This is the End - Blu-ray Review

Details: By Loron Hays; 11 June 2013

{2jtab: Movie Review}

This is the End - Movie Review

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The apocalypse gets Rogenized in this summer’s funniest (and most frightening) stoner comedy. It’s a movie for anyone who thought Cabin in the Woods was righteous; for anyone who likes to see celebrities take shots – literally in some cases – at themselves; for anyone who wants to see Los Angeles go up in flames. It’s crude. It’s rude. It’s … completely 100% gonzo-inspired awesome. Funnier than its previews and more creatively entertaining than it has any right to be, This is The End is probably the freshest Hollywood is going to be this summer.

This is The End – from the writing and directing team of Rogen and Evan Goldberg (Superbad) - takes the idea paramount in the Left Behind series and completely stooges it out with endless self-parody and disturbing images. Think Bill Murray playing himself in Zombieland and you get the point. And, yes, there most certainly is a wicked sense of humor at work with the destruction the City of Angels.

A towering devil (complete with ten-story dong) chases Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson, and Danny McBride – all playing amped-up versions of themselves – after they survive the first “cleanse” of His magical blue rays that life the pure folk of the world up to Heaven. Everyone else? Good luck.

Hell is unleashed and its heaven for the audience. In fact, This is The End saves summer with theses gut-shaking laughs. Seriously, I haven’t laughed this hard since 21 Jump Street. Los Angeles simply explodes while Rogen and Baruchel, taking a breather from a wild party at Franco’s super-sized self-designed house, are getting cigarettes at a local convenience store.

They dodge wreck after wreck as the streets erupt into flames and cries for help. This is biblical-scale destruction and mayhem they are facing. Back at Franco’s, the party is still raging. Los Angeles and its stars are – once again – oblivious to the reality around them. Then, without warning, it happens. Martin Starr, Paul Rudd, Michael Cera, Rhianna, and Christopher Charles Mintz-Plasse (and others) hilariously get sucked into Hell as demons – resembling the gargoyle creature from Ghostbusters – crawl out to crush souls.

The freaked and tweaked out boys hole up in Franco's and ration their already dwindling supplies. There’s only one thing that they didn’t count on: Danny McBride. Based on a nine-minute short film Rogen and Goldberg made six years ago called "Seth and Jay Versus the Apocalypse", This is The End gloriously expands in every direction. You can’t predict where the film is going. You can’t – even with the sillier of the jokes – guess just how far the punchline goes.

This is The End is all about variation on a theme. We move from Panic Room-like tropes to a full-on The Exorcist parody and then, finally, onto a Mad Max-style road movie – complete with a Channing Tatum cameo – before reaching the hilarious conclusion. We even get Pineapple Express 2 thrown in the mix. And it’s all stuck together with some of the most hilariously offensive material to ever give off that “rapey vibe” and scare the bejeezus out of Emma Watson.

Heads are chopped. Limbs are lost. Weed is smoked. And you’ll recklessly laugh yourself all kinds of silly as these comics go gangbusters with legit innovation, wild special effects, and unpredictable creativity.

The End is near. Embrace it, my friends.

{2jtab: Film Details}

MPAA Rating: R for crude and sexual content throughout, brief graphic nudity, pervasive language, drug use and some violence.
Runtime: 107 mins.
Director: Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen
Writer: Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen
Cast: Seth Rogen; James Franco; Jonah Hill; Craig Robinson; Michael Cera
Genre: Comedy
Tagline: This is the End
Memorable Movie Quote: "Seth, that's some of the best acting I've seen you do in the past 10 years. Where the fuck was that in Green Hornet?"
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
Official Site: www.thisistheend.com/site
Release Date: June 12, 2013
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: October 1, 2013

Synopsis: While attending a party at James Franco's house, Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel and many other celebrities are faced with the apocalypse.

{2jtab: Blu-ray Review}

This is the End - Blu-ray Review

Component Grades
Movie		Blu-ray Disc


Blu-ray Experience

Blu-ray Details:

Available on Blu-ray - October 1, 2013
Screen Formats: 2.40:1
Subtitles: English, English SDH, French
Audio: English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 16-bit); French: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
Discs: 50GB Blu-ray Disc; Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD); UV digital copy; Digital copy; DVD copy
Region Encoding: Locked to Region A

The 1080P AVC-encoded transfer isn't going to blow you away visually, mainly because of the setting, but that’s no fault of the transfer. Spending most of the time in a house with no electricity, the film is exceedingly dark, and when outside, it's often covered in blurry smoke. When you can see some detail, it's solid - especially during the end of the film when things get more interesting visually – and pretty explicit. Color is appropriate throughout. Overall, the film seems to be going for a "you are there" feel, and it achieves that, without any obvious issues with digital distractions. Unlike most comedies, the sound is integral and the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track helps drive home all the action in this film - exploding in the surrounds and bass when all hell literally breaks loose.

Supplements:

Commentary:

Provided by Seth Rogan and Evan Greenburg, the commentary is hilariously informative as the two long-time best friends discuss how the actors differ from their portraits on the screen, the use of CGI in the film, and other anecdotes connected to the film.

Special Features:

Special features for the Blu-ray combo pack include deleted scenes, the original short film and a couple interesting making of features. While it seems short, the supplementals do provide a good on-the-set look at the making of the movie and enough behind-the-scenes glimpses to give you a good idea at all the chaos the making of the film caused everyone. There are hilarious promotional pieces that rival anything out of Hollywood. We get the short film from 2007 that inspired the feature, plus an in-depth look at Danny McBride. The disc extras wrap up with a bunch of other trailers, while you also get a DVD copy and an Ultraviolet stream/download code.