This Is the End

The first film Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg directed grew out of Jason Stone’s ten minute short from 2007, Jay and Seth versus the Apocalypse, in which the pair sat trapped in a filthy apartment while whatever was outside stayed unexplained. The celebrity parade finishes early: most recognisable faces vanish in the opening stretch, swallowed by the sinkhole in Franco’s garden, leaving six men shut inside one house. The actors use their own names, yet Rogen says none of them is really playing himself, and Goldberg says they first wrote everyone as thoroughly unpleasant, then judged that too silly and rounded them out. The real details are chosen: Baruchel not belonging in Los Angeles comes from his living in Montreal. Set in Los Angeles, it was shot in New Orleans for the tax incentive. The last section drops comedy for an exorcism and creature work; the directors expected an NC-17 and were handed an R. Morgan Freeman was asked to play God in the Heaven scene, and after he declined the Backstreet Boys took the ending. A good fit if you want to watch famous people torch their own reputations and do not mind the devil turning up in the last half hour. Not for anyone still hoping for fresh celebrity faces once the sinkhole is over.