The Evan Goldberg & Seth Rogen directed End of the World stars a bunch of famous people as themselves. I will anticipate it with morbid curiousity, join me.

End of the World is an upcoming American action comedy film directed by Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen, written by Rogen, Goldberg and Jason Stone.

Cast
James Franco as himself
Jason Segel as himself
Seth Rogen as himself
Emma Watson as herself
Rihanna as herself
Paul Rudd as himself
Jonah Hill as himself
Aziz Ansari as himself
Mindy Kaling as herself
Jay Baruchel as himself
Martin Starr as himself
Danny McBride as himself
Kevin Hart as himself
Michael Cera as himself
Craig Robinson as himself
David Krumholtz as himself
Christopher Mintz-Plasse as himself

There's a good chance this will be terrible, but I am anxious to see this.

There's a good chance absolute assurance this will be terrible, but I am anxious to see this ready to observe short YouTube clips after the fact.

I think I saw an ad for this the other night. I was confused.

I think this is still filming, are you thinking of that Carrell one, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World?

ah yes

There's absolute assurance this will be terrible, but I am ready to observe short YouTube clips after the fact.

If you only watched short clips of Superbad and Pineapple Express I think it's fair to say you wouldn't have got an accurate view of those films, Ned.

It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad End of The World

xpost -- I am biased and I am right.

names that make me hopeful

Mindy Kaling as herself
Martin Starr as himself
Danny McBride as himself

ok also a little bit
Jason Segel as himself

i'm just going to assume the movie is exactly like this:

http://www.hulu.com/watch/309562

Another vote for: Martin Starr as himself

Also apparently featuring Matt Walsh as himself, which I'd add to the positives.

i love matt walsh. he's hilarious on veep these days.

there's no one in this movie i'm not sick of tbqf but maybe it'll be a good time.

im not sick of craig robinson... yet

having to live through the end of the world with seth rogen and jonah hill would make me wish i'd died like other ppl

(This Is)

Felt like being in Kevin Smith's head when he dreams up a movie but before he fucks it up by writing it down and then directing it. Good summer fun.

― lols lane (Eazy), Saturday, June 15, 2013 6:56 AM (11 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It does seem a little wasteful to have Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill in a movie.

― Andrew Farrell, Saturday, June 15, 2013 9:48 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Thought there was another thread about this movie? Anyway, I thought it was hilarious, definitely the hardest I've laughed at a theater since, I don't even know. Helped that the crowd was great and well into it.

― i kant believe it's not buffon (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Saturday, June 15, 2013 6:09 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Definitely was fun to watch this in a college-town movie theater on a Friday night (maybe you were at the same screening, j/v/c).

I might be tempted if they all die

overall p stupid, but i laughed a bunch. FrAnco and McBride (naturally) owned this.

this movie was def one of the funniest of the last 5 years

I keep hearing that it's funny but the trailers make it look like a nauseating celebrity circle jerk :(

yeah this might be funny but I feel like you have to seriously love all these overexposed dudes already to enjoy it maybe? Maybe not. Maybe it's funny anyway. I'm sort of holding out for the pegg/frost/white end times movie, even if it looks like SOTD redux.

mostly I'm still moderately disgusted that this collective turned David Gordon Green into Tom Shadyac

lol

watched the 2nd half this when i snuck into the theater after watching another movie -- was OK, felt like the longest most expensive Funny Or Die sketch ever. Jonah Hill was def the funniest in this movie and i don't even usually like him much.

I am going to go see this. No idea when, but I will. mark my words

Saw this last night. These guys sure think penises are funny, huh?

david gordon green is remaking suspiria?

geez, talk about a mismatch.

FYI: "a coke-snorting, pussy-hounding Michael Cera"

the trailers make it look like a nauseating celebrity circle jerk

go with your first impression. they're usually correct.

this was hilarious

This was s'OK, loved how Franco kept changing his shirt. Prolly too long, or at least it felt too long, and it would have made a better episodic web series, but I'm appreciated its utter indulgence.

it's pretty sick that a 106-minute running time is probably the most restraint these guys will ever have in a final cut of a comedy

how long is Franco in an Italian-American undershirt?

this was fun but not as hilarious as the reviews made it sound. I wish they'd spent like 5 more minutes at the party before shit went down, so many wasted cameos. but sure I laughed a lot.

how long is Franco in an Italian-American undershirt?

