Rapture-Palooza

When I first heard of this movie, I was very intrigued by the idea and the cast. But I wasn't ready for the disappointment, that I was going to meet. The (poorly written) jokes almost never hit, which is the worst thing, that can happen for a comedy of this kind. The cast did, what they could do with the material, but it just wasn't enough. The awkward scenes between Robinson and Kendrick was just that: awkward. Not funny. And that is a shame, because these are actors, who normally make laugh pretty hard. The highpoint of the movie for me, was Rob Cordry and John Michael Higgins, who stood for a couple of laughs each. 2 stars for the cast, and 2 stars for the concept, is all that I can give.

The summer of 2013 saw two big Rapture-themed comedies released, This Is the End and The World's End. Well, apparently, Rapture-Palooza was a third, but you probably never heard of it. It was actually released a few days before This Is the End in a few theaters, but it disappeared with little note and ended up on Netflix (is it even on video?). No surprise, really, as it isn't very good. It's not awful, though. Anna Kendrick stars, so it probably couldn't be really terrible. She and John Francis Daley (who played Sam Weir on Freaks and Geeks) star as a dorky young couple who stayed on Earth after the Rapture. Craig Robinson (who also co-starred in This Is the End) plays the Antichrist. When he catches sight of Kendrick, he falls for her, so she and Daley decide to put an end to him. There are actually a good handful of big laughs here, but for every joke that works there are at least two that don't. It seems to fall back on random swearing when things start to slow down (Craig Robinson is particularly disappointing here, since that seems to be his whole schtick). That said, my favorite gag in the movie is probably the foul-mouthed crows. Rob Corddry, Rob Huebel, Paul Scheer, Tyler Labine, Ana Gasteyer, Thomas Lennon, Ken Jeong and John Michael Higgins co-star.

There have been a lot of ensemble comedies as of late with a few working and others struggling to find their place. The latest Rapture Palooza brings together a great cast including Anna Kendrick, John Francis Daley, Ken Jeong, Thomas Lennon, Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson, and Tyler Labine to tackle the biblical end of the world, but does it have the story and execution to keep it all together or will it feel like the end of the world trying to get through it?

Rapture Palooza follows a young couple who are forced into a battle with the Antichrist amidst a religious apocalypse with only the help of some pot head teens and an undead neighbor obsessed with mowing his lawn. This movie had everything it needed to work and does entertain for the most part, but somewhere along the way things get a bit cluttered. The first half of the movie is pretty entertaining and fast paced setting up this world, but as it moves forward it goes from clever to almost stupid. Craig Robinson who is normally pretty damn funny seems to be phoning it in at one point and then forcing it the next. He still has some great moments, but just doesn't live up to his normal fun. Anna Kendrick does a great job with her character keeping the goofiness to a minimum while seemingly taking this world seriously. The rest of the cast are hit and miss with a lot of their one-liners somewhat out of place, but a decent amount of them work as well.

This is one of those films that will probably only entertain a select group which is most likely the only people that will check it out anyway. There are some great funny moments and the film does entertain, just not as much as it could have given a little more polish to the script.

The movie does not pretend to be something it is not. Some may feel the ending fell flat and/or the actors seemed bored by the childish humor. I believe it was all very intentional.

The blatant absence of political correctness was, in my opinion, incredibly refreshing. Every now and then a good punch in the face is needed to wake up from incessant exposure to overly cautious censorship forced on us by societal standards. Words will only offend if they are allowed to do so.

Those who have a droll sense of humor, enjoy random comedy and do not have a tendency to take everything seriously, will find this entertaining. Then again, perhaps one must be exposed to copious amounts of idiocy and/or eye-rolling ignorance to fully enjoy such a dry, sarcastic treat. Whatever the case, if you can keep an open mind, I would certainly recommend this for a good laugh.

Just like the predicted Rapture of 2012 (as prophesied by Ronald Weinland of the apocalypticist COG-PKG), end of the world comedy Rapture Palooza proves to be something of a non-event.

Despite a potentially very funny premise, and a promising start (the slo-mo credits sequence is surprisingly stylish), the film is extremely hit and miss, with the majority of gags being misses. Much of the humour relies on smut and profanity, which I have no problem with, but when I fail to find a vagina joke funny, we definitely have a problem!

To make matters worse, the whole production has an air of cheapness about it, particularly the special effects scenes which look like someone knocked them out quickly in After Effects on their iMac (I suspect this may not be far from the truth).

Overall, this is very much like that other terrible rapture themed comedy of 2013, This Is The End, only none of its stars are anywhere near as obnoxious as Seth Rogen.

3/10, plus an extra point for getting Anna Kendrick into that white dress (which distracted me slightly from the dire comedy).