‘This Is the End’ has too many inside jokes

The comedy team of Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, James Franco, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride and Craig Robinson knows how to elicit laughter from the audience. In their new movie, This Is the End, the comedy actors play themselves facing the end of the world and a satanic beast hellbent on celebrity destruction. Although the movie offers plenty of laughs and several memorable scenes, the entire affair feels somewhat self-indulgent and too much of an inside joke. I’m not sure if casting these actors as themselves and displaying the “Hollywood” scene is clever or the ultimate in navel-gazing.

Rogen and Baruchel receive the most characterization. They are old friends from Canada, but they have taken different paths to stardom. Rogen has attained the swanky mansion in Los Angeles and a whole new group of friends, while Baruchel prefers his life outside the city. Like many of these bromance movies, the central plot is about these two growing up and growing further apart (just like Wedding Crashers, Old School, Superbad, etc., etc.).

While partying at Franco’s new house, and running into a host of celebrity cameos, Rogen and Baruchel soon realize that the world is under attack and they need to become actual action stars to survive. They band up with Franco, Hill, McBride and Robinson to become a group of survivalists looking to rely on their marijuana-tinged memories to make the best out of a bad situation. There are plenty of clever one-liners, and the banter among these friends feels real and effortless. There’s no doubt that laughs are earned in this action-comedy.

The problem with the film can best be evidenced by Hill’s character. He plays himself obviously, but the character serves as a bargaining chip between Rogen’s old life with Baruchel and his new life in Hollywood. Hill tries to welcome Baruchel into the fold and make good by putting on a false disguise of “old-buddy” charm. The joke is funny the first time we meet Hill, but it grows tiresome and too personal as the film progresses. It’s almost as if Hill is wink-winking at Baruchel while the cameras are rolling, as if the audience is watching an inside joke play out on the big screen. Some will cherish this close examination of Hollywood culture, while others will want these actors to actually act.

Like many of these movies that straddle the line between comedy and action, the plot becomes too far-fetched, meaning the characters need to worry more about action genre conventions than making us laugh. The final third of the film becomes too silly, even for this assembled crew. When Channing Tatum finally makes a cameo as McBride’s dominated object of desire, the entire film has overstayed its welcome.

Also, the entire creative team, including Rogen and Evan Goldberg, need to thank Simon Pegg for his obvious influence.

This Is the End may be one of the smartest comedies in recent years, or evidence of a funny-man team with nothing better to do than tell jokes that we only understand on a cursory level. Either way, the movie is stupid fun, a means to pass a couple of hours.

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

• This Is the End

• 2013

• Directed by Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen

• Written by Goldberg and Rogen

• Starring Rogen, Jonah Hill, Danny McBride, James Franco, Jay Baruchel and Craig Robinson

• Running time: 107 minutes

• Rated R for crude and sexual content throughout, brief graphic nudity, pervasive language, drug use and some violence

• Rating: