Feature: This Is The End vs. The World's End

An apocalyptic battle at the box office 

This summer will see two end-of-the-world comedies do battle, with a representative from each side of the atlantic capitalising on the recent apocalypse hysteria. The World's End is the third, and final, in the Three Flavours Cornetto/Blood and Ice Cream trilogy from Messrs Pegg, Frost and Wright. This Is The End is a collection of everyone to have ever acted in a Judd Apatow movie, acting in the same movie produced and directed by Apatow's protégés Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. Which will triumph at the box office and which will triumph will the critics? 

The World's End signals the end to a wonderful trilogy of timeless British comedy; Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz making up the numbers. Not much about the story has been released aside from what inferences can be drawn from the trailer; all we know is that five friends have come together after some 20 years to attempt to finish an epic "12 pubs, 12 pints" pub crawl. However, the town of Newton Haven has changed since the gang were last there and something is a little amiss with the townsfolk. What the trailer does do is assure fans of the previous Wright/Pegg/Frost collaborations that this one will have similarly sharp dialogue, and plenty of falling over fences. 

This Is The End takes a slightly different approach to the apocalypse. Everyone in Judd Apatow's vast contacts list has been called in to play exaggerated versions of themselves for this, and it doesn't look like it will disappoint. There's a party at James Franco's house and everyone who's anyone is inattendance; including a hilariously drunk Michael Cera, whose clips in the trailer were the standout. The partygoers are all getting nicely inebriated when the world starts to end. We are, as yet, unsure what it is that is causing human kind's demise (although it looks to be monsters of some description) but the key here is whether the all-star cast will match the script. Hopefully this is more Superbad than Funny People. 

Comparing box office takings for previous Pegg/Wright/Frost films with Apatow films gives us a pretty decent chance at predicting the outcome for this summer. Altogether, the hugely successful Hot Fuzz grossed $80,573,774 worldwide (with a taking of £7.1 million on its first weekend in the UK). This is more than 3 times what Shaun of the Dead grossed. Compare that with Bridesmaids, which grossed $149.4 million, edging out Knocked Up ($148.7 million) as Apatow's most successful film. Even the desperately disappointing, This Is 40, managed to gross $88 million. It is a safe bet, therefore, to back Apatow to win at the box office.

However, winning the battle for critic approval and widespread adoration will surely be The World's End. Both Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz received 91% ratings on www.rottentomatoes.com, and 4 or 5 star reviews from every well-respected critic. Contrast this with Apatow's very "hit or miss" career in filmmaking. Whilst Superbad won many comedy awards for its completely accurate and hilarious portrayal of the awkwardness of high school, and films like Anchorman have gone down as a cult comedy, Apatow has struck out with films like Year One (achieving 14% on www.rottentomatoes.com and an average score of 3.8/10 on Metacritic). 

I fully expect to thoroughly enjoy both films: This Is The End will be mind-numbing, hilariously crass humour and I expect to see clever, witty dialogue from the writing team behind The World's End. Apatow will inevitably win at the box office but I expect The World's End to clean up with the critics. 

Release Dates

This Is The End: 28th June 2013
The World's End: 19th July 2013

Review: Safety Not Guaranteed ★★★★

Safety Not Guaranteed is a wonderfully quirky, indie rom-com with a dash of sci-fi thrown in. Boasting a relatively impressive cast, provided that you're a fan of American sitcoms like New Girl and Parks and Recreation, the film is one of heart and emotion. 

Jeff (Jake Johnson), a rather nonchalant journalist for a Seattle magazine, takes two interns, Darius (Aubrey Plaza) and Arnau (Karan Soni), as they follow up the potential story behind a classified ad that reads, "Wanted: Someone to go back in time with me. This is not a joke...Safety not guaranteed." The advertisement takes them to a small rural town in Washington where it becomes clear that Jeff planned on using the trip to track down his high school sweetheart, who lives in the town. He also takes the reluctant Arnau under his wing as he attempts to help the intern lose his virginity. This leaves Darius to do all of the investigative work regarding the ad and its source. She traces it back to a frustrated supermarket clerk called Kenneth (Mark Duplass) and begins working on gaining his trust. 