I don't get it. But he's the only character whose t-shirt changes from scene to scene, which I thought was funny.

I love that Franco's actorly choice to differentiate the TIEE version of himself from the real one was to be too straight; as opposed to the too gay real-life version.

yeah this might be funny but I feel like you have to seriously love all these overexposed dudes already to enjoy it maybe?

Arguably it plays even better if you have a certain amount of bad faith attached to them -- i.e. they seriously know nothing about anything that isn't in their own world.

felt like the longest most expensive Funny Or Die sketch ever

OTM.

well it was based on a short movie that seth rogan made with a buddy

I like that they didn't overexplain Franco's Rogen obsession (cf. paintings, etc.).

I like that they got rid of Michael Cera so early on (damn shame they couldn't have done the same with McBride).

dude danny mcbride was the best!

yeah mcbride was great

He got the best line of the whole flick: "You haven't got enough bullets!" (Context, et al.)

That line might've been funnier if it weren't like the 200th dick joke in the film at that point.

The first 199 were just background shots of Franco's spanish tile-encrusted monster dong.

I take back everything I said. This movie was funny as hell,

<3 danny mcbride

i loved this movie a lot, had so much fun seeing this in a sold-out showing late on a Friday night. mcbride killed it, especially his first scene with the cypress hill song.

it was funny how they introduced mcbride, twice, the same way he's always introduced in eastbound & down: slo-mo, strutting to some awesome song

jetski y/n

xp yesssss

Honestly, I didn't know it existed until an hour or two before I saw it. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it a lot.

This was great, way better than I thought it would be. Liked how everyone was expendable in service of the humor - it made scenes like Jonah Hill waving the gun around really tense! They struck a really good horror/comedy balance.

I've never even heard about this but I love Danny McBride so so much. I think I need to see this asap.

this was fucking funny

I really enjoyed this. Was surprised to see a review hate on the direction when it was really a cut above from the apatow norm imo.

first hour and a bit was pretty solid, lost me for the most part a little after McBride's first exit.

Cera was the clear winner.

i don't even know how to compare this directing-wise to the more standard reality-based rom com type movies these guys have done w/ Apatow and other directors. but as, like, satirical FX action comedy or w/e, it was pretty poorly directed compared to an Edgar Wright movie or something.

Can't fault the direction, really. The movie clipped along nicely and doesn't really ramble in that Apatow way. I would even concede that it was obvious that Rogen and Goldberg cared about making what they thought was a good movie. But a bunch of guys who are all roughly my age who still think that dick/fart/weed jokes are THAT funny just depresses me now.

def not as good as Edgar wright's best, but it's quick-paced with some memorable, effective visual set pieces. and considering how incoherent a lot of action scenes are these days, I definitely don't know how you could call it "poorly" directed in any context.

josh:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=guinea%20tee

the movie definitely doesn't transcend the apatow manchild shtick - irl rogen and mcbride are married, baruchel was engaged at the time of shooting - but it pulls off the more ambitious moments, and I appreciated that while there was a lot of subtext re: religion, friendship etc, the movie never made it seem like that subtext was the point moreso than lolz.

i really just hated the lighting and the look of the whole thing. i suppose it was supposed to be kind of dim and sickly and discomforting/ominous but it looked like garbage on a cheap set to me.

def was a "cheap" look, but i'm glad it wasn't the standard glossy teal deal - if anything gave it an old school raimi quality at points

tbf because of a weak review or two, and that these guys mostly work with Apatow TV directors, I was expecting something far more stiff.

though i guess between green and gondry they've had some experience with a less rigid style

though gondry's work on hornet was pretty lifeless

yeah that movie was like ang lee hulk-level awkward and overthought

this definitely reminded me of Your Highness in terms of having effects that looked expensive while also kind of ugly and unimpressive, although it worked more in favor of the comedy here

Was shot entirely in New Orleans btw.

I like the first half of Your Highness as a spiritual descendent of Spaceballs but the life drains out out of it painfully by the end. This one never got nearly as flat.

xpost Does Franco usually wear a wife-beater? Or is that a "Spring Break" reference?

i don't even know how to compare this directing-wise to the more standard reality-based rom com type movies these guys have done w/ Apatow

Here's one difference: this one actually had shadows, as opposed to bright sitcom lighting. Not that this was some well-directed masterpiece or anything. I doubt anyone on hand could even say "DP" with a straight face, directors included/in particular.

Still, again, this felt like what Kevin Smith imagines his movies will be like, before he writes and directs them.

Did anyone else hear the interview with Rogen and Goldberg on Fresh Air? Thinking herself silly, I guess, Terry Gross busted out a random final question: what is your favorite movie of all time? Goldberg almost immediately blurted out "Spaceballs," and Gross just sort of stopped dead for a second, before asking "you mean the Mel Brooks movie?" Goldberg sheepishly admitted that no one over the age of 35 or so ever understands the choice, but for a couple of generations under it's a touchstone.

He was quick to offer "Schindler's List" as his other choice. "We're Jews," explained Rogen, redundantly. Like Franco!

Still, again, this felt like what Kevin Smith imagines his movies will be like, before he writes and directs them.

otm

This was pretty funny

Pretty great for this kind of film. Most of the jokes worked.

Did anyone else hear the interview with Rogen and Goldberg on Fresh Air? Thinking herself silly, I guess, Terry Gross busted out a random final question: what is your favorite movie of all time? Goldberg almost immediately blurted out "Spaceballs," and Gross just sort of stopped dead for a second, before asking "you mean the Mel Brooks movie?"

gaining some respect for dude, spaceballs rules

that was a good interview. terry gross seemed annoyed when they were riffing on the topic of gluten.

this sucked

terry gross seemed annoyed

new show title

Spaceballs sucked unless you were 8 when you first saw it, I guess

eh it's got as many misses as your average Mel Brooks movie.

it's def not as good as blazing saddles or young frankenstein but holds definitely age 8 sentimental appeal and if today's wisenheimers want to swear their way through cliches in mel fashion i say more power to them

honestly hard to even say what happened in the last half of your highness, it just becomes this vortex of boring

idk I thought this was pretty funny. danny mcbride = still awesome.

craig robinson was also great

it was definitely a handicap for me that i never really thought Danny McBride was very funny to begin with. good in Pineapple Express, maybe also Tropic Thunder, but more often than not his overbearing schtick just feels, well, overbearing.

silent movie was probably my favorite movie when i was 8. definitely a high point of 1976 for me.

maria and i went and saw this on sunday. we thought it was funny. probably would have been better stoned. probably would have been better with more than 4 people in the movie theater too. kinda just made me want to see a whole movie of hellish apocalypse earth.

A good time. I don't wanna see any other movie with these clowns in which they don't Play Themselves.

most of them have barely ever played a 'character' that wasn't Themselves.

probably laughed loudest when McBride (who from certain angles looks like Tim Curry) imitated Hill with a mince.

trying to think if I've seen a comedy where Hill does not play around with gay-coding. it started with little "pause" moments in knocked up and superbad but in get him to the greek and this we've actually moved into on-screen violation.

there was a triple-dog dare quality to Hill's getting raped by a big-cocked Satan.

is there any in grandma's boy?

I liked the joke they made in reference to the rumors about Franco being gay. Also, I just kept thinking that there must be so many in jokes in that movie that none of us would even get. Al, you're nuts. McBride might be a one trick pony but he's a fucking funny one trick pony.

I did like that, for all the homoerotic gags, there was little in the way of actual gay-panic humor.

i also liked that while once again the struggle to remain bros was their theme, there wasn't a flat, unfunny argument scene like the ones in superbad and pineapple express

McBride might be a one trick pony but he's a fucking funny one trick pony.

