Starring Jay Baruchel and Seth Rogen. Rated 18A. 

As an actor, Seth Rogen has solidly established the amiable, wryly intelligent, and epically stoned man-boy as his screen “type”. As writer and first-time director (along with Evan Goldberg) of This Is the End, Rogan cleverly explores that image, aiming for nothing less than a deconstruction of his identity not only as a central figure in the Judd Apatow comedyverse but as a privileged, self-absorbed, and secular North American. These moral ambitions are well hidden in dick jokes, high jinks, and occasional gore.

The movie begins with Rogen picking up his friend and Undeclared costar Jay Baruchel at LAX. (All the actors play extreme versions of their public personae.) They act like best friends, but there is a reserve between them that they fill with pot. Baruchel finds Hollywood fake and oppressive; Rogen believes that Baruchel simply needs more fun. For that purpose, Rogen insists that they attend a house party thrown by James Franco.

Although the plot of this movie is more susceptible to spoilers than most—it goes to places rarely, if ever, acknowledged by studio comedies—the trailers have already indicated that the party is derailed by horrific calamities. The luxurious house is soon revealed as being precariously undersupplied as an emergency refuge for Rogen, Baruchel, Franco, Craig Robinson, Danny McBride, and Jonah Hill.

Surrounded by flames and terrors outside, and increasingly desperate for provisions on the inside, the house becomes a battlefield. The spoiled actors are well aware of conventions like honour and courage but have seldom been required to exhibit them in real life and are not equally capable of summoning them upon need.

The comedy of the movie lies in watching actors disintegrate (sometimes literally), while its surprisingly powerful heart arises from the notion that even they might be capable of one good deed.