Rapture-Palooza

KamuraiJul 2020

2.5

Decent watch, probably won't watch again, and can't recommend. This is a weird one: it's hard to do religious comedies. Either the basis for the comedy is too serious for religious folks to enjoy or the people that would enjoy the pure comedy aren't usually interested on watching something that is religiously based. This movie is designed for that cross section of people that are familiar but disillusioned with religion, and within that the creators are hoping that their casting and writing is going to play well. To the first, I think they casted very well, not only do Anna Kendrick and Craig Robinson carry the movie wonderfully, but the supporting cast of actors is a fantastic selection, especially Dr. Ken Jeong. John Francis Daley gets overshadowed a lot in this, but (I know he's not a bad actor) I think it's the character as written. With the basis of the Rapture, and one joke in particular, everyone in the movie is an irredeemable jerk so it's hard to know which character to back. As it quickly progresses to 2 idiots against an anti-christ mob boss, it's gets just detailed enough to be humorous through calamity without ever being hysterical. I'm pretty onboard through most of the movie, but the last act loses me. While I love Dr. Jeong's involvement, I feel like the opportunity was wasted, and the writing was super anti-climatic, they even comment on it. Ultimately it just doesn't do it for me, but I had a good enough time that I'm not upset I watched it, but I can't recommend anyone else watch it when there are so many other options.