FILM REVIEW: ‘This is The End’ is to Judd Apatow What ‘The Avengers’ is to Marvel

If Judd Apatow was anything like Marvel Studios, then the past 8 years of comedy would all be leading up to This Is The End. Of course, Judd Apatow had nothing to do with This Is The End, the new comedy directed by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, but bare with me for a moment as I complete this analogy.

In This Is The End, Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, and James Franco all must ride out the apocalypse together while holed up in James Franco’s house. If any of these names sound familiar, which let’s face it, they all do, then it’s largely because of Judd Apatow, the visionary writer/director/producer that has given us nearly every comedy starring these guys since 1999’s TV dramady Freaks and Geeks. All of Apatow’s movies and TV series, including Undeclared, 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Funny People, Superbad, etc. etc. have starred at least one of the guys from This Is The End, and that’s not to mention the countless cameos in the film from the likes of Michael Cera, Paul Rudd, Aziz Ansari, etc.

So to finish the analogy, This Is The End is The Avengers of comedy. It’s taken nearly 10 years, two cancelled television series, and 16 films to get here, but we’re finally here; a comedy film with nearly every single funny person working in Hollywood that combines the best of the “Apatow Crew” with a killer directorial debut from Rogen and Goldberg as well as a great script and a ton of improv. And the result couldn’t have been any more perfect.

Much like how The Avengers was scene after scene of near perfection, This Is The End is the same way. Not only do jokes come one after the other without stopping for the entirety of the film, but a story with severe stakes as well as some surprisingly impressive effects sprinkled throughout make This Is The End one of the best films of the summer so far; and this has been an incredibly crowded summer for great films.

In This Is The End, all of the characters play exaggerated- if not completely opposite- versions of themselves, with the exception of Danny McBride who, while very funny here, seems to make it his life’s objective to constantly annoy anyone and everyone in his path. Packed with great cameos and hilarious, quotable one-liners, This Is The End plays out exactly like the culmination of the Apatow Crew’s collective careers. Everyone is together, everyone is in perfect form, and there’s a ton of explosions going on around them. And isn’t that what we’ve come to expect from the end of a franchise?

But while This Is The End really does feel like the end, it’s hopefully just the beginning… or rather, the continuation. The continuation of absolute perfect comedy from the best that Hollywood has to offer. The continuation of laugh out loud funny films, the continuation of impossibly entertaining cinema, and the continuation of successful careers for Rogen, Goldberg, Franco, Robinson, Baruchel, Hill, Rudd, Ansari, Cera, Mintz-Plasse, Starr, Segel, Krumholtz, Watson, and yes, even McBride.