47 - This is the End (2013)

This is the End feels like one of James Franco's performance art pieces where the audience is not sure whether they are being laughed at or supposed to buy into the insanity.  Centered around numerous young Hollywood stars, James Franco hosts a blow-out party of the century just as the Apocalypse hits.

Peopled with a who's who's of young Hollywood actors playing "themselves"--James Franco, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson, Michael Cera. Additional star cameos are from Emma Watson, Mindy Kaling, David Krumholtz, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Rihanna, Martin Starr, Paul Rudd, Channing Tatum, Kevin Hart. The film has the same wink at reality that 1944's Hollywood Canteen had in the 1940s, where actors like Bette Davis, Jack Benny, Joan Crawford, played themselves and encouraged the boys to fight. 

However, unlike the 1944 film, the aim of this movie seems to head squarely for college raunch, stoner humor and gay jokes galore. One wonders what the producers were smoking when the film was pitched to them. Funny? Often. Vulger? Almost always. Attempt at depth? Never. 

The film is undoubtedly the most gay oriented straight film I have seen in a long time. (If you are one of the people who watched and enjoyed Comedy Central's Roast of James Franco, you will know what to expect and how to react.)

This is the End (2013) *** [add a star depending on what you have smoked or drank before you see it]