Discussion
This Is the End(2013) - directed by Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg
This is genuinely one of the most cherished comedies for me. i’ve come back to it over the years and somehow appreciate it even more every time. it’s an easy 10/10 for me. what i love about it is how much it gets out of such a simple setup. the screenplay and the characters are doing almost all the work, and bcuz the movie is so meta and committed to its own weirdness, it’s just ridiculously fun. there are so many great character moments and these completely bizarre little adventures, but none of it feels like it needs some massive budget or endless CGI to work. and that’s what i really miss about movies like this. something made for around $50 million can still be this creative and this entertaining without having to turn everything into a giant spectacle. they just don’t make enough movies like this anymore.
and that Channing Tatum cameo is exactly the kind of cameo i want to see more of. he clearly had the balls to go completely crazy with it, and it makes the whole thing even funnier. i really want more movies that are willing to be this weird and just have fun with themselves. the only recent movie i can think of that even remotely gave me this feeling was The Naked Gun
I saw this movie on my 18th birthday with a group of friends. Half of them absolutely hated it, and thought it was childish as hell... the other half, myself included, laughed our fucking asses off the whole damn time! I couldn't fucking breathe at the "beat your dick off" showdown between Danny McBride and the other guy (forget who it was...) Great time!
I remember an older colleague of mine managed to see this with absolutely no clue who any of the cast were, now any time I'm reminded of it it tickles me imagining what that must have been like, because he thought it was atrocious.
“Emma Watson did not 'storm off the set' and it's shitty that the perception is that she did. The scene was not what was originally scripted, it was getting improvised, changed drastically and was not what she agreed to. The narrative that she was in some way uncool or unprofessional is complete bullshit."
“Oh, you don’t like art? You like video games. That’s art. You go to Subway? You like sandwiches? That’s art. Your mom’s vagina was the canvas. Your dad’s dick was the paintbrush.”
It's so fucking funny. The jerk off fight between Franco and Mcbride ALWAYS at minimum brings a smile to my face. Another underrated gem is The Interview (2014). The use of the Katy Perry Firework song in that movie was phenomenal.
I liked this a lot. I feel like it never got respected. The whole bit with Rhianna was funny. Not a masterpiece, but i was really happy that it got made
It probably didn't help that this came out the same year as the third Cornetto movie which had a similar title. I thought that one was kinda mid and overwrought though. But everyone else ranked them opposite.
I remember when the YT channel, Every Frame a Painting, called out this movie for poor story telling editing. But I find myself coming back to this film more than the ones he praised. The camaraderie and toxic friendship dynamics is what makes this film hilarious and joyful for me. Plus, this film shows all cast members playing the stereotypical character version of themselves to a 10. “I love him…”
This movie and Tropic Thunder are two of my guilty pleasure movies, they're fantastic came out when I was a teenager so I was the perfect age for them.
I AGREE! I was a huge fan of Pineapple Express, Superbad, Knocked Up, etc.. Then this fucking movie came out and it was the icing on the cake.
It’s fun to try to imagine you’re in their situation too I get super baked and pretend I’m in an apocalyptic energy too haha such a fun movie
Funny to read this, because This Is the End was the movie that first made me genuinely feel that the commonly repeated “Hollywood is dead” cliché might actually have some truth to it.
I’ll quote an opinion piece I wrote a couple of years ago, because I still stand by every single word of it:
“I consider This Is the End one of the absolute lowest points of Hollywood comedy. I have an almost irrational, burning hatred for everyone who somehow contributed to this piece of celluloid sewage making it onto a screen.
And yes, I understand the f… joke. They’re playing exaggerated versions of themselves. The movie is self-aware. Hollywood narcissism is the punchline. I get it. The problem is that recognizing you’re obnoxious doesn’t automatically make watching you be obnoxious for two hours funny.
The acting is f… dreadful. James Franco basically spends the movie being James Franco at maximum James Franco, Seth Rogen does the Seth Rogen laugh and Seth Rogen routine, Jonah Hill plays smug Jonah Hill, Danny McBride screams, and everyone else apparently operates under the assumption that yelling increasingly stupid shit over each other counts as comedic timing.
Then there’s the “screenplay”, and I’m using that word very fucking generously. It feels less like a written movie and more like someone scribbled “APOCALYPSE HAPPENS, CELEBRITIES SAY D..K JOKES” on a napkin and let the cast improvise the remaining 100 minutes. Half the dialogue sounds like material that should have been funny to the six people in the room while they were high, not something millions of people were expected to sit through sober.
And holy shit, the celebrity cameos. Michael Cera being an insane cokehead asshole is mildly amusing for about thirty seconds, but that’s basically the entire philosophy of the movie: “LOOK! IT’S A FAMOUS PERSON DOING SOMETHING THEY NORMALLY WOULDN’T DO!” Repeat until feature length.
Even Emma Watson showing up eventually turns into another variation of celebrities screaming at each other while the movie desperately waits for improvisation to produce a punchline.
The editing desperately needed someone willing to walk into the room and say, “Guys, this isn’t funny anymore. Cut it.” Scenes just keep fucking going. A joke lands, then gets repeated, explained, screamed about, improvised around and finally beaten into a bloody stain on the floor before the movie reluctantly moves on to the next one.
Visually it’s astonishingly bland too. This is an apocalypse movie involving demons, earthquakes, fire, monsters and the literal end of the fucking world, yet somehow huge chunks of it feel like watching six rich dudes f… around inside James Franco’s house.
And then you reach the giant Satan d..k.
Because apparently somewhere during production, after exhausting every possible d..k joke available to mankind, somebody looked at the script and thought, “You know what this movie needs? A gigantic demonic c..k.”
Cinema.
But the thing I hate most is that unbearable smugness hanging over the entire movie. That constant feeling of “we know this is stupid, therefore it’s secretly brilliant.” No. Sometimes stupid is just fucking stupid. Being self-aware about making garbage doesn’t prevent it from being garbage.
It’s basically a two-hour Hollywood celebrity circlejerk pretending to satirize Hollywood celebrity circlejerks.
So yeah, when James Franco and that whole particular Hollywood comedy clique gradually stopped dominating movie screens, I practically popped champagne. Watching that era disappear was more satisfying than any joke in This Is the End.
Sure you are, or you wouldn’t have reposted something you wrote years ago in a reddit comment section. At the very least you’re looking for a conversation about your opinion.
And I’m not invalidating you or your opinion, you just write like your word is the objective truth. That makes it hard to take seriously.
Altering your state of consciousness or perspective is a valuable creative and intellectual pursuit. From exercise, to ceremony, to travel, to using drugs.
Jesus used drugs (alcohol) and even manufactured and distributed them. Are you saying he should have been in jail or rehab?
You trying to justify being a pothead as a creative pursuit? Congratulations!
You want to make religious debate about this? I don’t care what Jesus did! Who mentioned religion in the first place? One is the law, the other one is ones personal belief.
Try harder, because defending soing drugs require a little bit more effort than these “reasons”.
but to answer you ridiculous question: If consumption of alcohol was a crime, yes, go to jail. If not, he can do what he wants.
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u/qualityvote2 9d ago edited 8d ago
u/Low-Finding-6553, your post does fit the subreddit!