Rapture-Palooza: It’s the end of the world as we know it (again)

Even with the upcoming World War Z, zombies are so 2012. Pop culture has moved beyond the end of life and set its sights on the end of everything with a slew of apocalyptic flicks like Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, It’s a Disaster, This is the End, and the upcoming Simon Pegg/Nick Frost/ Edgar Wright collaboration, The World’s End. The indie film Rapture-Palooza falls somewhere in the middle of this pack. It’s better than some and not as good as it could be, particularly given a seasoned comedic cast that includes Thomas Lennon, Rob Huebel, Paul Scheer, Ana Gasteyer and Ken Jeong.

The film follows Lindsey (Anna Kendrick) as she and her boyfriend Ben (John Francis Daley) try to weather the apocalypse. Non-believers, Lindsey and her beau largely take the end of days on Earth—along with the living dead, raining blood, foul-mouthed birds, taunting locusts and fiery falling rocks— in stride. But, when the sex-starved Anti-Christ (Craig Robinson) threatens to kill everyone Lindsey knows if she doesn’t succumb to his charms and sleep with him, it’s game on.

The movie’s low-key approach to an epic tale of destruction is funny in matter-of-factness. From Lindsey’s mom being cast out of heaven to Ben’s dad’s (Rob Corddry) amusement with a reality show that documents people getting raptured while on the toilet, there are some genuinely funny moments. Ultimately, there are just not enough of them. The interesting and irreverent approach to an epic biblical story wears thin three quarters of the way through when “The Beast” shows up and the half-hearted antics begin. Such a promising start makes the end of this end-of-world comedy that much more disappointing.