I tried to write a coherent longer form post about this
movie, but I really don’t remember it on a scene by scene basis in a way that
makes that desirable so I’m just going to drop a few points:
· Part of the reason that I can’t recall the film
in much detail is its structure. After a
brief introduction, the apocalypse begins, and from there we’re mostly stuck
with the six main guys in James Franco’s house for the next 75 minutes. The main artery is a will they or won’t they
get back together bromance between Seth Rogen and Jay Baruchel. It works for the most part but I think this
group of actors and writers (Rogen and Evan Goldberg wrote and directed the
film) have told this type of story better in movies like “Superbad” and even
“Pineapple Express.” Other than this the
movie is really a string of vignettes with what I imagine is a lot of
improvisation that is funny in the moment but not crisp enough to retain in
detail.
·
There’s a real elevation whenever Danny McBride
is on screen. While Rogen, Baruchel,
Franco, Craig Robinson, and Jonah Hill all play slightly exaggerated versions
of themselves, McBride exists in an entirely different reality. He’s sort of like John Belushi was in “Animal
House” in this way. I think Rogen and
Golberg were aware of this because they use McBride sparingly, and it takes a
solid half hour for him to get introduced.
His character is the only one who is able to milk any comedic material
out of the apocalypse conceit itself since the rest of the actors are playing
it more or less straight. Which brings
me too…
·
What was the point of having Rogen play Rogen,
Hill play Hill, and etc. In the
beginning there’s some slight fun that is had at the expense of Hill and
Franco’s public personas, but then the gimmick is more or less dropped and this
becomes a standard survival comedy. My
read its that Rogen and Goldberg made their initial digs at the various guys
and then realized that they really didn’t have much left in the tank that
wasn’t related to James Franco. As a
favor to him they didn’t pile on and what we got was what we got. The best use of the novelty is early in "This is the End" that I won't spoiler here.
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