THIS IS THE END Review

"This Is the End" is a comedy where we find Seth Rogen (Seth Rogen), Jay Baruchel (Jay Baruchel), Craig Robinson (Craig Robinson) and Jonah Hill (Jonah Hill) all hanging at James Franco's (James Franco) new digs in L.A. for a housewarming party. Rihanna is there, and so is Aziz Ansari, Jason Segal, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Mindy Kaling, Emma Watson and a coked-out-of-his-mind Michael Cera. Then comes the end of the world as they know it. Yeah.

In its meta-filled nudges and self-pleasing schtick about actors playing parodied versions of themselves (the Academy Award-nominated Jonah Hill is faux pretentious and refers to himself as that actor from "Moneyball"), here's a comedy that is delirious, outrageous, wildly inspired and roll out of your chair in tears hilarious. It's the funniest movie since the original "Hangover" and likely to be the funniest movie of not only this year but perhaps a few years.

The script was penned by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, who previously collaborated on "Pineapple Express" and "Superbad," the movie which kicked off most of this gang together. This marks their directorial debut as they take a one-joke movie and keep delivering and riffing on it with awesome comic timing. Once the four guys are holed up inside Franco's house, Danny McBride (Danny McBride) shows up and throws a wrench into their whole survival plan, eating all their food and drinking all their water. It's like an apocalyptic actor-starring "Real World," a pressure cooker of a situation where the main goal is to poke fun at these actors as much as possible.

You have to know these guys' stuff to be in on a lot of the jokes, of which these self-referential zings are the laugh-out-loud funniest. Take for example an entirely homemade sequel to "Pineapple Express" guest starring Woody Harrelson. But I've already said too much. You gotta see to believe how zany, nutty and balls-to-the-wall insane things get escalating to gut-busting proportions. In a raunchy mix of comedy and horror, Rogen and his team absolutely deliver the goods in a product that actually feels refreshingly independent aside from its major stars. It's smart about its stupidity and even squeezes in something to say about the status of celebrity and the nature of faith. And if you thought all those cameos at the start were something, just wait.

"Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" (2010)

For starters, I'm not so much a Michael Cera fan myself. With the likes of "Juno" and "Superbad" where the character he played in each were basically interchangeable, I figured this actor was a one trick pony. Working with director Edgar Wright ("Hot Fuzz," "Shaun of the Dead"), however, Cera has finally heightened his token deadpan humor and finessed it into his very own playing the 22-year-old skinny slacker named Scott Pilgrim. No matter your preconceptions of the actor and even with his high airy voice, lanky arms, nerdy demeanor and turtle-looking face, just give in to the fact that this guy is, along with being a character in his own video game, somehow a chick magnet. Might as well because otherwise you'll be missing out on, aside from "Inception," the second-most wonderfully original movie of the summer, "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World."

Edgar Wright, who is known for his already cult classic genre spoofs, tackles something entirely new in adapting the series of graphic novels by Bryan Lee O'Malley. The world of Scott Pilgrim, embedded in the chilled snow-covered realism of Toronto, is ultimately a fantasy, a world that is itself one big pop culture reference spanning from the 80s and 90s to today. It's a world that explodes off the screen with hyper energy and speed, flashing lights, colors, lively humor, quirky romance and highly stylized violence where nobody really gets hurt. The clever and charming visual accents of the movie transform this world into a mash-up of a comic book and a video game with doors that literally "Slam!" and phones that literally "Ring!" with defeated enemies bursting into a flurry of coins with glowing acquired point totals.

Strange praise would be calling this the best video game movie ever made because this is the only video game movie that wants to look like a video game without actually being based off a video game. Stranger yet that there is now a video game based on this movie. How does that work? Strangest of all is that the movie works as a video game with a big heart at its center. Unheard of, right? Scott Pilgrim's goal is simply to win the heart of Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead in a role that has her looking like a minor version of Kate Winslet in "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"), a girl who carries a little extra baggage: the league of her seven evil exes all of which must be defeated before Scott can safely date Ramona.

Before Ramona entered his life (and dreams), Scott lived an ordinary life playing in his crappy band, Sex Bob-Omb--with a humorously frazzled Mark Webber singing the lead, a pouty but adorable Alison Pill on drums and all the songs composed by Beck--and dating his 17-year-old high school girlfriend, Knives Chau (Ellen Wong). Everyone around Scott observes and comments, rather bitterly for the most part, on his plight more so including how to let Knives down easy to go for Ramona rather than how to deal with the exes who want him dead. Among them is Scott's gay roommate, Wallace, in a hilarious and scene-stealing turn from Kieran Culkin and Scott's sister, Stacey (Anna Kendrick), who is perpetually impatient with him. With pursuing Ramona, Scott still has his own singular ex to deal with, Envy (Brie Larson), who is inconveniently part of a rock band that Scott's own band must eventually face-off against.

