Rapture-Palooza (2013)

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Rapture-Palooza is written by Chris Matheson and directed by Paul Middleditch. The film starts with a clever concept. The Rapture happens while Lindsey (Anna Kendrick) and Ben (John Francis Daley) happen to be out bowling. Over the credits, pants fall over bowling shoes and balls crash to the ground. But Lindsey and Ben aren't taken up to Heaven. They're left, stuck a world that's about to face the apocalypse. The entire family is forced to deal with flaming rocks falling from the sky, blood rain, and the truly surreal sight of locusts who scream "Suffer!". This is one of those films that will probably only entertain a select group which is most likely the only people that will check it out anyway. There are some great funny moments and the film does entertain, just not as much as it could have given a little more polish to the script. The ending is as predictable as one would come, but in a way the film gets out of hand within the last act.

The rapture has happened and Lindsey, her boyfriend Ben, and their families have been left behind, doomed to torture on Earth. A former politician, now known as The Beast, is the Anti-Christ. But when The Beast decides he wants to take Lindsey as his wife, Lindsey and Ben come up with a plan to defeat the Anti-Christ....If there ever was an example of a missed opportunity of a high concept movie, then this is the baby. After such a promising opening, the film just goes from bad to worse, as the script gets more inane, and the narrative becomes more desperate.Robinson is also a huge problem here. He obviously comes from the school of 'shouting and swearing makes a poor script more funnier', and even though he supposed to be bad, the makers didn't mean literally, he's truly awful.And what makes it worse is that whilst your watching this unfunny man try to channel comedians of a much higher calibre, you cannot help but wonder how someone like Eddie Murphy would have been in the role.The rest of the cast all appear to force every last drop of sincerity from the script, but it can't be saved, its a real pig of a film.Stick that on the DVD cover..

If you are in the mood for a quirky comedy of biblical proportions this weekend than look no further than 'Rapture Palooza,' currently available on Netflix instant. Similar to 'This Is The End' in its premise (the survivor's tale of those left behind after the rapture), this take focuses on "normal people" who weren't dutiful in the Christian faith. So, when the faithful are lifted into the heavens, the "meh about Jesus" crowd are left on Earth to deal with those truly sinful as well as the droves of wraiths (zombie-like drones), foul-mouthed locusts, falling meteors, evil henchmen, as well as their master, the lord of the underworld himself, Craig, or "the beast" as he prefers to be called, personified by Craig Robinson (who is also in 'This is The End,' just not as Satan). The story focuses on Lindsey Lewis, Anna Kendrick, and Ben House, John Francis Daley, a young couple left behind who decide to use this opportunity to finally start their own business. They still live with their parents (one of whom is Rob Corddry). While the story is entertaining, what really elevates this movie to a must see are the unmissable cameos/bit parts – particularly Ken Jeong's omnipotent role.

"Rapture-Palooza" is based on a true story. Or, so it says at the very beginning of the movie, and then you know exactly what type of humour you're getting yourself into. It's funny, extremely funny. The type of funny that you're laughing out loud so often that you need to rewind to catch all the jokes you missed; it's also the offensive kind of funny. It's offensive, extremely offensive.The rapture is coming, and there will be some people who don't make it into heaven. Gays, musicians, and gay musicians. The movie is set in Seattle. Where God has left a lot of people behind: namely, Lindsey (Anna Kendrick), her boyfriend Ben (John Francis Daley), and her family. Her mother (Ana Gasteyer) did originally get into heaven, but she got kicked out; presumably, due to her complaining about how unorganized and unprofessional it was, or she was in the wrong line. Comedienne Ana Gasteyer is funnier in small doses; her complaining and screaming the entire way through makes it a little less funny.Every rapture-based idea and image is skewered. As the plot begins, they even have Lindsey and Ben reading the Bible to understand what exactly is going to happen and what they can do about it. Ben comments that it's all just pieced together as if nobody thought it through. That's a common complaint about this movie, but when you have so many random things to make fun of, how is it not going to appear random?The plot introduces Craig Robinson as the Beast, aka the Antichrist, aka the devil. He's a former politician who is now in charge of the whole world. And he's funny too. The film pits our everyman heroes, Lindsey and Ben, versus the Beast and they're either going to save the world (what's left of it) or destroy it in the process.In the long line of end of the world movies, this one is closer to "This Is the End" (2013) at least in terms of the humour, but religious ideas have probably never been as relentlessly attacked as they are in this film. Only for those ready to laugh at the impending rapture.