The film then flits between Jeff's exploits with Arnua and Liz (the sweetheart), and Darius' attempts to get closer to Kenneth. The story, however, focuses not on the logistics of time travel but on the reasons for returning. Scripted with heart, the reveal of the respective reasons for travel will strike an emotional chord with the audience. It delves into the deeply personal reasons without becoming too mournful; maintaining a light hearted semblance throughout, thanks to the excellent script and beautifully understated performances from its leads.

Jake Johnson's Jeff, whose insensitivity and 'slacker' attitude could have been incredibly irritating, is funny in all the right places. He does this without trying to steal the spotlight, which must be on Plaza and Duplass. Their mutual reliance on each other and the innocence of their touching relationship is one of the highlights of the film. Aubrey Plaza is dry, Duplass is quirky, and together they forge a great partnership that you can fully believe in. 

Colin Trevorrow's name will soon be attached to the forthcoming Jurassic Park IV and his days of making low budget, indie movies will inevitably be over. This is a shame because Safety Not Guaranteed is fine work. 

Review: Star Trek Into Darkness ★★★★★

JJ Abrams' initial reboot of the Star Trek franchise was fantastic fun: with an expertly picked cast, well timed comedic injections and incredible visual effects dominating the screen. It did have flaws but every audience left the cinema wanting more. Abrams heard those calls, coupled with a lovely box office intake, and his sequel, Into Darkness, is pretty much the complete package. 

The story picks up a few years down the line; Kirk (Chris Pine) has completely warmed to his seat in the Enterprise Captain's chair, so much so that a touch of arrogance is creeping into his commands. The film opens with a tribe of pretty angry aliens chasing Kirk and McCoy (Karl Urban) through their vegetation. The crew is attempting to prevent the obliteration of the indigenous race but Spock (Zachary Quinto) finds himself marooned inside the erupting volcano that would be the tribe's destruction. In order to save his First Office, and best friend, Kirk flaunts the Starfleet Prime Directive: allowing the primitive race to see the Enterprise rising out of their ocean as they rush to save Spock. 

Fast forward to a meeting at Starfleet for Kirk and Spock where we find out that Spock filed a report of the incident, leaving Kirk to be stripped of the Enterprise and furious with his friend. Not much later, though, Starfleet Command have a reason to reinstate both to the Enterprise and the rest of their crew. A brutal terrorist attack on Starfleet archives in London, followed by another on a meeting of all the Starfleet head honchos in San Francisco, means that Admiral Marcus restores our heroes to their 'rightful' positions. Their mission is to kill the elusive Khan, played with brilliant menace by Benedict Cumberbatch, who is responsible for the attacks. The film does not stop for breath as it races at warp speed towards its monumental climax.

One standout feature in Into Darkness is the pendulum of audience support, swinging back and for between characters. There is very little 'black and white' to this story, which makes it an incredibly involving experience for the audience. The political agendas are both compelling and ugly simultaneously, and the middle section of the film will leave a lot of the audience fighting over who they should be standing behind. 

Nothing has been spared here for Abrams as he creates a wholly believable and enticing universe, as well as satisfying Hollywood's lens-flare quota for the year. His visual effects are beyond stunning as the Enterprise warps around various planets and space stations. The 3D is perfectly okay; it isn't annoying as in some films but equally, it isn't a knockout feature as in Life of Pi, for example.

The audience will find real pleasure in how the characters have grown into their roles. Kirk and Spock's friendship-cum-bromance perfectly emulates their predecessors and is a credit to Pine's and Quinto's acting ability; both actors seem born to play their roles. Karl Urban is incredibly dry as McCoy, with a bitter metaphor for every situation (something Kirk picks up on). Even Simon Pegg has become a far less annoying Scotty, toning down the accent and his comedy. 

Spock and Uhuru's (Zoe Saldana) relationship encapsulates the internal battle Spock is enduring, between the emotionless Vulcan and the human desire to feel. It is an incredibly interesting emotional tussle, and is something we see between Spock and Kirk also throughout the film; all kudos here to Quinto. 

A matured cast and a gritty, political storyline doesn't sound very 'Star Trek' but it compensates for the grit with brilliant visual effects, involving characters and the odd, subtle one-liner. It is a boisterous, thoroughly entertaining, film: a mature Star Trek, lacking none of the fun. 

Review: The Place Beyond The Pines ★★★★

The Place Beyond The Pines is Derek Cianfrance's latest offering, after the hugely successful Blue Valentine, and it is nothing if not ambitious. The small town of Schenectady is the setting for the film and, with its name synonymous in the Mohawk language with the title, it epitomises the poetic free flow of the film. 

