Review of Rapture-Palooza (2013) by Thomas W — 23 Jul 2013

Ken Jeong is God. That sentence alone will determine whether or not one will enjoy Rapture-Palooza in which Jeong co-stars -- in a very small role -- as a very petty God Almighty ... with quite a potty mouth.

R-P is one of those wickedly funny and offensively crass comedies people either love or hate which just happens to be about the aftermath of THE rapture. Yes, the Biblical one. After the rapture, a band of mere mortals have to take on the Anti-Christ (Craig Robinson - Hot Tub Time Machine), AKA "The Beast" -- a former politician from the state of Idaho -- whose nefarious plans for the earth sound too harsh and unbearable to those left behind.

Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air) stars as Lindsey Lewis, one of those left behind ... but one "The Beast" fancies for extracurricular activities. Her boyfriend Ben (John Francis Daley - "Freaks and Geeks"), his father (Rob Corddry - Warm Bodies), and her stoner brother and father (John Michael Higgins - Bad Teacher) have also remained on earth.

Her mother (Ana Gasteyer - Mean Girls) was raptured but sent back to earth because she complained so much while in line after someone butted in front of her. If that idea makes you chuckle ... Rapture-Palooza is probably a watchable movie.

It is just unfortunate that the film isn't of a higher quality. Much of The Beast's dialogue is nothing more than crass crap and the film's final confrontation seems a little anti-climatic.

Kendrick makes some witty and intelligent observations here and there but most of the humor here is pretty base-level. The end also doesn't make a whole lot of sense ... unless it is intentionally supposed to mean a few different things although I don't think the writers were actually aware of how many ways it could be interpreted which makes it a pretty big flaw.

It is or it isn't ... but I'm not sure they get that.