Directors: Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg
Starring: Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, Jonah Hill, Craig Robertson, Danny McBride, Mindy Kaling, Kevin Hart, Aziz Ansari, Rihanna, Paul Rudd, Channing Tatum, Michael Cera
Running Time: 107 minutes
Certificate: 15
Extras: Deleted Scenes, This is the Gag Reel, Line-O-Ramas Blooper Reel: Back-to-back shots of the actors’ different delivery of certain lines from the film including – Sleepover, Cum Battle and We Don’t Know You Man!, Featurette: Meta Apocalypse – The cast discusses the unique challenges of playing versions of themselves, Featurette: Let’s Get Technical – A look at the visual effects and technical aspects of the film, Featurette: Party Time – A behind-the-scenes look at the making of the party scene at James Franco’s house, including the celebrity friends who showed up, Featurette: The Cannibal King – Channing Tatum and Danny McBride take us on set to show us how it really was filming their scenes together, Featurette: The Making of ‘The Making of Pineapple Express 2’ – A behind-the-scenes look at the cast making the sequel to Pineapple Express, Featurette: Jay & Seth vs. The Apocalypse – The Original Short – The original short that inspired the film, Commentary with directors Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, Featurette: Directing Your Friends – Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg discuss what it’s like to make a film with their friends and hear from the cast about their experiences, This Is The Marketing: Marketing Outtakes, Cast Featurette, Redband Sizzle Trailer and Four Additional Confessionals – Aziz Haunts Craig Confessional, James and Danny Confessional, Jonah Confessional and Seth and Jay Confessional.
Join Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, Jonah Hill, Craig Robertson, Danny McBride and many more high-profile A-listers as they journey into hell in this self referencing and self-congratulating big-budget farce that revolves around the end of the world. The action kicks off when Baruchel jets into Los Angeles for a weekend with best friend Rogen. When Jay and Seth head to James Franco’s place for a debauched party on the evening of Jay’s arrival, all hell literally breaks loose, and the duo, along with the long-list of fellow famous names mentioned above, must pull together to survive the apocalypse.
In a year when two apocalyptic comedies graced our screens (the other was the final instalment in the Cornetto trilogy, the Edgar Wright helmed THE WORLD’S END), you expect one to fail in comparison to the other. It’s that whole ARMAGEDDON/ DEEP IMPACT, or DANTE’S PEAK/ VOLCANO thing. The great thing with these two films is that they both did pretty well, both commercially and critically, and while THE WORLD’S END is the better of the two films and stands up better to repeated viewings, THIS IS THE END certainly delivers what it promises, repeated laughs.
As well as the main leads, the film is littered with support from some of Hollywood’s elite, with the likes of Mindy Kaling, Kevin Hart, Aziz Ansari, Rihanna, Paul Rudd, Channing Tatum and Michael Cera, among many others, all bravely sending themselves up throughout.
While the self-referencing thing does seem a tad over the top at certain points in the film, and the gross-out/ risqué humour borderline-offensive at times (singling out the Emma Watson rapey gags for one), THIS IS THE END is laugh-out-loud hilarious more often than not and moves from gag-to-gag, and scene-to-scene with great pace. Rogen and writing partner Evan Goldberg show that they can direct high-concept, big-budget effects-laden comedy, and do a superb job considering that both make their helming debuts with this.
I had a great time with the THIS IS THE END, and as it is aimed at the mass audience, most viewers I’m sure will too. I will just take the opportunity to have a final thought and indeed add just two more slightly spoilerly words to this review. Backstreet’s back!
The Blu-Ray from which we reviewed the film is loaded with extra features on a single disc, too many to name here, which are all well worth the extra cash for the HD upgrade (the DVD has just the commentary, one featurettte and the ‘This Is Marketing’ promo). The features are all work an extra star o ntop of what we’ve given the overall release (below). Applause and a tip of the hat to Sony….
THIS IS THE END is available on DVD and Blu-Ray in the UK from Monday 28th October, 2013.