This is so true. I keep thinking I'm going to tire of him, but that hasn't happened yet. He was golden in this.

I definitely had a few moments where I was like "did they have this argument in real life and then decide to write it into the script, because OUCH"

I liked insanely panicked Paul Rudd running around very briefly with the champagne.

The cameo that was set up very briefly when describing the location of the party paid off v v v v well, imho. Trying to stay vague and avoid the spoilers.

and they made the correct decision: killing Jason Segal quickly.

that very specific decision

I know, it's a comedy, but this was partly ruined for me by the two 20-somethings who plopped themselves down in the row behind us a minute before the film started, then howled at anything and everything for the first half-hour. I liked McBride (no recognition) and Hill, loved the two horror-film parodies, and liked the film's conception of the afterlife. I'm definitely not the target audience for this...The scare moments were surprisingly jarring (or maybe I just mean loud) for a non-horror film.

I still wonder what happened to Emma Watson; was kind of hoping she'd pop up at the end

Went back to Brown, iirc.

I liked her too. I thought she was going to turn up in McBride's gang near the end. Remembered a line that made me laugh (quoting it won't spoil anything): "Rihanna!" Reminded me of "You see--Billy Idol gets it, why doesn't she?" from The Wedding Singer for some reason.

I went to a movie theater!

this was hilariously good. And cool they didnt need apatow to get it made.

apatow doesn't have magical powers, they can all get movies made without him if they want to now that they're movie stars and more famous than him

i don't know how i feel about this movie

what do you feel about spiderman 3

maybe a little cluttered but ultimately a solid film.

Geez, Shakey, I've not been to one since 2011 ...so I get that exclamation point.

you guys should go to the movies. they're better than ever.

piracy is murder

i snuck into this movie after seeing Iron Man 3, does that count as piracy? maybe just manslaughter piracy, not full on murder piracy?

the wife asked me a question I couldn't answer - can anyone think of any other films that went this far with the actors-as-themselves in a fictional movie bit (ie, not just cameos)?

didn't go AS far, but Tristam Shandy

and from the same guys, The Trip

steve coogan also played himself in Coffee and Cigarettes

does Being John Malkovich count?

There was a NYT Mag piece recently about how new parents go to the movies so infrequently, anything they see seems good.

Bet they'd hate Passion.

was there a companion piece about when cranky old guys go to the movies so much, everything seems bad

does Being John Malkovich count?

I would say no, since it's just the one (okay two) characters and they're more supporting players

Cranky old couples watch Blue Jasmine and The Butler and sigh over what's happened to Hollywood.

After those two movies, who can blame them?

(Just kidding, I still haven't watched the former b/c I just can't be suckered again.)

why kid?

There was a NYT Mag piece recently about how new parents go to the movies so infrequently, anything they see seems good.

― Miss Arlington twirls for the Coal Heavers (Dr Morbius),

How is this any different than the way things were? My parents saw every Eastwood, but unless my sis and I made a request, their rare Sat nights alone was "Let's go to the movies," not "Let's watch Hannah and Her Sisters."

Morbz if you want to come babysit for free every week I'll see more movies I promise

fwiw I do eventually see stuff, but it tends to be on DVD

On 2nd viewing, this is the best film rogen & co have made so far. Construction of it is really quite clever, lots of casual details dropped early on pay off in fully formed jokes later on. The pacing is perfect, jumping from slapstick to dread to genuine emotional stuff really well. All the relationships between the characters are fleshed out and exploited cleverly.

"Hello god. Its me. Jonah hill. From moneyball."

This was fuckin incredible

yup

in a weird way I find the depiction of the apocalypse in this movie genuinely unnerving.

I should've bought this tonight at Walmart but didn't cuz it was so ludicrously expensive

i really wish more movies had the actors just play themselves and cut the pretense already. it was soooooo refreshing here i thought.

i see trailers for a movie and i'm like 'that's tom hanks'. then i go to a movie and he has some different name and story, it's likem just be tom hanks dude everyone knows who you are

Lol

i seriously mean this. seeing the same actors over and over again attempt to play vastly different characters is one of my least favorite part of movies.

