The actor Jay Baruchel lands in Los Angeles, where his friend and colleague Seth Rogen is waiting for him. The two relax a bit with alcohol, marijuana, and video games, then Seth suggests to his friend to go to the party that James Franco will hold in his new house to inaugurate it and to which a ton of VIPs will attend. Initially reluctant, Jay accepts. The party is indeed packed with famous faces from the entertainment world: Rihanna, Michael Cera, Emma Watson, Paul Rudd, Jason Segel… and then there are the set friends Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson, and Danny McBride. As the party proceeds, a sudden explosion captures the attention of the participants who realize that something terrible is happening outside. The Hollywood Hills are on fire, fireballs are destroying everything, and gigantic chasms are opening in the ground swallowing everything and everyone. Seth, Jay, Craig, James, and Danny lock themselves inside the house while outside the apocalypse unleashes, complete with winged demons that kill humans, but surviving the forced cohabitation will perhaps be harder than facing Hell! In 2005, the film "40-Year-Old Virgin" arrived in theaters, the feature film debut of director, screenwriter, and producer Judd Apatow. It was enough for Apatow to become the new Midas of American comedy thanks to the critical and public success of this film, a point of reference for others as well as a true cornerstone for the genre. Around Apatow, a small world has been created, made up of actor/friends who essentially represent the exclusive team of these productions, the Apatow Team, so to speak. Curiously, the Apatow Team is expanding even outside the directorships and productions of the director of "Knocked Up" and while he arrives in theaters with the generational comedy "This Is 40", much of his team reunites for the crazy horror comedy "This Is the End". Behind "This Is the End" is Seth Rogen, who along with his friend Evan Goldberg writes, produces, directs, and stars, gathering all – yes, all! – the set companions, starting with James Franco, Danny McBride, and Craig Robinson who with them shared the success of "Pineapple Express" (2008). And it is the latter who is heavily referenced within "This Is the End", with an amateur sequel supposedly filmed by the bored protagonists locked in Franco's house. One of the peculiarities of "This Is the End" lies precisely in the characters/protagonists who play themselves in an exaggerated and distorted version to accentuate all their vices and defects. We will therefore have a Jonah Hill suspiciously too good with everyone, a McBride wicked to the point of cannibalism, and an unsuspecting Michael Cera devoted to heavy drugs and double fellatio. The film plays precisely on the relationship between the various characters, described as friends in reality as well as in fiction, and put to the test in an extreme survival situation, where even a chocolate bar or a porn magazine becomes a pretext for conflict. There are many genuinely funny situations, with the peak perhaps reached by the scene of the alleged rape of Emma Watson, but mostly situations that exceed vulgarity and profanity, as per the rule. But "This Is the End" has a fundamental flaw: repetitiveness. The film starts with the accelerator, we get into the heart of the story after just 15-20 minutes, but then a long stall is created that shows the forced cohabitation of the protagonists, with continuous arguments and crazy survival plans. The gags of this long segment almost all hit the mark, but the story does not evolve and before seeing "ours" face the Inferno outside the house, you have to wait for the last minutes of the film. And in the belated third act of "This Is the End", the magnificent demons created by the masters of special effects Berger and Nicotero unleash, winged monsters, infernal dogs that closely resemble the guardians of Gozer in "Ghostbusters", and a majestic giant devil of Godzilla-like memory. Although it must be said that throughout the film there are many concessions to horror, while remaining "This Is the End" mainly a comedy, and this happens thanks to a multitude of really excessive splatter ideas that in some points make you think of the sequels of "Final Destination" for the deadly use of the set design, in others they seem to almost recall certain products of Troma. Unfortunately, amidst hilarious moments and splatter ideas, "This Is the End" also places some stylistic missteps that risk compromising the success of the film, especially because they are almost exclusively positioned in the final lines. If the possession style "The Exorcist" seems out of place and above all seems already seen in a almost nauseating way, it is precisely the ending of the film that leaves a bitter taste in the mouth, unnecessarily abandoned to the demoralizing, almost as if they had no idea how to end the story. The cast works and it seems that those involved had a great time filming the movie, the funny scenes are not lacking and the horror arrives wild thanks to monsters and rivers of blood, it's a shame then that the story is dragged out too much and some stylistic missteps clash in the whole. Curiosity. "This Is the End" derives from a 2007 short film titled "Jay and Seth versus the Apocalypse", in which actors Jay Baruchel and Seth Rogen, directed by Jason Stone, found themselves in the same situation shown in this film. Take off half a pumpkin.
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