This is the End Review

 From The Global and Mail...
I do not own this picture/poster. This is the End and/or Collider owns it all.

Who knew that public transit would come to have so much in common. These days, the apocalypse is to the big screen what the bus is to an urban commuter – just as regular in appearance, just as forgettable an experience. Sure, sometimes the ride is a real horror show, occasionally even a comic fest, but mainly it’s a tedious, over-priced, stare-ahead-blankly trip from start to finish. Turns out that hellfire is just one more thing to be bored by – best to wear headphones and crank up your iPod.
 On to the latest in last-days hilarity, This Is the End, which apparently enjoyed a beginning as a short sketch that got posted online to considerable attention. Then again, cats-that-look-like-Hitler are posted online to considerable attention, and they don’t get stretched into a feature flick. (Okay, not yet anyway.) But this sketch did, because some famous folks made it, and now more famous folks have gathered to huff and puff and inflate the little notion to nearly two hours – a long commute by any measure.
Which famous folks, you might eagerly ask? Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson and Danny McBride, who, having all worked together in the past, reconvene to portray Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, James Franco ... well, you get the idea. This time, the comic actors are playing themselves, or at least heightened versions of themselves, a shortcut that has the immediate merit of dispensing with all that time-consuming business of creating actual characters. Better yet, since comedy is the ostensible metier of comic actors, one might think the dudes would be, you know, funny. Sorry, not really.