Rapture-Palooza

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.

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.

"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+.

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.

Craig Robinson is about the only thing in this film worth seeing IMO, as I have yet to see one of his performances that he is not fully committed to, and just plain funny.

Funny.

That's what I expected in this film, however, it fails to deliver.

With a premise like the "rapture", there is all kinds of room for some serious comedy, but this film wastes that opportunity, and instead seems to make the actors take the irritating / idiotic approach to their roles, and in the delivery of their supposedly "funny" lines.

The actors deliver their lines, and react to events in the film, in a way that can only be described as "corny", ridiculous, and just plain irritating. Instead of sympathizing with the characters, I found myself hoping they would be "removed" so as to save me from having to watch them any further on the screen.

The ONLY actor that seems to know how to deliver a comedic line is Craig Robinson, but he is simply overwhelmed by the inferior comedic performances of the rest of the cast.

This film just didn't work for me, and I highly doubt it will work for you either.

/shrug

Don't say you haven't been warned.

4 of 10 stars.