The film is divided into three distinctive chapters, but with subtle themes of morality and fatherhood undercurrent throughout. In the opening chapter, Ryan Gosling captures the audience with a breathtakingly good performance as Luke Glanton, the strutting stunt rider devoid of sentiment, who is thrust into fatherhood with no warning. His brief fling with Romina (also played brilliantly by Eva Mendes), when he was last in Schenectady yielded a son, Jason, whose existence is only discovered by Luke when the boy is 6 months old. Eager to show Romina that he can be a father to the boy, Luke sacrifices his drifter lifestyle and takes a job at a garage run by the hillbilly Robin (Ben Mendelsohn). With poor wages and a desperate desire to provide for his son, Luke uses his remarkable talent on a motorcycle to rob banks, with Robin's guidance. 

Bradley Cooper's character Avery Cross is the primary subject of the second chapter, and he is a character troubled by many of the same problems as Luke but in a very different setting. He is also the father of a young son and after being thrust into the limelight as a local police hero, under rather suspect circumstances  he finds himself embroiled in a web of corruption and guilt over his false hero status. It's a storyline that closely parallels Luke's, just in different circumstances; with both men struggling with moral ambiguity in their lives as they seek to do right by themselves and their sons. 

The final chapter in this noir tale whisks us fifteen years into the future, where a lot has changed. Avery is running for attorney general over the state of New York but is divorced and has an exceptionally strained relationship with his son, for reasons easily deducible from the previous chapter. Avery's son, AJ (Emory Cohen), has grown up and has turned into an incredibly disturbed, rebellious teenager due to the lack of attention gifted him him by his father. AJ, rather unwittingly, befriends Jason (Dane DeHaan), who mirrors Luke in his drifting, stoner attitude. This chapter was a clever and cyclical end to the film but with the two young actors taking the lead, the film begins to suffer. Both the young men have fantastic careers ahead of them but they were taking over late into the film and having to follow two outstanding performances from both Gosling and Cooper. 

Ultimately, this film is overlong and interest begins to wane towards the end. Arguably, a lot of respect for this film comes from what Derek Cianfrance was attempting to do, rather than what he actually succeeded in doing. Nevertheless, the film is helped along by acting masterclasses from the big names in Gosling, Cooper, Mendes, and a spectacularly sinister turn from Ray Liotta as a 'crooked cop' deserves a mention. In spite of its flaws, Cianfrance has still managed to create a beautifully moving and emotionally charged film that effortlessly dives into, and deals with, evocative themes like masculinity, fatherhood and guilt, with complete class. 

Review: Evil Dead ★★★★

The Evil Dead was one of, if not the, genre defining horror movies. 5 teenagers, staying at a cabin so far from civilisation that it's almost laughable, are suddenly complicit in the act of waking up all kinds of hellish demons that are quite literally hell-bent (pardon the pun) on taking their souls.  It catapulted Sam Raimi into the spotlight and has influenced horror movies for the last 20 years. The reboot is almost as fantastically enjoyable as its predecessor, but not quite. 

Sam Raimi made his cult classic on a tiny budget and relied heavily on a few practical effects and enough comic presence in the script to turn it almost satirical in places; it was certainly a film ahead of its time. Fede Alvarez's version has a far superior budget thanks to Raimi's successful original, and it replaces the comic undercurrent with one that screams gore. The film is exceptional in its explicit and visceral detail, and in its use of fake blood. The fact that it lacks the humour of the original is somewhat disappointing, though this isn't a feeling that lingers with Alvarez taking you on a truly thrilling ride. What must be noted is that Alvarez used no CGI in his remake, a remarkable feat with the outrageous detail paid to the insane actions of the possessed teens.

Arguably the film's greatest flaws are the acting and the dialogue, which are pretty poor. Jane Levy as Mia is the stand out performer, and this is sure to be her platform to great things. However, Levy aside, the acting does leave a lot to be desired. This is most notable before the hellish antics can distract you from the completely wooden depictions of sincerity. Alvarez's decision to change the opening gambit from spring breakers to a drug intervention would be fine if the acting or dialogue was competent enough to emotionally involve us. Unfortunately they are both below par and we have to suffer through that first half hour before the action kicks in. However, it must be remembered that most films of this persuasion are rarely known for their exceptional dialogue and Oscar-winning performances. Alvarez's scares, although sometimes a little tame, and wonderfully excessive use of gore are more than enough to keep all fans of the genre, happy. 

