Rapture-Palooza

It’s taken four attempts to spell that title correctly, so I guess there’s more than one reason for this critic to be ignorant of this sloppy AF vehicle for the great Anna Kendrick. This popped up on Freevee, the channel previously known as imdb.tv; what annoys me about this is that I choose to pay a subscription to the imdb because I post review links on their website, but still have to sit through the flipping adverts on their channel like everyone else, even the ruinous ones placed in the last ten minutes of the film. Having got that gripe out of my system, this end-of-the-world comedy from 2013 is a fairly slap-dash affair, but as this website’s senior éminence grise of Anna Kendrick studies, I had no choice but to dive in…

Kendrick plays Lindsey Lewis, a Seattle gal with a big problem; the end of the world is upon us, the Rapture has taken all the churchy people off to you-know-where, and she’s left behind on earth with the devil, played by the Pontiac Bandit himself, Craig Robinson from The Office, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and of course, the ground-breaking An Evening With Beverly Luff Lynn. Robinson plays the Devil aka The Beast, who has Lewis promised to him; she is desperate to avoid spawning his evil progeny if she can, but she’s only got eight hours to accept his offer or not…

Directed by Paul Middleditch, Rapture-Palooza starts out like This Is The End, suggesting a world where various Biblical plagues are coming home to roost on the heathens. But after a bit of CGI nonsense about locusts, we settle down to a more direct two-hander as Robinson and Kendrick face-off in his tacky Mar-a-Lago type estate. As usual, the cameos squeeze a little extra juice from proceedings, with Rob Corddry and Pitch Perfect’s John Michael Higgins showing up, with The Office’s Rob Huebel making the biggest impression as one of The Beast’s bodyguard staff.

Rapture-Palooza is fairly stuffed with comic talent and silly situations, but it’s also a little light on actual laughs. Any film that casts Ken Jeong as God isn’t aiming for theological seriousness, but Rapture-Palooza never feels like more than a time-passing prank on the poor, unsuspecting audience. Writer Chris Matheson, son of Richard, made his name writing the similarly irreverent Bill and Ted trilogy, but that light touch doesn’t quite happen here; you don’t have to be religious to be offended by this goofy version of the Rapture, but maybe the Devil doesn’t have all the best tunes after all.