Directors: Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen
Talent: James Franco, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, Craig Robinson
Release Date: 28th June 2013
The main players of Judd Apatow’s cartel star as themselves in this post-apocalyptic comedy. Watching a group of young, successful actors play themselves doesn’t on the face of it seem like a particularly attractive prospect. The brief appearance of Rihanna doesn’t inspire much confidence either, bringing to mind a sort of trendier, even more ironic (as if that were possible!) Scary Movie. Nobody should be subjected to famous people mugging at the camera, tacitly admitting that they are, hilariously, famous. Things pick up, however, after the first 20 minutes or so of self-consciously celeb-heavy winking and nudging (and even within that, Michael Cera’s five minutes are pretty good).
Seth Rogen and Jay Baruchel make a convincingly tense and crotchety pair of old friends, while James Franco is almost as gleefully ludicrous playing himself here as he was in Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers. The plot is nonsensical and irrelevant, as the real pleasure to be derived here is from seeing a group of people who find each other funny being funny together. The big highlight is the eternally amusing Craig Robinson. Could someone please just make a 90-minute feature of Craig Robinson chatting at low volume directly to camera?