The film barely stops to catch its breath as it launches us towards its dramatic finale. The final 15 minutes might be the bloodiest 15 minutes I have ever seen on a big screen but they were great fun and no one could argue that Alvarez could've made it any more dramatic. The directing quality of Alvarez is clear to see in the final third and, for his first feature film, this is very impressive. Sam Raimi hired him after watching a few of Alvarez's short films, and his work on Evil Dead will have made Hollywood sit up and take note; reminiscent of what the original did for Raimi. 

Interview: Alex Walker

Perfection is an obligation, rather than a choice, for Alex Walker. During our interview it was plain to see that he will not cut corners in his pursuit of a good film. The Auburn Independent Film Festival must have appreciated the effort and talent because Spacewalk placed second out of the twenty-three films on the shortlist last week. I met with him on the set of his next film, California Eden, to discuss Spacewalk, California Eden and his inevitably bright future.

Spacewalk was born out of an experimental film form project. Alex explained that he was reluctant to experiment too much with the visuals but he envisaged that sound was something that could have interesting effects on the finished film. The story focuses on a young deaf girl, Mia, who is more comfortable in silence than in the harsh world of sound that her hearing aid drags her into. She prefers to dream of a life in space, where everyone is deaf to the world around them. An exceptionally provocative message, expertly portrayed, did not come without having to tread a few tricky paths. The team behind Spacewalk were eager not to create a film that was incorrect or offensive in its representation of this problem; they wanted those with hearing impairments to appreciate the film as much as anyone with perfect hearing.

One of the standout features of Spacewalk is the performance by Kathryn Miller as Mia. I spoke to Alex about how he cast the young girl and was surprised to learn that it was her first acting job. She was found on a casting website and was incredibly co-operative and professional for her age, Alex explained. He described to me his desire to ensure that the acting in his films looks natural. Tony Banham, he explained, is a father himself and so his short turn as Mia’s Dad was no different to how he is with his own kids. Alex’s desire to keep everything as natural as possible with his actors is compounded by his directing style where, in his own words, he likes to let them “breathe”. This is due to his belief that forcing them into the strict shackles of ‘this way or the highway’ direction would only have a negative effect on his film.

Speaking to Alex about what he likes to see in his films, it was evident that he likes to pay very close attention to detail. It was close up shots of inanimate objects and the actors’ interaction with them to create a depth to his characters, and specific lighting techniques to create shadow that he mentioned as his favoured traits in a film. He confirmed that California Eden will showcase these directing preferences far more than anything he has made before.

California Eden is the brainchild of Alex and his writing partner Lotta Weber, although it was Alex and his editor, Nina Lindholm, who pitched the idea to the group having researched the Jonestown massacre. It was a mammoth task for the writers to work out how they could tell the story in twelve minutes in such a manner where the audience are fully involved with the characters who were victims of Jim Jones’ insanity. For those not familiar with the Jonestown massacre, its death toll was 918 and 912 of that number committed suicide on Jones’ command. It’s a story worth reading and the film picks up in the final 24 hours. When they pitched the film to their university year group, it had an incredible reception; the characters are rich and the story is gritty and intense.

It hasn’t been plain sailing for California Eden though. Writing aside, Alex and his team encountered some difficulty casting Jim Jones. Rebel Dean had been cast but started to back out days before filming was scheduled to begin, due to fears that he wouldn’t be able to portray the true mania of Jim Jones. Luckily, Alex quelled his fears and the film recently completed filming, to be screened on May 13th^th.

It seems there really is not limit for Alex Walker and his team; with California Eden’s incredible reception, a penned mention on a popular American podcast and independent film advertisers clamouring for the chance to publicise it. Alex made it explicitly clear how much it means to him to prove to everyone, and to himself, that he can tell a good story. His biggest fear was making a film half-heartedly that wasn’t as good as it could have been but speaking to him post-completion, all those fears have subsided and the confidence is palpable. All of this comes off the back of success at Auburn and there are plans for California Eden to be entered at bigger festivals. Did someone say Sundance…?

