THIS IS THE END - REVIEW

If The Watch was too tame for you, here's a sci-fi comedy that should do the trick.

An all-star cast leads an ambitious flick where a bunch of Hollywood actors (all playing exaggerated versions of themselves) find out they're in the middle of what could very well be the end of the world as we know it. This being a Seth Rogen film, expect gross-out humour aplenty (this includes dick jokes, don't worry), bromances left and right, lots and lots of weed and, of course, a psychotic Danny McBride.

This Is The End is a one-joke movie, and it knows it. If you watch the trailers and expect to see much more sci-fi action then prepare to be slightly underwhelmed. Yes there is action in this movie but a lot of it is spent in James Franco's house where the guys are either running around terrified like headless chickens, arguing among themselves or just chilling out. That said, something really fun happens to Jonah Hill about halfway through so look out for that. Everyone is having a ball making this movie and it shows: it's pretty anarchic and often puts the plot aside for goofy montages or mostly improvised dialog. This might infuriate some but, luckily, 90% of the improv in this one is very funny. If you like these guys, then an entire scene where James Franco yells at Danny McBride for ejaculating in his magazine will still come off as completely unnecessary but it won't matter. If this brand of humour is your thing, you'll most likely really enjoy This Is The End. It's a terrific cast and Rogen's film makes sure to keep throwing surprises and lols at their own expense your way. Actors are either portrayed as OTT versions of how they come off in some of their movies or as exactly the opposite (watch out for numerous scene-stealing Michael Cera jokes).

This Is The End is all over the place.

Visually, they use every technique known to man to make some of the more ambitious scenes work despite a relatively low budget for such a big and epic premise. You've got really good CGI, not so good CGI, really good green screen, not so good green screen, the practical effects look mostly cheesy but that's part of the joke. A whole scene sees the guys kick around a severed head and the fact it looks about as real as Yoda in the old Star Wars movies adds to the tongue-in-cheek nature of the flick. As with most movies of that type, Your Highness for example, there are about a million jokes and they're mostly hit-and-miss. To be fair, though, here they hit more than they miss. A late reveal involving Danny McBride's character is genius but then this leads to a truly perplexing ending which, as adequately goofy as it is, comes off as more random than it does satisfyingly hilarious. Leaving it open for a sequel could have been cool, turning This Is The End into some kind of comedy The Expendables-style franchise, but the film is really self-contained.

Overall, your enjoyment of This Is The End will depend on how much you like the cast and their brand of humour. It's a really entertaining, really funny movie and if I have any criticisms if would be that maybe there isn't enough story to it, some of its improv scenes go on for a tad too long, we spend a bit too much time in one location and the ending is a bit anticlimactic. All that said, I really had a lot of fun with this movie and definitely recommend it.

Brilliantly wacky, check it out.