Editor 's note : This review may contain spoilers . ( EW.com ) -- You could sit through a year 's worth of Hollywood comedies and still not see anything that 's genuinely knock-your-socks-off audacious . But `` This Is the End '' ( opening today ) truly is . It 's the wildest screen comedy in a long time , and also the smartest , the most fearlessly inspired , and the snort-out-loud funniest . The movie opens with Seth Rogen at an airport , where a passerby says , `` Hey , Seth Rogen , what up , man ? '' So you immediately know that he 's going to be playing a version of himself . In fact , everyone in the film is playing a version of him-or herself . Rogen picks up his buddy Jay Baruchel ( who 's less of a star than anyone here — a running gag ) , and after getting stoned , they head to a party at James Franco 's house . Everyone from Jonah Hill to Emma Watson is there , and what transpires looks so much like what you 'd expect a party with hip young actors and comedians to look like that it 's as if we 'd wandered into the ultimate episode of Entourage . The jockeying of movie-star egos , the drugs and sex ( Michael Cera is the group 's libertine nerd ) , Rogen and Franco brainstorming a sequel to Pineapple Express — it 's all cheekily plausible . Then Rogen and Baruchel venture out to a convenience store to feed their munchies , and they hear a crack , and blue light pours down from the heavens . It 's not just an earthquake — it 's the Rapture . The world is coming to an end ! The two hustle back to the party , where most of the guests flee ( or try to ) , and before long there are only five of them left in that house : Rogen , Baruchel , Franco , Hill , and Craig Robinson . For a moment , I feared that `` This Is the End '' might be a stunt that wears out its welcome in 10 minutes . But Rogen , who co-wrote and codirected the film with Evan Goldberg , does something incredibly sly . The movie does n't play the end of days for laughs . It 's an honest-to-God metaphysical disaster movie , a fusion of `` Earthquake , '' `` 2012 , '' `` Night of the Living Dead , '' and `` The Exorcist . '' With the apocalypse played straight , the comedy can take off from it in a way that 's all the more explosive , as it was in the fantastic `` Shaun of the Dead . '' Sinkholes are sucking people into infernos , but inside Franco 's house , the movie-star self-absorption gets raised to an insane new pitch of competitive backbiting . The interplay is so fast and obscene that you feel like you 're eavesdropping on the sorts of things comedians say to each other when they 're off camera . Then Danny McBride shows up , tossing insults like cherry bombs , and the hilarity just grows more scandalous . `` This Is the End '' pushes the envelope — a severed head becomes a soccer ball , and Franco and McBride turn a fight about masturbation into a confessional laugh riot . Yet through it all , the movie is wonderfully deadpan about the `` reality '' it 's showing us . Is Jonah Hill really a narcissist who wears his nice-guy facade like the diamond stud in his ear ? Is Rogen really a guilty sellout ? `` This Is the End '' has great fun tweaking their public images , even as it 's truly asking : Do people like this deserve to go to heaven or hell ? The answer will crack you up and lift you up high . Grade : A . See the original story at EW.com . CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . © 2011 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved .
A cast of stars appear in `` This is The End '' The film was co-written by one of its stars , Seth Rogen . Critic says the film pushes the envelope to get laughs .