Each ex Scott battles is fun, weird and unique, and each duel boasts its own designated set piece and a even a "vs." that appears before our eyes. Brandon Routh as a bleach-blonde who gained magic superpowers for being a vegan, Chris Evans as a skateboarding, cocky action star and Jason Schwartzman as Gideon, the head of the evil exes are the highlights. Even an ex-girlfriend drops in who's more bi-furious than bi-curious.

The cast of characters is great, Cera and Winstead make a fine couple because you can tell she's constantly skeptical of him even as she's falling for him and although "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" is essentially another coming-of-age tale, when is the last time you saw one complete with 1ups and game overs? You'll be all too tempted to say this honestly is like nothing you've ever seen before.

Archive: "Superbad" (2007)

Thank goodness for guys like Judd Apatow, Seth Rogen, and now director Greg Mottola. I don't know what the world of comedy would do without them as they keep dishing out one hilarious movie after another. Thanks to them, we have truly great comedies such as "Superbad," a raunchy riot of a teen sex comedy for the new generation. The movie's opening has the look and sound of something from the 70s, but as the movie begins, you immediately realize that it takes place in the present. The naughty one-liners are so quick and current that you may find yourself doubling back to something said and realize just how damn clever it was. This, along with the flawless formula of realistic dialogue and genuine characters makes "Superbad" another winner from a comedic tag team who's impossible to beat right now.

Seth (Jonah Hill) and Evan (Michael Cera) have been best friends through all of high school primarily because they aren't cool enough for anybody else, but they are a perfect match for each other because they are equally uncool. Seth is loud-mouthed and chubby, and Evan is thin and unbelievably awkward. They also have a buddy named Fogell who is so uncool that he's a nerd even to them. Their senior year is only weeks away from being over, and they realize that it's either now or never to get laid. Evan tells Seth that everybody just has sex in college, but Seth reasons that they must have experience before then. The way he explains it, though, is about a hundred times more amusing. However preoccupied they are with this goal, the real problem facing them is that they each got into a different college and the resulting separation anxiety that comes along.

The movie follows the misadventures of these three friends throughout a 24-hour period. Everything that could go wrong pretty much does, and it all happens in the most ridiculous and unpredictable ways possible. One day at school, Seth is unexpectedly invited to a party by a girl he's had his eye on, and Evan decides he'll go, too, to impress the girl he likes. Fogell just got a fake ID as a 25-year-old Hawaiian organ donor simply named "McLovin." (This one thing is what the movie will forever be known for as it is already being quoted, and T-shirts with the phrase "I am McLovin" on them are probably already in production.) Thanks to Fogell's new ID, Seth is given the job of providing all the drinks for the party. From one trip to a liquor store, things start getting progressively more bizarre and outrageous. I admire the movie's ability to completely disregard an actual plot and yet still move along with one gut-busting one-liner right after another. Every incident collides with the other in a long string of non-stop laughs and giddiness.

The movie is also shockingly crude and foul-mouthed. But, why wouldn't it be? I mean, just look at the age bracket here. These horny teens aren't going to be talking about sex with any tasteful sophistication, that's for sure. Jonah Hill, who co-starred next to Seth Rogen in "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," and Michael Cera, who is in "Arrested Development," are excellently casted and have conversations that feel exactly how they should. Every other word is a swear word or an insult, and mentions of nipples, pussies, and erections are abound. The movie's crude behavior comes with a hint of truth in being so frank about young male obsessions. Seth and Evan aren't looking for a relationship; they hear about girls getting drunk and sleeping with the wrong guy, and they want to be that guy.

Then there are the two cops, played by Seth Rogen and Bill Hader, who take Fogell under their wing as their best buddy after the incident at the liquor store. The two of them are no more mature than the high schoolers that fill the rest of the screen. Strangely enough, though, it's actually these scenes which drag in the movie; that's surprising to be coming from a character played by Seth Rogen. It's really the teen party scene that rules the show where even the two girls of interest, played by Emma Stone and Martha MacIsaac, are fun and quirky on their own. All of the younger characters have honest emotion and we laugh at them, with them, and ultimately care about them.

The movie is probably inspired by the lives of Seth Rogen and his co-writer Evan Goldberg, as they both named the main characters after themselves. Not only that, it could also very well be based on the life of any teenager you come across. Like "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and "Knocked Up," which preceded this comedic gem from Mottola, there's a certain realism and sincerity to be found here. This one is the most absurd of the bunch with the situations the characters find themselves in, but the reactions are still as real as ever. The movie has the same likability thanks to a smart script and good actors. It's a dirty, R-rated teen comedy with a heart, and when it comes down to it, it's about looking to the future, moving on, and growing up. "Superbad" is super good.