Rapture-Palooza (2013) Directed by Paul Middleditch

This was a surprisingly good and fun little movie to watch! definitely much better than expected but more importantly, it was funnier than I ever expected it to be.

Despite a pretty impressive cast-list, this movie still went below the radar. It's most likely due to it that it didn't had a big budget behind it, since quality-wise, it's actually being much better than just the average genre attempt.

Making a good and funny comedy is a real hard thing to do. That's also why we don't see too many independent movies, going for a full blown comedy approach. When you can't afford an experienced genre director, decent writers and good comedy actors, with a great natural delivery and sense of comic timing, you're comedy is already pretty much doomed to fail. This movie managed to get most of the ingredients right though!

The story is even a pretty original and fun one. It deals with the rapture, which doesn't sound like a very likely or fun concept for a comedy but it handles it in a perfectly entertaining and comedic way. Thing that works well about it is that it doesn't handle the rapture like it's a big thing at all. It handles it like more of a nuisance and the character's lives pretty much goes on normally, despite the fact that burning rocks are falling from the sky. locusts are literally bugging people, it rains blood every now and then, people start to come back from the dead and crows start cursing people out. Oh and the anti-Christ is walking the Earth as well, in the form of Craig Robinson. Pretty fun all, especially when considering all those serious Christian movies dealing with the rapture that I have seen, in which actually often absolutely nothing is happening.

No, this is not a religious movie at all. It does not only mock the rapture but God himself as well, without ever becoming an anti-religious movie by the way. The movie isn't trying to make a statement or anything. It simply just trying to give you a good time and make you laugh. It succeeded for me.

It's a fast paced and witty comedy, with some great characters, situations and dialog in it. It makes this a very entertaining watch, that besides does not fails at bringing, more than a few, laughs.

Perhaps still the most surprising thing about this movie is its cast. No idea how they managed to- but the movie has a pretty impressive cast in it. Anna Kendrick is actually an Oscar nominated actress, who has starred in plenty of big productions already. She's also truly the highlight of this movie, acting-wise. Craig Robinson was also perfectly entertaining as the Anti-Christ, AKA Earl. The movie further more stars well known comedic actors Ken Jeong and Rob Corddry. Pretty solid and impressive cast-list!

It honestly is nothing too brilliant or spectacular but the fact that this movie still is such a great, pleasant, effective, little surprise makes this movie a perfectly watchable on within its genre!

7/10

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