film with Jason Stone) have a good sense of pacing. It’s only the film’s most distasteful rape jokes that drag it down—otherwise, “This is the End” is enjoyably outrageous.
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