This Is the End is written, directed and produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, in their directorial debuts. The film centers on fictionalized versions of its cast in the wake of a global biblical apocalypse. Seth Rogen, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson, Michael Cera and Emma Watson among many other actors.

I'll keep this review short. The film's theme is clearly about friendship, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg succeeds in bringing that to the screen in this crazy and raunchy comedy. If you love the actors you will absolutely love this film. The writing is actually really good, smart too. I didn't expect the writing to be this good but these guys never disappoint, I love their collaborations and it's so nice to see the chemistry between them. Let's talk about the jokes, they are good but not as great as other films but it's the execution that matters here, the chemistry and the cast's energy makes the jokes land when they aren't super funny, but I laughed quite a lot and found myself enjoying every scene. This is the End is extreme but in a good way, Seth and Evan are at their craziest in this hilarious yet odd film.

A vanity project for a bunch of Hollywood's highest paid comedic actors, playing themselves in a "stoner comedy". So how do you make that good? By making it an hilarious, smart, insightful, satirical and scathing commentary on religion, celebrity and Los Angeles. And how do you make that successful? By making it a stoner comedy about a hapless group of actors saying and doing the stupidest things.

It actually starts out pretty slowly with a lame story being introduced. Jay Baruchel comes to LA to hang out with his friend Seth Rogen who wants to hang out with his friends James Franco, Jonah Hill and Craig Robinson, but Jay doesn't like his friends and he doesn't think that they like him. Sounds kind of lame doesn't it? The party at James Franco's house delivers the ridiculous, raunchy comedy which the target audience craves but it doesn't yet include the intelligence which the rest of the audience is applauding.

It seems like everybody in Hollywood is at James Franco's house. Michael Cera is doing coke, Jonah Hill is being friendly and everybody else is finding another drug to imbibe. While Jay and Seth are off to buy cigarettes, the Heavens open up and the Earth caves in. And then the real fun begins. Knowing the title of the film, or having read the bible, or really having seen any loose interpretation of the apocalypse, it's pretty obvious what is happening. And we get our first glimpse of the film's take on the celebrity culture and what it does (and what will eventually happen) to those at the center of it.

Our heroes aren't quite sure what's going on. Remember, they are actors in Hollywood. It's probably an earthquake, or it could be a zombie invasion, or it could be the end of the world as described in the New Testament's Revelation. But who believes that stuff?

The majority of the film takes place with our five actors holed up in James Franco's house – which is like a cement cave designed by himself since he's an artist. The jokes are vulgar, crass, silly but also incredibly insightful into who they are and the result is a perfectly written self-parody. You have to get past a lot of penis jokes, but once you do, you'll find an under-current tackling the issues of celebrity status but also of celebrities' biggest detractors, the religious congregation. I don't think "This Is the End" will be successfully duplicated any time soon, but I also don't foresee the apocalypse hitting any time soon.

"This Is the End" was probably the comedy movie of this summer. A quality cast all playing themselves and how they deal with an apocalyptic scenario got millions of people into theaters as a valid alternative to open-air baths. I thought this film was 100 minutes of escapism at its best. I laughed a lot at one-liners, situation comedy and particularly those scenes in which the stars make fun of themselves, like right at the beginning when Rogen gets sort of bullied by an overambitious interviewer about how he always plays the same character.

The story is told quickly. Old friends Jay Baruchel and Seth Rogen reunite for a weekend of fun. One of their activities besides playing video games and smoking weed is going to a big party at James Franco's house. Unfortunately, at the same time the apocalypse begins. The movie has a lot of serious sub-plot lines, stuff about God, changing friendships and moral decency, but it's always with a funny undertone. So this is 100% comedy, well maybe a few percent sci-fi, but never really seriously dramatic. A lot of it made me laugh, but nothing really stayed in the mind, except maybe the scene in which Franco seems to rise to the heavens, then goes nuts and goes back down again. Here and there, there's a couple things that could have been done better. First of all, it's a massive sausage fest with short cameos by Mindy Kaling, Rihanna and Emma Watson. The latter should have had a bigger part perhaps, although I felt sorry enough for her already with the little screen time she had here and I wouldn't really want to imagine how a female could bear with these boys for half an hour of the film or longer. The rape talk was also one of the many funny wtf moments I had. Others would be Jonah Hill as a zombie or everything involving Michael Cera in the first 20 minutes.

Performance-wise, nobody was really on awards-worthy level. The writing is the best aspect about it. From the cast, my personal favorite was Danny McBride I guess. He was almost the oldest of the bunch (behind Robinson),but also the funniest. His line delivery was as hilarious as his actions, like when he tried to kill them all not knowing it wasn't a real gun. The special effects, especially the monsters, weren't too shabby either given this was actually not really a fantasy/superhero film. All in all, it was quite an entertaining movie with many interesting contemporary references (Gangnam style etc.). It's nothing I'd be too eager to see anytime soon again, but if you like stuff like "The Hangover" and take it for what it is and don't go in it with too big expectations, you'll have a good time.