This Is the End 2013

Mary F. Pols, TIME Magazine: It is intensely raunchy and silly and joyous and tapped right into my inner teenager in a glorious way. Read more

Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies: ... the movie definitely struck a chord with the crowd I saw it with ... (with) a climax that brings bromance back ... Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: In places it is genuinely, even sublimely hilarious. Why shouldn't it be? Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: The film is uneven and about 15 minutes too long. But when it's funny, it's hilarious. Read more

Tom Keogh, Seattle Times: A story lurching moment-to-moment for inspiration, or full of ceaseless gags about every bodily fluid, or featuring rape jokes or the sight of Franco spitting food into Hill's mouth, doesn't pass as wit. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: Offsets its slightly smug premise with a clever sense of self-parody and near-cataclysmic levels of vulgarity. Read more

A.A. Dowd, AV Club: Funny is funny, and it would be truly dishonest to deny the big laughs-the spikes of gut-busting inspiration-that the film sporadically delivers. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: It's apocalyptically dirty. And it's hilarious. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: [A] crass, patchy, occasionally hilarious farce ... Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Their big joke is to literalize the Book of Revelations, but snaking around this is a biting contempt for the entertainment business, their own bad movies, and the social privilege these confer. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: The thing really moves. Even the grottiest bits have a way of hitting their marks and darting onward, the way they did in "Borat." Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Six comedians stuck in a house together as the world is ending. What could be funnier than that? Read more

Cary Darling, Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com: [It]gets derailed by [Rogen and Goldberg's] desire to keep upping the level of comedic absurdity and cheesy special effects. Still, there are lots of low-brow laughs, especially in the first half. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: It's the wildest screen comedy in a long time, and also the smartest, the most fearlessly inspired, and the snort-out-loud funniest. Read more

William Goss, Film.com: ...occupies a frequently hilarious middle ground between their Apatow-produced bromances, the giddy gruesomeness of the recent Aftershock and the confined social abrasiveness of It's a Disaster. Read more

Wesley Morris, Grantland: There's wonder here that films with quadruple the effects budget would kill for. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: The seemingly exhausted gross-out comedy genre gets a strange temporary reprieve with This Is the End, an unlikable but weirdly compelling apocalyptic fantasy. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg's script is scathing, while their directing debut is a revelation. Read more

Randy Myers, San Jose Mercury News: You never know exactly what lunacy lurks around the corner, or just how far Rogen and Goldberg will push the R rating to its limit. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Most of the celebrities playing things straight (Michael Cera is a notable exception, portrayed as a cokehead sex addict who likes blowing cocaine into people's faces without warning). Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: With no outsiders to coddle, this tight-knit ensemble locks into a groove and reaches some truly giddy heights, turning even the weakest material (a spoof of "The Exorcist") into anarchic fun. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: The film is more guileful than it looks, even though the narrative is nuts ... Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: [It] has a gleeful sloppiness that seems to owe more to multiple rounds than multiple drafts. Read more

Bob Mondello, NPR: As long as Rogen and his buddies are just as self-involved, crude, obnoxious and hopefully exaggerated versions of themselves, things stay pretty funny. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: It's no minor accomplishment to make one of the most indulgent projects in Hollywood history. But with "This Is the End," Seth Rogen and his pals have indeed achieved this dubious goal. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: There is stuff in "This Is the End" that had me laughing so hard, I sensed new body parts joining in to help out - my pancreas was heaving, my bile ducts ripped. Read more

Michael Sragow, Orange County Register: The filmmaking itself is disarmingly amusing, hitting grace notes amid the grandiosity. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Out-of-control hilarious. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: It's funnier and more energetic than a lot of what's out there in a movie season most would qualify as disappointing. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: "This is one of the most tasteless, ridiculous and funniest comedies of the 21st century." Read more

Odie Henderson, Chicago Sun-Times: "This is the End" finds a balanced tone most horror comedies fail to deliver. Grossout humor melds easily with grossout horror, sometimes at the same moment. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: This Is the End is the bust-out, badass comedy of the summer. And then some. It's so good you'll think you hallucinated it. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: I enjoyed the hell out of it for a while, but it got irritating and self-congratulatory long before it was over and I desperately do not want to see it again. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: This Is the End, true to its subject matter, is as funny as hell. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: How long would it take to count the idiocies in "This Is the End"? Fooled you! Trick question. Numbers don't go that high. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: This gut-busting comedy is an intoxicating mix of "Write what you know" and "Give the people what they want." Read more

Christopher Orr, The Atlantic: Crass, flimsily plotted, and self-referential to the point of narcissistic personality disorder. For those willing to tolerate such defects, however, it is also very, very funny. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: You may have trouble at times deciding whether to laugh out loud or to avert your horrified gaze. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: Rogen and Goldberg (making their directorial debuts) get the balance just right, with one gut-busting punchline and situation after another set against the escalating dread of the end of existence, taking place just outside of James Franco's house. Read more

Tom Huddleston, Time Out: No comedy classic, then, but a good natured and engaging slice of goonish self-mockery. Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: It's a hit-and-mostly-miss affair... Read more

Mick LaSalle, Hearst Newspapers: Though This Is the End drags slightly here and there, the filmmakers keep it interesting by making the personal relationships dynamic, and the movie redeems all that is self-referential and self-congratulatory about it with a warmth of spirit. Read more

Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice: This is all performed with brio, by likable performers with expert timing, ace chemistry, and a directing team eager to let them tear loose. But it can wear you down. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: As both homage and send-up, it presents viewers with the ultra-meta image of a comedy genre eating its own tail. Read more