Why It Ranks
This Is the End weaponized celebrity against itself. Every actor playing a terrible version of themselves is comedy gold. Danny McBride's antagonism is the best villain turn of the year. The Backstreet Boys ending is the most joyful apocalypse ever. $126 million from pure audacity.
The Film
This Is the End is the most self-aware comedy ever made — every actor plays themselves, the apocalypse is real, and the joke is that Hollywood celebrities are the least equipped people on Earth to survive the end of the world. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg's directorial debut traps Franco, Hill, Rogen, Jay Baruchel, Craig Robinson, and Danny McBride in Franco's house during the Biblical rapture. The film's willingness to make its stars look awful — selfish, cowardly, delusional — is what makes it work.
Fun Facts
Michael Cera's cocaine-fueled party persona was his own idea — he wanted to play the most extreme version of the opposite of his usual image.
The Channing Tatum gimp reveal was kept secret from most of the cast — their reactions are partially genuine.
Emma Watson's axe-wielding scene was improvised — her commitment to the violence was so convincing that Rogen said he was 'actually scared.'
The film was based on a 2007 short film called 'Jay and Seth vs. the Apocalypse' that Rogen and Goldberg made for $200.
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