I really really liked this movie

i really wish more movies had the actors just play themselves and cut the pretense already

onward and upward with art!

I might watch in the next month to see if Cera is worth a best supporting actor vote in my critics group.

Um no he isn't.

The lengths to which they go with the "playing themselves" bit is, I think, totally unprecedented. It really makes the film work.

May actually give Channing Tatum a vote.

Best supporting actor: James Franco's art collection.

I nominate James Franco's white sandals.

prob another thread for this but Franco's roast was A++

Franco Roast >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> this movie.

The lengths to which they go with the "playing themselves" bit is, I think, totally unprecedented. It really makes the film work.

― Ayn Rand Akbar (Shakey Mo Collier), Saturday, November 9, 2013 12:10 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the way in which they 'play themselves' seems to be precedented by about 200 different popular movies and tv shows over the last couple decades. i really don't see any difference.

ya me neith

if anything this seems like the last best incarnation of that... like it was great but not sure if i need any more of that stuff after this

it was you might say the end of the world for that sort of film

that was the end

did anyone see the simon pegg version of this

Simon Pegg EOTW was terrible

I never thought I'd prefer this move to Pegg's.

This movie's not-very-goodness is partly what made it good. It's just this weird episodic, hit or miss ... mess. Like a really long skit that's also a series of skits.

Some dude what are u talking about, list examples

This was not a reality tv show, and what the main actors do here goes beyond celebrity cameos

The closest thing I can think of is "Louie" (altho that still has actors playing traditional roles)

really, you can't think of comedies where celebrities play humorous caricatures of themselves in fictional scenarios!? i mean most other ones aren't apocalyptic sci-fi scenarios but i don't think that was what you were saying was 'unprecedented.'

seinfeld

i think that a) not being just a group of four dudes or w/e surrounded by actors but m/l everyone featured in the movie playing some verz of themself, and b) that they all used their actual/known first + last names and didn't have some dopey alternate history, both went a long way toward making this movie feel unlike anything i'd suspect yr referring to

+ seinfeld is such a bad actor that he couldn't even play himself. then the rest of them were based off other ppl

the reason i think it's a big difference is because when anybody showed up in 'this is the end', you didn't have to question even for a millisecond who their character was, you already know a whole lot about who they are, they're talking about aspects of their life or career that you are familiar with because they're real, etc. i can't think of anything else i've seen that was like that. seinfeld and louie definitely aren't like that even a little bit.

Yes thank u sleepingbag. The difference here is a) its EVERYBODY and b) for the whole film.

Cock and bull story etc

The Pegg movie was I think clearly better than this one, but they're both alight..

Evan Goldberg, co-writer and co-director (with Seth Rogen) of This is the End, acknowledges Being John Malkovich as an influence. "If you drilled down to the core of what I do, it's just ripping off little bits of Charlie Kaufman. Seth and I always loved The Larry Sanders Show too. And the popularity of reality television now also feeds into that idea of whether what we're watching is actually real. We thought working with our friends in that situation would be awesome because they're all comedians willing to take stabs at themselves."

the idea that Cera deserves an award for this is fucking hilarious btw

both of these apocacomedies CERTAINLY deserve all the attention the ILX film thinktank has given them.

btw actors playing characters with their own full names on TV series:

The Jack Benny Program
The Burns & Allen Show

NN, certain critics will take the "anyone but Jared Leto" approach

also use of the verb "deserves" is never to be used in connection with detrius awards.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6EZkIaJcCI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9-F-Izif3Y

And actually, Billy Murray and Steve Coogan play themselves, or variations of themselves, a bunch in movies, it seems.

There is that Jean Claude Van Damme movie where he plays himself, right? I haven't seen it but it sounded cool.

