2012 was the year in which the ancient Mayans predicted the end of the world - or maybe just told us all to flip to the next page in our eonian calendar.
Indeed, Roland Emmerich's 2009 appropriately titled "2012" took the end of days as seriously as a Roland Emmerich film can take anything, in the form of a disaster movie to (quite literally) end all disaster movies.
But right around and right after the foretold (or not) apocalypse came and went without so much as a Y2K bug, we saw a spate of films including "The World's End," "It's a Disaster," "Seeking a Friend for the End of the World" and, of course "This is the End." In these movies, the end of the world is not a religious tribulation or global calamity, but a source of dark, absurdist comedy, a mass memento mori that forces us to reevaluate our lives and see the true colors of our relationships with our friends.
In "This is the End," the apocalypse comes as a twisted take on the (already fairly twisted) Book of Revelations, complete with blue-light rapture for the virtuous, i.e. none of main characters. This old-school biblical Judgment Day has even come to the swanky LA hills, seriously harshing the mellow of a celebrity house-party at James Franco's house - yes, the James Franco - to which Seth Rogen (yes, the Seth Rogen) has dragged his best pal Jay Baruchel (yes, the... well, you get the idea).
With the exception of a couple of bit parts, everyone in "This is the End" plays themselves - well, 'themselves' in big inverted commas. Seth Rogen plays 'Seth Rogen,' Emma Watson plays 'Emma Watson,' Craig Robinson plays 'Craig Robinson,' etc. etc. There's plenty of self-reference to go around here, some of it pretty goddamn hilarious. For example, Seth Rogen and James Franco discuss their ideas for "Pineapple Express 2," and even shoot a handicam version of it, starring themselves and Danny McBride reprising their roles from the original and Woody Harrelson playing himself in the movie within the movie - played by Jonah Hill.
What could have just been obnoxious meta-ness, though, works very well here to further the film's queasy and genuinely unpredictable comedy. The actors play versions of themselves that incorporate their perceived public images, caricature those public images and comedically undermine them (Michael Cera as a coked-out, sexually-harassing jerk is particularly great). These are characters (and the real actors playing them) who know (or know of) each other, some who grew up together and many who have worked together. Much of the film's comedy comes from their exaggerated and invented relationships with each other, many of which have a depth of backstory, both real and fictional.
It's the extremes that "This is the End" takes this fun-house of mirrors, though, that makes it the unique beastie it is. This is the end of the world, after all, and the violence we see as the apocalypse kicks into gear is played for laughs and shock value, often at the same time. The demons, when we see them, are grotesque, frightening and more than a little obscene. James Franco and Danny McBride get into a territorial fight over who has the right to masturbate where, Craig Robinson cravenly leaves a fellow comedian to fall into a fiery pit, Channing Tatum puts on the leather and plays Russian roulette with his film-star persona and then, well... then there's what happens to Jonah Hill.
All the key players do a great job acting 'themselves.' Emma Watson gets a hell of a cameo (all the funnier for being played dead straight) and Jonah Hill gets my favorite line of the movie ("Hello God, it's me. Jonah. From 'Moneyball.'"). But it's Jay Baruchel, playing the closest thing the film has to a protagonist, who was a real discovery for me. In a movie filled with ironic projectile vomiting, ridiculous celebrity deaths and tuxedoed cannibals, Jay gives a surprisingly three-dimensional, compelling performance as, well... 'Jay Baruchel.'
To be honest, I'm still not sure what to make of this movie. It warms the cockles of my jaded heart to see such an utterly imaginative, warped and subversive film coming out of a major Hollywood studio - even more so to see it being rewarded with commercial and critical success. This is a film that is packed with ideas - many of them very clever. Some of the references and absurd situations were genuinely hilarious, some of the in-fighting and scatology (eschatological scatology?) left me cold. Overall, I smiled much more than I laughed out loud, but I did laugh out loud.
This is definitely one that I'll need to watch again.
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