The story is simple enough. James Franco is throwing a huge party at his house. Jay Baruchel is staying with Seth Rogen while he is in town, and gets dragged to the party along with Seth. He does not get along with Seth's new friends however. He hates Jonah Hill, who I just wanted to punch in the face the entire film. Jay just does not want to be there, so he ends up leaving to buy some smokes. While he and Seth are at the convenient store, everything goes to hell. People start getting sucked into the sky, there are explosions and chaos all around. The world instantly changes, and they don't seem to understand why. When they get back to the party though, it is as if nothing has changed. All the celebrities are still there, they are still partying and are unaware of what is going on outside. There is actually a pretty interesting message at this point in the film. If you have seen the movie, or when you do, think back to who was left behind. So Jay and Seth freak everybody out, they all try to leave, and people start to die. It is actually one of the funnier scenes of the movie. People are not helping each other, those that do try end up failing in a comedic way. I have not seen wide spread death and destruction that has made me laugh like that in a while. What we end up with is Jay Baruchel, Seth Rogen, James Franco, Jonah Hill, and Craig Robinson in the house together. And the movie is mostly about them trying to survive the final days together.
The comedy is similar to Pineapple Express. It has some drug use, and a lot of sexual comedy. If that stuff bothers you, or you are offended by it, simply skip this one. If stuff like Pineapple Express, and maybe even stuff like Tropic Thunder appeal to you, then give it a shot. Just be aware though, that the movie earns its R rating pretty easily. A easy example would be when they were all discussing what to do with Emma Watson now in the house with them. One was trying to discuss how they should approach the situation cautiously so they would not come off as creepy. It turned into a discussion about rape pretty quickly. Over hearing it, Watson misunderstands and thinks she is about to be raped. That was actually one of the tamer moments of the film, but it does show some of the sexual humor I was referencing.
Visually speaking, the film was a mixed bag. I did like the LA on fire scenes, and the monsters looked pretty good for the most part. However some portions just looked low budget compared to others. Sink holes open up and swallow people into them at one point. The holes looked fine, but what was inside of them looked off. The way people fell, and the effects were done did not seem to match up right. And the whole scene just looked very fake at certain points. They did a good job of mostly keeping in the house after that, so there are not a lot of other scenes with very many effects. So the few miss steps don't really detract that much, but they were noticeable from time to time. Only other real issue I had with the film was simply, you do get tired of the dick jokes after awhile.
Only other thing I would really like to talk about is the ending. But that is a huge spoiler, so let me just go ahead and do this. SKIP THIS PART IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO KNOW WHAT CAUSES THE APOCALYPSE, OR HOW THE MOVIE ENDS. So when the film first came out, a lot of people did not like the ending. I never really understood why until I watched it, and now I just more confused. It ends up being the Biblical Apocalypse, so the people being sucked into the sky are being raptured. They are going to heaven, and everybody left are those who were not eligible. This was the message I was talking about earlier, all the celebrities did not get into heaven. I thought that was funny, since they are the ones making and writing the movie. However with it being a biblical movie, you would expect them to follow the bible...they do not. Pretty much all of the core group end up getting into heaven, but not by the ways the Bible has set out. Also the parts of the apocalypse that were shown, did not really line up with the one in the Bible. So at first I figured, people were annoyed they didn't follow the Bible. After thinking about it though, that can't be right. While Christianity is a huge religion, not everybody complaining followed it, and it would be rather vein to assume that was the reason. So maybe people didn't like it because it was about God? I would assume most people don't go to a Seth Rogen, or Danny McBride movie expecting it to say Christians are right. So if you are reading this, and you have seen the movie....if you didn't like the ending, simply tell me why. I would appreciate it greatly.
Alright no more spoilers.
So we have a movie over flowing with celebrities. The opening is very strong, mostly because of that reason. Crazy stuff starts to happen, and the tone changes. It is no longer about fun, but about survival. The movie works off of comedy though, instead of tension. The laughs hold up for the most part, but the same jokes over and over again do get stale eventually. We have what I felt was a good ending, with a very strong finish. There are a few effects hiccups from time to time, but for the most part everything looked pretty damn cool. I paid $15 on amazon for the movie, and feel like I got my moneys worth. If you are a fan of Seth Rogen and his other works, chances are you will enjoy this one to. Honestly I put the RedBand trailer below, just watch that. If you like it, you will like the movie. It shows you exactly what you are going to get.
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