Tag: Evan Goldberg

  • ‘This Is The End’ has laughs, weed, and just maybe the end of the world

    ‘This Is The End’ has laughs, weed, and just maybe the end of the world

    From left to right: James Franco, Jonah Hill, Craig Ferguson, Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel and Danny McBride fight to survive the apocalypse in 'This is the End'
    James Franco, Jonah Hill, Craig Ferguson, Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel and Danny McBride fight to survive the apocalypse in ‘This is the End’

    Seth Rogen and Jay Baruchel are very close friends in real life, and that friendship is where This Is The End begins. Jay’s come to the L.A. area to visit his friend Seth, and after spending hours smoking weed and doing other fun stuff, Seth wants to take Jay to a party at James Franco’s house. Jay doesn’t want to go, because he believes none of Seth’s friends like him. However Seth promises to stay by his side the whole time and Jay accedes to Seth’s desires and goes to the party.

    The place is packed and Jay’s concerns come to pass. So he decides to go to the local convenience store for some smokes, and Seth goes with him. While they are there, something happens. Beams of blue light come down from the sky and lift some of the store’s patrons into the heavens. This is immediately followed by fires, car crashes and general mayhem.

    The pair flees back to Franco’s house just in time to watch the largest earthquake in California history open a gaping chasm in front of the house, swallowing up most of the partygoers. Five people survive and barricade themselves in the house. It’s Franco, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson and of course Rogen and Baruchel. They figure that because they are “important” celebrities they will be rescued first, and decide they will wait it out. They inventory the available food, water and drugs and agree to ration them out. That is when Danny McBride enters the picture. He’d fallen asleep upstairs after crashing the party and proceeds to become a major problem to the others.

    Emma Watson returns to the house (she’d been at the party earlier), armed with an ax. She lays down to rest, but a misunderstanding frightens her and she robs the men of all of their drinks. They manage to get into the basement to get two jugs of water that were there but McBride wastes a lot of it. The others vote to evict him. Will they be rescued? Will they survive long enough to be rescued? Is Baruchel right, and this is the apocalypse and they still might be saved by the blue beams?

    Just as 1986 was the year of the fighter pilot movie (Top Gun and Iron Eagle), 1997 the year of movies about Steve Prefontaine (Without Limits and Prefontaine) and volcanoes (Dante’s Peak and Volcano), and 1998 the year of celestial bodies threatening the Earth (Deep Impact and Armageddon); 2013 is the year of movies about the apocalypse. Both this film and Rapture-Palooza, which is out in limited release involve the apocalypse and specifically the possibility of the Rapture taking place. World’s End, a British comedy in a similar vein is due out later this year.

    This is the low-brow humor version and that is what makes it effective. Asking actors to play themselves is not as easy as it sounds, but it is something they can and will throw themselves into with all they’ve got. We aren’t going to see how they really behave, but how the writers chose to have them behave. The product is interesting performances and it makes for great conflicts. Rogen and Evan Goldberg who write and direct, do a solid job here. It’s isn’t magnificent, genius movie-making, but it’s a solid effort. You will laugh.

  • ‘This Is the End’ has lots of laughs… and heart

    ‘This Is the End’ has lots of laughs… and heart

    James Franco, Danny McBride, Craig Ferguson, Jay Baruchel and Seth Rogen fight to survive the apocalypse in 'This is the End'
    James Franco, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson, Jay Baruchel, and Seth Rogen fight to survive the apocalypse in ‘This is the End’

    I’m a little mad at this movie. Mad because I had so many puns on the title to use to describe how terrible it is. But that’s not the case at all.

    This Is the End accomplishes the basic goal of being funny, yet has depth to it that the serious disaster movies could learn a thing or two from.

    For whoever doesn’t yet know, the actors here are playing themselves. Or rather, a version of themselves, since I doubt the real Michael Cera is as much of an oversexed cocaine addict. But if it does seem like someone is the same as they always are, there’s at least a valid reason for it.

    Jay Baruchel flies into Los Angeles to spend some quality time with his longtime friend from the old country, Seth Rogen. After an afternoon of activities including 3D television, listening to “Backstreet’s Back”, and recreational drug use (probably all at once), Rogen convinces Baruchel to go with him to a party at James Franco’s house.

    Right from the front door the tension begins. It becomes clear that Baruchel doesn’t mesh well with Rogen’s new friends, who also include Jonah Hill and Craig Robinson. And then it happens.  What seems like a mere earthquake breaks open a chasm is the backyard that kills nearly all partygoers.

    Rogen, Baruchel, Franco, Hill, and Robinson are the survivors and learn that some cataclysmic event has taken place and does all the things that a cataclysmic event does (power knocked out, dangers outside, etc). But soon one more joins the party: Danny McBride. Not invited to the party in the first place, he snuck in and then passed out in the bathroom when everything happened. He proves to a bigger impediment to team unity.

    That’s really the central conflict and aside from the tone, what makes this more than just another disaster movie. The story is as much about the potential end of the world as it is the potential end of a friendship. Bigger themes that build upon this premise are then introduced when the cause of the apocalypse is clarified, and the other character start to learn their lessons too. And let’s face it, as funny as these guys can be, this would a very dull proceeding if everybody played nice.

    Surprisingly, the film doesn’t overdo the celebrity appearances. They appear where they should; no situation makes anyone feel out of place and no one pops in at inappropriate times. It’s also pleasantly unexpected that the celebs of lesser star status are given as much attention as the more famous ones. Martin Starr and Kevin Hart are focused on just as much as Jason Segel or Paul Rudd.

    The main problem here is that it not easily accessible to newcomers. This film assumes that you are already familiar with who these people are and why it would be funny to see them play against type or exaggerated personas. Similarly, the brand of humor is the same as always. If you weren’t into it before, nothing here is going to change your mind.

    Rogen and writing partner Evan Goldberg make their directorial debuts with this film, and we can only hope they take up the position again soon. This had better not be the end for them. Hey, looks like I was able to make a pun after all.