NPH in Harold and Kumar

isn't there that Pauly Shore is dead documentary?

also didn't most of the celebs play themselves in Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back?

http://90feetofperfection.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/8f13.gif?w=497

celebrities have played themselves on tv and in movies for over half a century. We don't really need more examples

Some epic point missing going on here. I am not talking about stuff w celebrity cameos or where a couple leads play themselves. There is nothing unusual about that.

one time kevin mchale showed up on cheers in the role of "kevin mchale"

The element of them playing themselves is not that central to this movie, except we know why one of them has a big house. Other than that they could all just be anyone tbh.

don't trust the b seriously did this way better.

being john malkovich for sure

but i'd also add steve coogan's the trip... which in a similar way to this tried to actually explore the characters' personalities and weaknesses

In a much more central/meta way imo

John Cusack and Cameron Diaz and Catherine Keener didn't play themselves in Being John Malkovich...

what's funny about all these examples is that the meta angle always serves a simple purpose - in Being John and Don't Trust The B, it allows them to have a character be a celebrity without having to bother with inventing a fake celebrity, which adds a level of critical distance that gets in the way of immersing in the story/laughs (i.e. that Jeff Bridges' movie Crazy Heart suffers because it's hard to place the character historically). In a sense, This Is The End really takes it a step further, playing with how these celebs are or aren't like their archetypal roles, playing off the associations to such a degree that I don't know if you can say the other ones "do it better," unless you just find the others funnier.

The Trip and Louie are respectively just spins on My Dinner With Andre and Seinfeld really

as far as "actors playing themselves" go, i mean

I do wonder what This Is The End is like for someone who doesn't really give a fuck about the current crop of comedy stars - they still establish the story and character for the most part, but there are still a lot of in-jokes and I dunno if "Danny McBride bein' Danny McBride" is as funny if you aren't already familiar with that persona

that's why I haven't seen it--I'll go a long way to see the world end on screen, but i have no real interest or knowledge in these people's real personalities/lives, am sick to my back teeth of franco, and don't find the rest of them particularly funny

Emma Watson steals the one scene she's in.

even if it does ride a lot on the "omg evil Hermione" trope

it's essentially an unscripted documentary following these guys around i shouldnt bother tbh

it's definitely a "Apatow Generation Bonus Round Coin Room," though I think it's hilarious as such and while I haven't seen more than 5 minutes of a time of Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back (the best comparison point imo) from that alone I'm comfortable saying it's light years better.

oh it is def way better than J&SB

"i hate franco and the rest i don't find funny at all" is way more of an issue re: seeing it than having no real interest or knowledge in their lives. You really don't need more than facial recognition for most of the celeb-specific jokes.

woah easy up on j&sb tbh

I do wonder what This Is The End is like for someone who doesn't really give a fuck about the current crop of comedy stars

I fall into that category, which is maybe why I liked it up to a point, but not nearly as much as the 20-somethings behind me who were ready to laugh at everything.

The Trip and Louie are respectively just spins on My Dinner With Andre and Seinfeld really

The "Steve Coogan" character is consistent as played out and explored across The Man Who Thinks He's It, Coffee & Cigarettes, A Cock And Bull Story (afaik, haven't seen it), Other Less Successful Characters (at least at the show I saw, apparently he wasn't in the initial run?) and The Trip.

the trip way more comparable to this is the end than my dinner w/ andre, esp w/ the awkwardness of old friends who haven't seen each other in a while and have achieved different degrees of success in the same field being central to both movies. trip much better than this is the end which really is the apatow crews jay and silent bob strike back, both made me laugh more than i expected to while confirming that i am largely sick to death of these people. also has nobody mentioned curb yr enthusiasm yet?

or extras?

guys The Trip is really a TV series btw

haha how about that. makes ALOT more sense as a tv series though i think having it as one concentrated chunk does a good job of really driving home how pathetic (to different degrees) these two guys are. should i see a cock and bull story?

Although the Rob Brydon character in The Trip has a very different private life to the one he has in real life.

xpost What I love about Being John Malkovich is the way they make him "real" but also totally fake. I think making him best friends with the "real" Charlie Sheen - "Malkatraz!" - was a masterstroke. All the dudes in "This is the End" are real life best buds, not least Jay and Seth, whose real life friendship helped inspire the film. Only Michael Cera was a guess something other than a comical 180 on the "real" Michael Cera. Everyone else was pretty much playing themselves as themselves, give or take a little exaggeration (esp. Franco). I honestly couldn't tell if the fact that Jonah Hill was being really nice was supposed to be funny, since apparently he is really nice irl.

