Summer of Netflix Day 62 - Rapture-Palooza

Chris: This was one of those “pleasant finds” on Netflix. I came across it months and months ago, noticing that I was a fan of just about everybody listed in the cast, wondered why I had never heard of it and put it on my list and ultimately forgetting about it. Shame on me for ever forgetting about it because it’s one of the more enjoyable indie comedies that I’ve seen in a long time. Craig Robinson is absolutely hysterical while managing to remain the despicable anti-Christ. It’s a comedy that’s heavy with religious content that finds a way to avoid being completely irreverent to the religion that’s framing the story. Of course, someone who takes their religion way too seriously might disagree and come at me with a “the rapture isn’t something to joke about” argument but that’s their own opinion, I was cool with it. Essentially, it’s a catastrophe movie that’s an honest depiction of human nature. Seriously, how quickly do we as a people return to “business as usual” after a catastrophe? Or at least find some sort of new normal to proceed with and act like everything is fine? That’s essentially the premise of the movie and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Joel: Rapturepalooza is crammed full of a cast of hilarious people. The problem there is that each person in the cast is funnier than the actual movie turned out to be. I’m not sure where things went wrong, but the whole movie skims at just funny enough to keep from being turned off. Which is a great accomplishment for some movies, but a movie with a cast like this should have been much funnier than the end product actually was. It didn’t help that the movie has just about the bare minimum of a plot that a movie can have. So much more could have been explored or commented on, but the time was never really taken for that. Too much of the movie happens just because. And perhaps worst of all, the ending of the movie ends on a pretty big just cause event. “Why’d that happen?” you ask. “Just ‘cause.” The movie answers. It’s not Rubber bad, but it’s not as far off from that frame of storytelling as it should be.