This is the end is the 2013 comedy from Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, the two creators of Superbad. It stars James Franco, Jonah Hill, Jay Baruchel, Seth Rogen, Danny McBride and Craig Robinson.
The film is set at James Franco's house warming party, where guests face the end of the world. Party guests include Rihanna, Michael Cera and Emma Watson.
This film is hilarious. However, unless you are familiar with the 'Apatow' crew, and films such as Knocked Up, Pineapple Express, and Superbad to name a few, you may not find it as funny or impressive as myself. The film makes a lot of references to past work that each actor has done, even with small references to the first work of Franco and Rogen, Freaks and Geeks. To those that have seen these films, you feel part of the group and are able to be included and emerged into the film. The chemistry of the group is incredible, mainly because they are all best friends and most of the script is improvised. If you are not familiar however, then you may feel like an outsider.
The film does have a 'serious' note to it. Jay Baruchel, convinced that the end of the world is in the biblical form, the group must come to terms with their sins and try to convince the higher power that they are better people, including sacrificing themselves and generally just being nicer towards others. I was surprised at this and wasn't expecting such a religious theme, however it's very small compared to the amount of drug and sex related humour.
For the Apatow comedy fans that haven't seen this movie, I would definitely recommend watching it, however for others, I'd firstly suggest Knocked Up and then you'll know what to expect.
★★★★☆
