Ryan McNeil
Ever have one of those nights of mass consumption? The sort of night where you’re surrounded by friends of a similar mindset and you start cracking each other up? At some point in that night, someone will declare something like “We should have a show!” (or “make a movie”, or “do a stand-up act!”, etc).
Happily, when the night ends and everyone sleeps off their buzz, nothing comes of these bold declarations, because in the end you had to be there.
Every once in a while though, the mirth of that crazy night is parlayed into something else. Something that may or may not work depending on where you’re sitting.
THIS IS THE END features actors playing fictional versions of themselves. Our story begins with Jay Baruchel arriving in Los Angeles to hang out with Seth Rogen. Jay isn’t crazy about being in town, but Seth has promised him a great deal of quality time, and for a while is true to his word.
Then he suggests going to a party at James Franco’s house. While this set’s Jay’s nerves on edge, he’s eventually talked into it. Unfortunately, the party goes just like Jay expected it would, with Seth abandoning him to hang out with cooler people. In trying to make a run for it, Jay steps out to run to the corner store, and sensing Jay’s displeasure, Seth soon follows. It’s at the convenience store that all hell breaks loose.
First a series of bright blue lights shine from the sky and seemingly zap scores of random strangers. Then earthquakes and firestorms break out all around the neighbourhood. When Seth and Jay run back to Franco’s for cover, they are soon faced with the ground opening under their feet and many of the guests falling into an endless abyss. The end of days appears to be nigh…but some manage to survive.
Thus begins the story of how Seth and Jay endure The Rapture side by side with Craig Robinson, James Franco, Jonah Hill, and Danny McBride.
Ever find yourself enjoying every bite of a double cheeseburger, and then immediately regret it the moment you finish? That’s THIS IS THE END. On multiple occasions, I’ve said that comedies need to be judged pass/fail based on whether or not they make you laugh. On that scale, the film passes…but I feel like I laughed at it despite myself.
In many ways, THIS IS THE END feels like a film conceived during a night where this frat pack were hanging out and smoking up. Time and again it feels like they were too busy laughing at their own ideas to come up with something that would genuinely make the audience laugh. Much of the comedy is stoner humour, and much of the rest is one long set of dick jokes. I truly believe that all of these ideas were probably hysterical the night they were thought up, and I dearly wished I’d been in the room. However, there’s a world of difference between what’s funny in someone’s living room, and what’s funny projected on a three-story screen. As a for instance, somebody need to explain to me how an entire bit about who may or may not get raped (and who may or may not do the raping) is funny.
What makes all of this feel even stranger in hindsight is the guys playing “versions of themselves”. While the winking nature of this story makes for a funny moment or two (Rogen getting called out for GREEN HORNET for instance), there’s no other reason for them to play themselves…except perhaps to get in touch with their inner douchebag. One wonders if they needed to “play themselves” to do that, or if they just couldn’t play a bunch of actors in the same situation. In short, the self-reference brought so little to the table that it might as well have been left out.
This is a script that is light on story and heavy on dialogue. That dialogue has its moments, but it also has its moments where it tries to stretch the moments out into minutes – and they can feel like long minutes.
There could have been a bright blue light to save me had the film focused more on the theme of redemption. Jay valiantly tries to shine a light on it, and Craig even takes up the cause for a moment or two. Ultimately though, a chowderheaded comedy like this cannot find a way to truly interweave the theme of contrition into its plot. What that leaves us with is less repentance, and bargaining. These guys aren’t standing trial for the salvation of their souls so much as they are poring through law books looking for the loophole. It was a good idea, but just like all of the other good ideas in this script, it’s only left as a rough sketch.
So what could have been a really clever piece of meta-humour turns into an overly drawn out series of dick and fart jokes. It’s as if this class of jokers have been laughing amongst themselves for so long, that they have forgotten how to make anybody else laugh.
Perhaps it’s time these guys start playing in different corners of the sandbox. Maybe then they can balance out amusing themselves with amusing others…
..or maybe I just had to be there.
This is hands down my favourite comedy of the year so far and it’s a shame the humour wasn’t your cup of tea.
To answer your question, I don’t think the “rape conversation” itself was supposed to be funny. The humour comes from the conversation happening within earshot of the subject, who then goes on an uncharacteristically foul-mouthed tirade.
Coulda fooled me: The conversation was sparking a lot of laughs in my cinema…
I loved it too, and was completely on board with its dumb logic and meta commentary.
On the subject of the rape conversation, what was funny about it was the way it revealed individual doubts about the other characters. Because they’re already bickering, the topic of creating a friendly environment and basically simply saying ‘don’t be creepy or lecherous, guys, that’s not cool’ turns quickly to accusatory statements about whether or not they feel another can be trusted. I’d agree that rape jokes aren’t funny, but this wasn’t a joke about sexual violence so much as it was one about each character’s perception of the other characters. Says a lot about where they are as a group of supposed friends and how things may be turning.
Funny thing, I was actually really enjoying the meta commentary (like making Michael Cera as the asshole), but really felt like they dropped that once The rapture arrived. It sorta peeked its head out of the water again when McBride starts talking about their lack of delivery…but by and large I felt like they wandered far away from it in the late-going.
Oh no! It seems our reviews of this are completely opposites. They’ve got a knack for their improvisation skills, and I can vouch for that being on set with them for a day! You’re right about the film being light on the plot and heavy on the dialogue, but this is a feat that is surprisingly hard to accomplish(read: Grownups 2 trailer…what shit), and I think they did.
That’s the hitch with comedy, right? What one person laughs their ass off at, the other person shrugs off.
I agree with you for the most part, except I think I like the humor slightly more than you did, but I am with you regarding this is basically one big inside joke.
Gene Siskel once said: “Is this movie more interesting than a documentary about the same actors having lunch?” I think it certainly applies here. I would go one step further, I think the making of the movie is more interesting than the movie itself.
I’d recently read that Siskel quote, but forgotten it when time came to start writing. Thanks for reminding me!
For once I enjoyed the dick jokes. Although much of the film felt like an in-joke, I enjoyed watching the cast poke fun at themselves and each other. It was one of the rowdier screenings I have been to in some time – the audience really got into it.
My main complaint is the runtime. This is a 90 minute film and not a minute more.
When this comment showed up as an email on my phone, the first line cut off in the text preview. So all I could see without clicking was:
“For once I enjoyed the dick”
Thank you for getting my Friday off to the best start ever.
I’m never leaving a comment with the word ‘dick’ in it ever again.
I have a mental image of you blushing now.
I haven’t seen this and was on the fence about it (I’ve seen some positive responses but still it LOOKS stupid to me), but I totally loved reading your thoughts. Your idea of how it was probably funny in their living room but didn’t translate onscreen sounds exactly like something these guys would do, so I’m willing to believe your take on the film! Might catch it on tv in a few years, but definitely won’t spend money on it. Anyway, great review!
Now that you’ve said all of that, watch it shake down that you see it one afternoon flipping channels and think that I was totally out of my mind to write it off.
PS – Great work on “Movies We Love”