This Is The End
(Cert 15, 107 mins, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment) Starring Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson, Danny McBride, Jason Segel, Emma Watson, Michael Cera, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Paul Rudd. *** 

Seth Rogen excitedly welcomes actor buddy Jay Baruchel to Los Angeles, a city which Jay clearly loathes. He’s less than thrilled at the prospect of attending a house party thrown by James Franco.

With the booze flowing and Michael Cera harassing anything in a skirt, Jay puts on a brave face, especially when he encounters arch-nemesis Jonah Hill.

In order to escape, Jay heads to a nearby grocery store for cigarettes with Seth in tow. Pandemonium ensues as bright blue beams of light scythe down from the sky and suck up hundreds of people. The buddies race back to the party, but Jay immediately wants to leave, telling Seth, “I don’t want to die in James Franco’s house!”.

This Is The End is a raucous comedy directed and written by Rogen and Evan Goldberg, which pokes merciless fun at the decimation of the US west coast.

It is a potty-mouthed hot mess that scores a decent amount of laughs in between homoerotic male bonding and inevitable toilet humour.

The cast appear to be having a blast and occasional smirks suggest some of the banter is ad-libbed. There are undeniably hilarious moments in the ramshackle script including the appearance of a sinkhole that claims the lives of virtually the entire cast.

However, there’s a surfeit of ideas without clear direction, the tone lurches awkwardly from comedy to special-effects laden mayhem and the final reckoning arrives 15 minutes too late.

Admission (Cert 12, 107 mins, Universal Pictures (UK) Ltd)
Starring Tina Fey, Paul Rudd. Director: Paul Weitz, Gloria Reuben, Wallace Shawn, Nat Wolff, Lily Tomlin. **

Portia Nathan (Fey) is one of the most dedicated members of staff in the admissions office at Princeton University, responsible for selecting the brightest and best students to attend the seat of learning.

When Clarence (Shawn) announces his retirement as Dean of Admissions, workaholic Portia is his natural successor. She throws herself into her work while dealing with the emotional fallout from losing her stuffy professor boyfriend, Mark (Sheen), to a blonde member of faculty.

With her head in a whirl, Portia embarks on her annual tour of high schools in her district and visits a bohemian place of learning run by former college classmate John Pressman (Rudd).

He believes that his most gifted and quixotic student, Jeremiah Balakian (Wolff), deserves a place at Princeton. More troubling, John also reveals a personal connection between Portia and the boy that compromises her objectivity.

Based on the novel by Jean Hanff Korelitz, Admission is a lightweight romantic comedy that boasts only a couple of decent laughs. Gifted comic actors Fey and Rudd are a dream pairing in Paul Weitz’s film and they share fizzing chemistry, but the trajectory of their characters’ relationship is predictable.

Lily Tomlin is a pleasing distraction as Portia’s hippy mother, who fails to recognise her daughter’s dulcet tones. “How many people call you Mom?” wonders the admissions officer drolly.

She is a glimmer of delight in an otherwise laboured 107 minutes that fail to make the grade.