This is the End

While movies are scouring the post-apocalypse for drama, comedies seem to be finding gold within the apocalypse itself. Last year we had rom-com Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World, and later this year we have The World's End and Rapture-Palooza, but before then we have this star-studded effort co-written and co-directed by Seth Rogen.

Along with everyone else involved, Rogen plays himself, meeting up with his long-time-no-see best friend Jay Baruchel for some much needed bro-time. Instead, Rogen drags Baruchel along to James Franco's house party, which is filled to the rafters with celebrities and celebrity-f**kers. Just as the party is hitting its stride, it gets interrupted by The Rapture. With all the good folk warped off to heaven, most of everyone else killed by a giant earthquake leaving surviving sinners Rogen, Baruchel, Franco, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson and Danny McBride holed up in Franco's designer fortress.

It's a funny set-up, and watching these famous folk sending up their own celebrity images as well as each others can be very funny, but also smacks heavily of self-serving. The endless cameos at the start of the movie - Michael Cera, Rihanna, Paul Rudd, Jason Segel, Mindy Kaling, Emma Watson and loads more - supply a few laughs, but the movie only hits its stride once the pampered superstars are forced to fend for themselves. This is very much a boy's club movie, with endless jokes about penises, urine, semen and poop, and there's not a lot of IQ behind most of the laughs. But for every joke that doesn't land, there are two that are fantastic, and if you're willing to turn your brain off, you'll enjoy yourself immensely.

This whole thing could be a metaphor for how losing your best friend can feel like the end of the world, or how selfish celebrities need to think of more than just themselves, but mostly this is just six famous friends hanging out, getting drunk and getting high. You can't blame them for that, and you'll have a good time watching them, but probably not as good a time as they had making it.