RS profile made Hill seem like an insufferable asshole imo.

I dont really presume to know or care what any of these people are really like irl.

also love Malkovich rehearsing Chekhov with a tape recorder

xpost

i thought the joke with Hill was not so much that he was nice as that he was fey and soft spoken and had a giant earring

I just read the Rolling Stone article and while Hill does come across as an asshole, the author seems like an even bigger one

That was my understanding. I've seen a few pieces on that piece where Hill basically says the writer was an asshole from minute one who caught him on a bad day and made him look even worse.

The writer of a Rolling Stone cover story about Hill’s apocalyptic comedy This Is the End in June apparently did not feel the love. Hill’s reputation hit the Internet skids thanks to the article, which had the actor responding superseriously to supersilly questions. (When the interviewer posed a question about his bodily functions, for instance, Hill went off: “Being in a funny movie doesn’t make me have to answer dumb questions.”) “I read that interview and was mortified,” says Hill. “Not to make an excuse, but I had been going through some stuff that was hard on me. And I would say that the gentleman who did the interview was not a nice person. But I acted like not a nice person in return.”

And yeah, it doesn't matter if these actors are cool or not in real life, but them being a known nice quantity (like, say, Tom Hanks) allows them to play against type to humorous effect. Or magnify type, a la Franco.

i really like jonah hill

I watched that roast of JF and it was pretty funny, and now I kinda want to see this.

I read that Hill RS interview and thought that if I wasn't in the best of moods I'd probably react the same way to some of those questions. Don't really blame him.

I watched some of The Trip but fell asleep. iirc there were a bunch of non-celebrity characters beyond the two principals. which is different from what this movie does, where literally everyone - with the exception of the paparazzi photog at the beginning (who lol asks Seth when he's going to play somebody who's not Seth Rogen), the guy who gets decapitated, and maybe the people at the convenience store? - is a celebrity.

and I don't get darraghmac's claim upthread that this could have been "any" group of people. while there aren't too many plot mechanics that hinge on the characters' public personas, a lot of the jokes and humor definitely do.

the guy who gets decapitated

how do you know Brian Huskey isn't a delivery man for his day job?

This was good, even great at times, but it should have been half an hour shorter. The ending is really great, and worth waiting for, if at any point you are getting tired of the sausage party and bromance jokes. Whitney Houston song was hilarious.

The sequel idea apparently is "the apocalypse takes place at the premiere for "This is The End"".

and I don't get darraghmac's claim upthread that this could have been "any" group of people. while there aren't too many plot mechanics that hinge on the characters' public personas, a lot of the jokes and humor definitely do.

― Ayn Rand Akbar (Shakey Mo Collier)

most of the humour in most of the movies most comedic actors make relies on our knowing the type of person they're eplaying and being familiar with that trope. it doesn't strike me as particularly relevant that they are playing versions of themselves here- or maybe it's more that any movie this group would have made would rely on them playing versions of themselves, but with differernt names.

or something.

. The ending is really great, and worth waiting for, if at any point you are getting tired of the sausage party and bromance jokes

yeah if i had a criticism of this, they could have gotten out of the house a little sooner

p sure my dad says the same about us tho tbf

The ending is really great

The ending is what reminded me exactly of how much I hate these ppl and their frame of reference.

<3 danny mcbride

I was thinking throughout "Am I sposed to know who this dick is?"

The ending is what reminded me exactly of how much I hate these ppl and their frame of reference.

― images of war violence and historical smoking (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, February 11, 2014 11:45 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Exactly. And the rest of the movie, too.

I do wonder what This Is The End is like for someone who doesn't really give a fuck about the current crop of comedy stars - they still establish the story and character for the most part, but there are still a lot of in-jokes and I dunno if "Danny McBride bein' Danny McBride" is as funny if you aren't already familiar with that persona

This is me and I liked this movie a lot. I mean, I have seen most of these people in a movie or two but have never heard of Danny McBride or Craig Robinson and have never seen Emma Watson in anything and the movie still totally works on the level of "semi-famous Hollywood people respond comically to apocalypse"

ke1th uhl1ch's Letterboxd review -- "You straight boys and your pot" -- would be perfect with one more word up front.

