20140424: Comedy Review--Rapture Palooza

Rapture Palooza

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2013, rated R, 84 minutes, comedy, fantasy.
2. IMDB: 5.2/10.0 from 5,173 audience ratings. 
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 22% on the meter; 32% liked it from z audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.3/5.0 from 73,001 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: Paul Middleditch.
6. Starring: Craig Robinson as The Beast, Anna Kendrick as Lindsey Lewis, John Francis Daley as Ben House, Rob Corddry as Mr. House, Ana Gasteyer as Mrs. Lewis, John Michael Higgins as Mr. Lewis, Calum Worthy as Clark Lewis, Paul Scheer as Security Wraith, Ken Jeong as God, Tyler Labine as Shorter Wraith.


2. Setup and Plot
1. The Rapture comes.  Mrs. Lewis gets taken up to Heaven, but is returned as defective.  Those left behind have a lot to deal with: wraiths, molten rocks from the sky, blood rain, locusts who talk, crows that verbally abuse everyone, and the like.


2. Worst of all is that a one-time politician, Earl Gundy, becomes the anti-Christ.  He talks everyone into calling him The Beast.  He has his own deadly Beastly Guards, and an array of wraiths protecting him.  He takes over the world's armament, and destroys cities to spread terror and obedience.


3. Lindsey and Ben are engaged, and hope to make a living in the apocalyptic times.  A molten rock ends that.  Ben's father works for The Beast, and suggests that the pair interview with The Beast.  When The Beast finds that Lindsey is a virgin, he entices her to become his bride.


4. They concoct a plan to imprison The Beast as predicted in the Book of Revelation.  They proceed with this, and it seems to be going well, but Ben lasers God's son as he descends from heaven to take out the anti-Christ.  God and The Beast have it out.


5. How does this end up?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Funny, irreverent look at the Christian apocalypse.
2. Four stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 10/10 Just fine.


2. Sound: 8/10 The actors are well-miked, but the music could have been better.


3. Acting: 7/10 Craig Robinson, Anna Kendrick, and John Francis Daley (Bones) were the best.  I liked most of the actors, but a few were not so good, such as Calum Worthy, Paul Scheer, and Tyler Labine.


4. Screenplay: 7/10 I got several good laughs out of this one, mostly for its sheer irreverence.  The stoner dogma was pushed a bit too hard for my taste.