Film

This Is the End

Name: This Is the End
Genre: Action, Comedy
Released: 2013
Cast: James Franco, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride

A house party turns into the actual apocalypse, and the six famous idiots trapped inside it — playing versions of themselves, minus the vanity — have to figure out how to be decent while the world ends outside. It's gross, self-aware, genuinely apocalyptic in scale, and much sweeter under the hood than the demon-penis jokes suggest. For stoner-comedy fans who also want stakes.

TMDb rating

6.2

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Shaun of the Dead2004

The template for apocalypse comedy done right: mundane British life colliding with the undead, friendship as the actual plot. Warmer and sharper than you remember.

But British deadpan instead of American stoner chaos — different comic rhythm entirely.

Superbad2007

Same Rogen/Hill/Goldberg engine minus the apocalypse: filthy dialogue hiding real affection between friends who'd never say it straight. The blueprint for their whole vibe.

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The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb1964

Both films find comedy in watching deeply flawed, self-absorbed men fail to rise to the occasion as the world actually ends around them — Strangelove just does it with generals instead of stoners, and gets there first.

Black-and-white, decades before demon-dick jokes were a thing, and it already knew that the end of the world is funniest when the people in charge of it are morons. Kubrick's satire is savage, precise, and still lands harder than most of what's followed it.

But No raunch, no gore, all Cold War bureaucracy and clipped dialogue — a completely different comic engine.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb poster

Pineapple Express2008

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But More stoner-noir than ensemble comedy — smaller cast, tighter focus.

The World's End2013

A pub crawl interrupted by an alien invasion, with the same idea that the apocalypse is really about unfinished friendships. Edgar Wright's version is tighter and sadder underneath the jokes.

But Came out the same year and covers similar ground — you may feel like you're repeating yourself.

Tropic Thunder2008

Actors playing grotesque, ego-driven versions of actors, thrown into a situation way bigger than their vanity can handle. The same joy in watching celebrity self-parody.

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Knocked Up2007

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Hot Fuzz2007

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Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy2004

Pure improv-driven ensemble idiocy, if you just want the comedy without the apocalypse dressing. Ferrell and company at their most gloriously stupid.

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Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy poster

Melancholia2011

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Lars von Trier's version of the last days on Earth — gorgeous, glacial, and devastating, following two sisters as a rogue planet drifts toward collision. It asks the same question This Is the End does — how do you actually behave when it's really over — and answers it with dread instead of dick jokes.

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