I find it very difficult to review comedy films. The difficulty in this comes from the fact that a comedy film can be well made and well performed but if I don't find it funny can I give it a good review? This is the problem I have in front of me today with 'This is the End' (2013). I am going to sit here and write a review which will be mostly positive about a film that I did not enjoy and at times kind of hated. Well it will be an interesting review if nothing else. 'This is the End' is a film where all the actors play exaggerated versions of themselves. The film opens with Jay Baruchel arriving in L.A.to spend the weekend with his old friend, Seth Rogen. Jay is not a fan of the L.A. lifestyle and was looking forward to a chilled out weekend smoking weed and playing video games. However, Seth convinces Jay to join him at James Franco's housewarming party where all Seth's actor friends will be. Jay is resistant due to his dislike of Seth's new friends but comes along. While at the party the apocalypse hits and plunges the world into hellish mayhem. Jay and Seth find themselves stuck in James Franco's house alongside James himself, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson and Danny McBride. The six actors must now work out how to survive the apocalypse and get themselves into heaven.
As I eluded to in my intro, this film is a well made one. On a technical level it is very solid. The lighting, shot composition, editing and sound design are all very good and there is little negative I can say about them. There are several montage sequences that are also done very well. I have a problem with the fact that the film seems to think that a montage sequence alongside a popular song equals comedy, but I have nothing bad to say about them on a technical level. Where the film really exceeded my expectations was in the CGI. For a comedy film like this I felt like there would be very little CGI and any that would be there would not be all that high quality. However, there is actually a rather large amount with there being several creatures of hell show up throughout the film. The CGI on these creatures is all really good for the most part. There are a couple moments where it looks a little iffy but they are few and far between. It is not in these technical aspects where I feel like the film suffers. The problem I had with the film is the fact that it is a comedy that I just don't think is very funny at all. Don't get me wrong I did laugh, but I can count on one hand how many times that happened. Instead of being funny I actually found this film quite irritating and mostly just boring. But this is very much down to my sense of humour. I don't find the kind of comedy that this film offers up funny, but I can understand why some people would. And like I said, I did laugh a couple of times and I will get to one aspect of the film I very much enjoyed shortly.
Very much like the technical side of this film, there is very little I can say negative about the acting. It isn't worthy of being nominated for any awards, and it is just these actors playing themselves but I can't say they did a bad job. James Franco plays a narcissistic douchebag very well. Seth Rogen puts in the same performance he always does but I don't necessarily mind that. Danny McBride is a pretty believable psychopath and Craig Robinson is quite a loveable coward. Jay Baruchel, who I had not seen in any live action films before this, is also good as this selfish guy who is stuck in the past. Out of the group it is Jonah Hill who is the MVP, managing to get me to giggle a couple of times at his overly nice guy performance where he finds the positives in everything. The problem with all these performances is, again, in the style of comedy the film goes for. The performances often just turn into actors saying overtly disgusting things for laughs as well as there being a lot of sequences of annoying screaming and shouting. This does put a damper on all the performances on the whole as it makes all the characters unbearable at times. I did say there was one aspect of the film that I very much enjoyed and that is Michael Cera's cameo. He may only be on screen a short time but he is the most memorable part of the film, playing a drug fuelled dick head. It is a performance that is very much the opposite of what you would think of when you think of Micheal Cera and it is very fun to see.
'This is the End' is a film that one the whole I don't think is very good. It is well made, the special effects are good and the performances are all fine. The problem with the film is that it is a comedy that just isn't that funny, and often times veered into irritating and annoying. But that does not mean I won't recommend it. Because the film is hard to criticise on a technical and performance level my recommendation has to come down to taste. So, if like me you think that the kind of humour that is often prevalent in Seth Rogen and James Franco films is not all that funny then stay away from this. However, if you enjoy that kind of comedy you will probably love this film. For me it is a film I will never be watching again, but for you it may just become your new favourite late night comedy.