Jean-Paul’s Rating: 3/5 stars

After seeing an absolutely hilarious rated R preview of “This is the End”, I couldn’t wait to see it.  Sadly, time and schedules got in the way and its time came and went.  Then, shockingly enough, there is “This is the End” showing in theaters once again.  I’m not entirely sure how that happened (pushing for an Oscar, I’m sure), but I was sure going to take advantage of it.

How disappointing.  I likely would have liked the movie more if I didn’t have such high expectations going in.  It was still pretty funny, but I kind of wish that I had just watched the preview again.

The concept is solid.  Everyone plays themselves and the rapture happens while they are all at James Franco’s house party.  Nobody at Franco’s party gets raptured and most of them soon die horribly leaving James Franco, Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson, Jay Baruchel, and Danny McBride to fend for themselves in Franco’s house.  Much of the movie is spent trying to figure out what happened and then, after coming to terms with it, trying to figure out how to get into heaven.  Chaos and some hilarity ensues.

I don’t know if you would call something a cameo when everyone is playing themselves, but there were many good cameos in the movies.  These include Michael Cera as a coked out sex fiend, Emma Watson as the butt of an actually funny rape joke, and Channing Tatum as, well, you’ll see.

I was surprised at how much effort was put into the special effects.  It’s not quite what you’d expect from a comedy, but the demons and monsters are quite well done.  There are a few effects that come off as a bit cheesy, but other than that they are quite effective.

I think the biggest problem with the film was the middle portion where it kind of dragged and I got a bit bored.  The beginning was excellent, though, and it picked up again near then end.  So I’m going to say that this could have been a better than average showing if it had some of the fat trimmed.

This movie also features what has to be the biggest dong ever shown in a movie.  No, not that one.  Wait for it.  Wait for it.  Yeah, that one.  I also found myself wondering what happened to Emma Watson at the end.  Not that the dong and Emma Watson had anything to do with each other in the movie.  It was just a stream of consciousness thing.  I’ll shut up now.