About a year ago, a goofy trailer for what appeared to be a comedy short film appeared on YouTube. The movie it advertised was called Jay and Seth vs. the Apocalypse, and it starred Undeclared buds Jay Baruchel and Seth Rogen as two schlubby guys dealing with a world ravaged by some sort of civilization-ending catastrophe. (You can still see the trailer here, though now I suspect it may disappear soon.) As best I can determine, the actual short film was never made available for public consumption, and maybe this is why: Mandate Pictures has bought the rights to make the short into a feature film with Rogen and Baruchel, to be shot next year.The short was written by Rogen and Evan Goldberg who, of course, collaborated to bring us last year's Superbad. They'll be writing and producing the feature too, though no director is yet attached. (Judd Apatow's name is nowhere mentioned, and after seeing You Don't Mess with the Zohan, I kind of think it's just as well.) I wonder if this is something else the two cooked up as teenagers and are now seizing the opportunity to realize. It worked out pretty well last time.
The trailer is moderately funny, though you should probably use headphones if you're at work, or around kids, or something. The jokes aren't brilliant, but Rogen's delivery brings them pretty close.
1. Rogen has become the new poster boy of comedy, previously filled by guys like Adam Sandler, Chris Farley and going back a few years, Jim Carrey & John Belushi.
He's not slap-stick funny (my favorite kind of comedian) and his humor is more Cheech & Chong than Buster Keaton, but that's okay because he's likable and bear-like.
I think it's great to see many of the stars of Freaks & Geeks (like Rogen) actually getting exposure years after that show was canceled.
Posted at 9:18AM on Jun 11th 2008 by Erik Sagen