Yoo-hoo you straight boys and your pot.

ugh

also if you're rich atheist movie stars, no heaven please. especially with some lame faggoty boyband joke.

the original ending they wrote was a reference to Bruce Almighty so, y'know, it could've been worse

Not that I think you should change your stripes, but the movie's final joke does seem to be that none of them deserve heaven any more than they deserve stardom.

meh, but then why did they literally send Franco and Hill to damnation? (a bright spot)

I did think Jay Baruchel and Craig Robinson were mostly tolerable.

I thought this would be garbage but I ended up really, really enjoying it.

yea i thought this was hilarious. morbs i would never have expected you to like this movie, kind of surprised you were willing to see it

it was way more intense than I thought it would be. loved how subtly (and obviously) scummy they made every character sans maybe Craig Robinson. I didnt like the ending much either but when they finally made it out of the house and made it clear that they weren't pulling back at all on their premise I wondered what kind of ending would actually be satisfying for a movie like this

yeah, once they leave the house, it's gets quite bad and I find the ending ridiculous (in a bad way !).
the rest is pretty good and fun. I'm familiar with most of the main actors but my gf didn't know most of them and still enjoyed it.

Robinson blinded a man ffs

my wife was really disturbed by the channing tatum scene, haha

but otherwise she enjoyed it

This might be the only Apatow movie I'll like in three years.

It's no Pineapple Express, although Pineapple Express 2 was pretty amazing

i assume so by being 2 hrs shorter

then again in three years the polar ice caps will have melted so it will likely be the end

Robinson blinded a man ffs

oh yeah forgot about that

And we'll all be worshiping Chasing Ice.

loved how subtly (and obviously) scummy they made every character

i don't get it, we saw them all smoking pot

say it ain't so

Morbs' aversion to people enjoying pot is one of the most endearing things about him.

I don't mind them enjoying it, I mind them expecting me to enjoy them.

the whole Apatow Gang reminds one of how there are hardly any MEN in Hollywood movies anymore.

Bring back Franklin Pangborn!

these sissies are much less funny

Exponentially more smashable tho.

ewwww, and i thought you were a monk? they all look like they smell.

Lemme aks you a hypothermical question.

I wouldn't touch Pangborn with a stick.

A bat, maybe ...

Monty Clift is closer to my kind of swish.

Eric gets Edward Everett Horton.

Everything predating George Nader is sexual archaeology so far as I'm concerned.

we should do a 'swede' version w/ gayLXors

I vote for Eric to be possessed (like he'd object)

sick reference there bro your references are out of control everyone knows it

I liked Superbad and Pineapple Express and even kinda liked Your Highness, but this thing was so boring.

Pineapple Express was surprisingly entertaining, sure, but I'm definitely excited for these guys to all go away.

Read today that Franco's newest "book" sold under 5000 copies, which pleased me

this was overall p bad; 1st 15 mins are funny-ish but the concept is only like worth a youtube or college humor vid

yeah it almost feels like a problem that they got to release this in multiplexes instead of just tossing it out in a few installments on Adult Swim or Funny Or Die

lot more money to be made when you can actually charge ppl money to watch it

but yeah as someone who's just 'eh, it was alright, funny enough' and was truly befuddled to see this thing pop up on year end lists i might feel alot more fondness toward it if they'd just released it online or adult swim/comedy central/ifc, if they'd done what the south park guys did w/ imaginationland basically.

Don't get me wrong, this is both funnier and more significant than The Wolf of Wall Street.

btwn only doing the best bit of this, along with the Silva flicks and the Kaufman pilot, Cera's been making some smart moves lately.

seen this like four times now (watched it over the weekend w a friend who'd been in Japan and never seen it) and this really holds up. The Franco/McBride argument still elicits tears of laughter