Watch Spacewalk and California Eden (after May 13th^th) at www.alextwalker.co.uk

Like California Eden’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/pages/California-Eden/492472554147089?fref=ts

Review: Oblivion ★★★

Oblivion is another crack at the sci-fi whip for Joseph Kosinski, who’s attempted rebooting of the Tron franchise in TRON: Legacy was flawed and not particularly well received. Oblivion is a better film and a step forward for Kosinski but it is far from perfect.

The film is set sixty years after an alien invasion that left Earth uninhabitable, in the year 2077. The human race is living in limbo on a space station, preparing to evacuate to a nearby moon. The film centers around two technicians still remaining on Earth, Jack Harper (Tom Cruise) and Victoria (Andrea Riseborough), who have had their memory wiped pre-mission so they will get the job done effectively. The ‘effective team’ maintains the drones protecting the resource gathering machines that are sucking the earth dry. Shortly before the mission can be accomplished, a spacecraft from before the war crashes whilst Jack is on Earth. The craft contains a woman haunting Jack’s dreams (Olga Kurylenko), and Jack soon starts to realise that things are not all that they seem to be and that maybe he’s been following orders a little too readily. The story was born out of a graphic novel penned by Kosinski himself, that he started back in 2005. The rights to turn the novel into a screenplay, having been given up by Disney for its inability to acquire a PG rating, were swiftly acquired by Universal.

The plot, whilst clever and enjoyable, is actually one of the film’s pitfalls, for it feels very much like major plot points have been ‘copied and pasted’ into the screenplay from classic sci-fi films. Its obvious that Kosinski’s influences have come from cult movies, such as Blade Runner, Silent Running, 2001: A Space Odyssey and there’s even traces of Star Wars. It’s so blatant at times that one can’t help but feel Kosinski lost sight of his own story. Nevertheless, the story is still an enjoyable ride purely because of its classic influences. It also allows for Tom Cruise to partake in spaceship dogfights and manly interchanges with drones and Scavs (the aliens still on Earth), which he executes with true Tom Cruise professionalism.

Oblivion does lack rich characters, which is a massive shame, and often the relationships between the actors are a little stale. Andrea Riseborough is the one exception to this statement, who brings a real fullness to Victoria. Her character is living in conscious ignorance of the suspicious nature of their existence on Earth and Riseborough is wholly convincing.

However, what Kosinski has done is create one of the most visually impressive films of recent years. Partially shot in Iceland and coupled with CGI effects, Oblivion looks every bit the alien wasteland it is trying to portray. It’s a majestic visual display from Kosinski and the rumours that he will be consulted on the upcoming Star Wars reboot are all the more exciting having seen the Lucas-esque visual style that he brought to this film. 

On the whole, Oblivion was enjoyable and the visual effects were completely worth the two hours spent watching it. The fairly hollow characters were easy to overlook because of how visually impressive it was. The supporting cast of Morgan Freeman and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Game of Thrones) are more than capable of delivering solid acting performances, and the story was completely acceptable as homage to the classics of the sci-fi genre, even it was slightly over-exuberant. 

Review: Jack the Giant Slayer ★★★

Jack the Giant Slayer is the latest fairy story to get a modern makeover, following films like Snow White and the Huntsman and with a proposed Cinderella film on the horizon. Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects, X-Men) was the man in the director’s chair for this adaptation and whilst it cannot be called a triumph, it will certainly not disappoint its target audience.

Everyone knows the story of Jack and his magic beans that sprout into a beanstalk with vines twisting into the sky, where the giant bone-cruncher inhabitant awaits the young lad. Singer’s film takes a slightly different direction with this story, although its core remains very similar. Jack (Nicholas Hoult of About a Boy and Skins fame), instructed to sell his uncle’s horse, returns with ‘magic beans’ (or ancient relic beans if you believe Singer’s adaptation), which end up getting wet and bam, hello beanstalk. But wait, did the princess end up getting caught in the beanstalk as it shot up into giant land? Yes. Does she need rescuing by our farm-boy hero? You bet.

One giant can’t be that hard to defeat when you have all of the king’s army ready to fight to the death to save the beautiful princess (played by Eleanor Tomlinson). Shame, then, that Bryan Singer decided to make the land at the end of the beanstalk awash with giants hungry for human; and so the story continues in true fairytale fashion with a predictable plot point involving the King’s sinister advisor Roderick (Stanley Tucci) and some monumental effects, paid for by an extraordinary budget.

