Rapture-Palooza

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).

"The people who went to church and prayed and missed out on a lot of fun stuff got sucked straight to heaven. The rest of us, well we're screwed." While out bowling one night Lindsey (Kendrick) and her boyfriend Ben witness the rapture. When they get home they find out that both their moms have been taken while their fathers are still here. Trying to move on with their lives they start a food cart. When that doesn't work they take a job with the anti-Christ (Robinson), but with a hidden agenda. This is a movie I was excited about mainly because of the cast. I have to say that I thought this was very funny and I laughed throughout the whole movie, but it is my kind of humor. Mainly a lot of random things happening and some really stupid jokes that make me laugh like a man getting killed by a huge flaming rock and the wife mad because he was holding the eggs when he died. If that kind of humor appeals to you then watch this and laugh. If you are into more intelligent humor then you may not like this. Overall, a stupid movie that I thought was very funny and I laughed a lot. I give it a B+.

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.

OK let me start off with a disclaimer. Being a raunchy comedy fan from Chicago, i am an unabashed Craig Robinson supporter. Dude paid his dues and routinely stole the show in bit parts in various Judd Apatow movies of the last decade. With that in mind, its nice to see Hollywood start to realize the mans considerable talents and start giving him some star vehicles that put them to use. never mind the god awful "Peeples", which was a failure more due to a horrific, unfunny script than Robinsons performance, Rapturepalooza is the movie that allows Robinsons irreverent, thoroughly raunchy comedic style to truly shine. I had tears in my eyes laughing out loud watching this movie. Granted the plot and premise serve as nothing more than a means to allow Robinson to go ape-sh#t with the material, its still not that bad. Anyone vaguely familiar with Revelations will recognize the subversive take on it and the pot addicted wraiths were pretty funny. That being said the main reason to see this movie is Craig Robinson. Hell change your view of what we were taught about the Antichrist..but in a rolling on the floor, tears in your eyes way... See this if your a fan of Pineapple express, Knocked Up and 40 year old virgin..

With a mediocre title like "Rapture-Palooza" the film cannot be accused of false advertising. With the exception of Anna Kendrick, the cast is peopled with comedic actors of "There's-That-Guy-From- That-Thing"-level renown which is about the right level for the material. You get the gist from the title that the plot amounts to it's the end of days and hilarity ensues. Although some of the proceedings are decidedly not funny including John Michael Higgins being crushed by a falling meteorite as the family looks on, drug- addicts pestering survivors for a hit as they leave their house and the deity of about a billion true-believers being burned to death with a laser as he rides a unicorn. Craig Robinson plays the Antichrist borrowing lines and an outrageous skeeviness from dozens of stand-up comedy routines over the last 30 years. Counter- intuitively his recycled slease-oid is by default the most fully realized character among those not played by Kendrick. Rob Coddry, Ken Jeong, John Francis Daly and others in the cast could have rotated around their interchangeable characters during the filming with little loss of coherence. In particular, Daly could have been replaced with a sock puppet on Kendrick's left hand and it would have played very similarly. As the movie meanders towards its anti- religious? ending, Kendrick inc increasingly comes to dominate the screen-time and brings an earnestness that keeps the movie at least watchable if not entertaining. In short, many better apocalypse films exist - watch one of those.