MANILA, Philippines – It’s a hilarious and star-studded apocalypse as envisioned in Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s “This Is the End.”

Rogen and Goldberg–who wrote and produced films like “Pineapple Express” and “Superbad”–pulled all the stops on this one with a cast that includes James Franco, Jonah Hill, Jay Baruchel, Michael Cera, Mindy Kaling, Rihanna, Channing Tatum, Paul Rudd, Emma Watson and many, many more. 

In the film, James Franco throws a big party for his celebrity friends, whose revelry is interrupted by the end of the world. As the catastrophic events unfold, the characters–played by their real-life counterparts–get killed off one by one. The dwindling group of Hollywood stars fight for survival using their limited resources (which includes a bar of Milky Way and a bag of weed).

Watch the trailer here:

What should keep movie-goers excited is the fact that “This Is the End” is likely to be the first film to have so many actors acting as themselves. In previous movies, actors playing themselves are reserved for outrageous but brief cameo appearances. In “This Is the End” the treat lasts the entire movie, where the forthright plot lets the film focus on the humor. Seth Rogen, the director, also stars in the movie as himself.

On another (more morbid) level, the film is great fun simply because you get to watch actors getting killed as themselves. It’s another “they are just like us” variant where rich and famous Hollywood stars have to fight to live—just like any regular human being threatened by extinction.

The challenge for this movie is to surprise us with a novel ending. With all the apocalyptic movies already produced (Wikipedia lists 159), many viewers are already familiar with end-of-the-world plotlines that keep getting rehashed.

Then again, perhaps the number of apocalyptic movies is testament to our enduring fascination for D-Day. Let’s hope “This Is The End” does comic justice to this fascination. – Rappler.com

This Is the End opens in theaters worldwide in June 2013.