Film Review #1: This is the End

Film: This is The End
Directors:
Writers:
Stars: James Franco, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen | See full cast and crew Seth Rogen (screenplay), Evan Goldberg(screenplay), 3 more credits » Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen

___________________

KC's Rating: **1/2

So today I begin with my first Film Review.  And as many things in my life, I begin with The End...

Most of you know that film is what I studied and still enjoy.  But since those that don't do, teach. Those that don't teach, criticize (or review...)

I am a great believer of Ebert's philosophy that a film must be judged on its own merit and only compared within its genre. Can you compare this film with Bergman's Wild Strawberries?  You can, but it makes no sense.  A film should be judged on the experience of the viewer and on its merits.  It is of course attached to so many other forms and genre that reach back to its original theatrical roots in Greece.

This is the End is a post-modern comedy to a very post-modern crowd.  Maybe post-modernism is a notion of the past, but only to the extent that we now have digested it and it is now part of our sensibility, of our psyche.  It is a film laden with self-references and ironic asides for the "YouTube" generation.  If you knew nothing about Rogen, Goldberg, Judd Appatow and their group of friends, you still may enjoy the film's wackiness albeit something would be amiss.  Otherwise, how can you appreciate the reference to Pineapple Express and the video reenactment (with shadows of "Be Kind, Please Rewind", an overlooked jewel of a film) or the numerous cameos from such actors as Michael Cera or Paul Rudd.

So lets go back to the basics.  The comedy.  The film is funny but its a bit on the "Wouldn't it be funny if..." type of comedies.  Films like "Wouldn't it be funny if Danny DeVito and Schwarzenegger were twins?",  "Wouldn't it be funny if Adam Sandler could control his life with a TV remote?", "Wouldn't it be funny if Jim Carrey couldn't tell a lie?"... "Wouldn't it be funny if Rogen, Baruchel and friends have to live through the Apocalypse?" In essence, films of this nature tend to be a bit gimmicky.  You need a Woody Allen type comedy to transcend the gimmick and not a string of "funny situations" or jokes that become tiresome after the first ten minutes.  However, in this film the Apocalypse works in many parts precisely because of the satire on the character's themselves.   Here James Franco plays James Franco, Seth Rogen plays Seth Rogen, Jason Hill plays Jason Hill, etc. They play, of course, not their real selves, but  their "projected" selves, the self that the viewer thinks he knows and then twist that notion around a bit: Rogen is cowardly, Hill is envious, Franco is vain (playing off the seven sins, one assumes).

This is where the comedy works best.  When Aristophanes makes fun of Socrates in The Clouds it is funny for the modern audience, but it must have been even funnier for those who knew Socrates and saw the play.  What makes this a funnier film is the layers of self-references and expectations that the filmmakers assume its public will understand.  Some of it, is very funny and smart.  And when it works, it may even be hilarious.   But it is very specific. Take that away,  and the film is only mildly funny and, for the most part, dumb.