JamesG
06-13-2013, 02:04 PM
Movie Reviews: This is the End
With nothing short of kryptonite likely to prevent Man of Steel from overpowering every rival in sight at the box office over the weekend, Sony is opening the apocalyptic comedy This is the End today (Wednesday), preceded by late-night screenings in selected markets on Tuesday, in the apparent hope that a head start will prevent it from being crushed.
And while most critics are clearly reluctant to award four starts to the raunchy, R-rated comedy, many of them are handing it three stars and concluding that the film hits the funny bone more often than it misses it.
Claudia Puig in USA Today writes:
"It's uneven and about 15 minutes too long. But when it's funny, it's hilarious. It is an inspired idea: blending a disaster movie with a wacked-out comic bromance in which actors portray caricatures of themselves."
Betsy Sharkey in the Los Angeles Times says, "Everyone does a solid job of playing their hyper-realized selves."
She adds, "The movie is a surprisingly relevant guilty pleasure, an incisive riff on The Culture, and the cult, of the rich and famous."
A.O. Scott in The New York Times comments that the film certainly tops the recently released -- and critically panned -- The Hangover Part III, and in places it is genuinely, even sublimely hilarious.
Kyle Smith remarks in the New York Post:
"Great as it often is, the movie falls short of being a classic."
Michael Phillips in the Chicago Tribune writes:
"I predict walkouts across America during This is the End, along with a healthy number of satisfied, vaguely guilty-feeling customers who go along for the ride."
-IMDB News
With nothing short of kryptonite likely to prevent Man of Steel from overpowering every rival in sight at the box office over the weekend, Sony is opening the apocalyptic comedy This is the End today (Wednesday), preceded by late-night screenings in selected markets on Tuesday, in the apparent hope that a head start will prevent it from being crushed.
And while most critics are clearly reluctant to award four starts to the raunchy, R-rated comedy, many of them are handing it three stars and concluding that the film hits the funny bone more often than it misses it.
Claudia Puig in USA Today writes:
"It's uneven and about 15 minutes too long. But when it's funny, it's hilarious. It is an inspired idea: blending a disaster movie with a wacked-out comic bromance in which actors portray caricatures of themselves."
Betsy Sharkey in the Los Angeles Times says, "Everyone does a solid job of playing their hyper-realized selves."
She adds, "The movie is a surprisingly relevant guilty pleasure, an incisive riff on The Culture, and the cult, of the rich and famous."
A.O. Scott in The New York Times comments that the film certainly tops the recently released -- and critically panned -- The Hangover Part III, and in places it is genuinely, even sublimely hilarious.
Kyle Smith remarks in the New York Post:
"Great as it often is, the movie falls short of being a classic."
Michael Phillips in the Chicago Tribune writes:
"I predict walkouts across America during This is the End, along with a healthy number of satisfied, vaguely guilty-feeling customers who go along for the ride."
-IMDB News