Let’s get down to the flaws, of which this film has quite a few. Firstly, the opening scene is horrible. It features a young Jack being told a ‘fictional story’ about King Eric the Great who defeated the giants when they tried to take the kingdom from him. Sounds fine but Singer made the story a voiceover for a bizarre re-enactment of the events in a graphic style that can only be likened to an early noughties’ video game! It may have been an attempt to emulate the classy graphics of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 when they regale us with the story of the deathly hallows but it was horrible.

Another quarrel is the use of 3D in this film, which was pointless. As someone who isn’t a fan of 3D in the first place, to see it used so pointlessly was irritating. It detracted from the colour of the film and literally didn’t add anything, even as a gimmick.

Another element of the film that I struggled with was the humour. There were few laughs when Singer intended there to be laughs and the jokes were childish to a point where it just wouldn’t appeal to an audience over the age of about 10. This is fine if that is his target audience but the film carries a 12A rating, meaning that he hoped to bring in an older audience as well as a younger one; his jokes and the pantomime nature of some of them (especially Roderick’s bumbling sidekick) may well put the older audiences off.

Even more strained than the comedy was the relationship between Jack and Isabelle (Hoult and Tomlinson). Both are incredibly talented young actors but their on screen chemistry was about as believable as the storyline. It was forced and impossible for the audience to buy into.

All of these flaws aside, the film actually moves past its incredibly weak beginning and becomes quite enjoyable. Whilst the romance and jokes fall a little flat, it is easy to lose yourself in the grand scale of the film and the action sequences are spectacular. There are a couple of scenes that up the tension and do genuinely engage the audience, including a fantastic scene with a giant attempting to cook a Ewan McGregor pie, and the final battle sequence leaves very little to be desired. There’s also a short but very funny turn from Eddie Marsan, who shows his acting quality in what felt like a very short 45 minutes or so.

The film ends on a note of absolute genius from Singer, which actually left me leaving on a high. It’s a flawed film but it’s also good fun and, in parts, Singer shows some creative genius. I would recommend it so long as you go in aware that it is a family film; for Jack the Giant Slayer is, after all, a fairytale film.

Review: This is 40 ★★

This is 40 is the latest film from Judd Apatow’s comedy conveyor belt and, in fact, a spin off of his previous film Knocked Up. We have come to recognise Apatow’s work from the spine of a cast consistent throughout every one of his films and the frequently crass (although often hilarious) jokes. However, and unfortunately, This is 40 simply does not reach the benchmark set by his classics like 40 Year Old Virgin and Superbad.

The simple premise is that this family is a slightly dysfunctional one, where the parents are approaching 40 and the kids have grown up since we last saw them in Knocked Up presenting us with the moody, pubescent Sadie and the hyperactive Charlotte. Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann (Apatow’s wife off camera) play two exasperated parents who are not coping well with the onrushing categorisation of being middle-aged, least of all with the money problems that are leaving them staring down the barrel of having to sell their house.

Apatow clearly intended this film to be a funny and insightful film about the pressures of becoming middle-aged. I have three quarrels with this film, having sat through its 133 minutes. Firstly, their attempt to portray the truths of financial trouble and mid-life crises is wayward; this is a very ‘Hollywood’ portrayal of being middle-aged. Rudd and Mann are both on extreme fitness regimes in the film and do not look like they are anywhere near 40 (even though they are both 43 and 40 respectively) leaving this illusion of ‘getting old’ in the film’s wake.

Secondly, it feels like a lot of the jokes are geared at parents and if they aren’t geared at the adult viewer, then they’re overly crude to compensate. There are some individual jokes that had me laughing but for an Apatow production this is disappointingly not very funny. It’s only saving grace in the comedic department is Chris O’Dowd, who seems to have landed himself in Apatow’s good books, and was by far and away the funniest character in this film. Jason Segal, on the other hand, was really very poor (which is a shame because he is one of my favourites in Apatow’s contact book). Don’t get me wrong, Rudd and Mann are also great but their lines were just not funny enough for a comedy film.

Finally, this film was far too long. The joke circling in the reviews is that “This is 40 minutes too long” and I would have to agree. By the end, I was sat stony-faced waiting for the end.

This film tried to be too many things: a comedy and an insightful, satirical jab at the pressures of being middle-aged. In the end, sadly, it fell short of both.