Rapture-Palooza (2013)

Starring: Anna Kendrick, Craig Robinson, John Francis Daley, Rob Corddry, Thomas Lennon, Ron Huebel, Ken Jeong, John Michael Higgins, Ana Gasteyer, and Paul Scheer
Grade: C

I never thought Craig Robinson would be such a great choice to play the antichrist, but here we are!

Summary

The Rapture is upon us.

It’s the beginning of the end for the people of Earth. Lindsey (Kendrick) tells us through narration what has happened up until this point. Everything started while her and her boyfriend Ben (Daley) were bowling. Half of the population vanished into thin air, going to heaven. This means that the rest of the population are basically meant to suffer on Earth for the time being because they weren’t good enough to go to heaven in the first wave. Lindsey and Ben, though decent people, weren’t taken because they weren’t “believers”. Neither was Lindsey’s father or brother. Lindsey’s mom (Gasteyer) initially made it into heaven but was sent back the next day after getting into an argument with some guy who cut her in the massage line. Then, everything else started to happen. The locusts started to attack, crows that cuss people out became a regular part of society, blood rain started happening from time to time, zombie-like wraiths started to attack but eventually settled throughout the country, and meteors would randomly show up and destroy everything in their paths. After this, the antichrist (Robinson) rose up in Idaho as a mayoral candidate. Eventually, after being invited to the White House, he poisoned everyone’s food, took over the country and started bombing major cities to show his power. This is when he takes on the name of “The Beast”.

After Lindsey’s father (Higgins) is killed by a meteor, Lindsay and Ben try to figure out a way to make money. They want to make their sandwich cart a thing, but it gets destroyed by another meteor. They have no choice but to take up Ben’s dad’s (Corddry) offer to work directly for The Beast in some capacity. Because Ben’s dad works as security for The Beast, he’s able to get them a job. He takes them to work the next day at The Beast’s palace, and they run into an unexpected visit from The Beast himself. The Beast takes an immediate liking to Lindsey. He takes her on a walk and after finding out she’s a virgin, he loves her even more. He wants her to become his wife and bear his demon babies, but she obviously doesn’t want that. The Beast wants what he wants however and gives Lindsey eight hours to decide: either become his wife or he will kill everyone she knows.

Well, that’s a tough ultimatum.

Now, Lindsey and Ben have to figure out a plan to somehow get out of this.

My Thoughts:

There are a lot of “end of the world” films. Three alone came out in 2013 (This is the End, The World’s End, and Rapture-Palooza). Despite having the best title, Rapture-Palooza is easily the worst out of the three.

In terms of acting, everyone did a pretty good job. Anna Kendrick is always lovable and her and John Francis Daley are good together as our protagonists. They’re the type of couple everyone likes but when they’re alone, they make fun of everybody. Actually, now that I say it out loud, I think all couples are like that, so never mind. Maybe this energy they radiate gives us some of a reason as to why they weren’t taken to heaven together when the Rapture began. Anna Kendrick’s Lindsey is fun because she’s cute, sweet, and very down to earth. The only major thing that kept her from being taken to heaven is that she didn’t believe in God the first place and now she’s stuck. She doesn’t let it keep her down though. She deals with and tries to make the best of “hell on Earth”, and it’s pretty funny to see her positive attitude in this darker environment. John Francis Daley’s Ben is a solid boyfriend but is very pessimistic about their situation and understandably so. Daley does a decent job, but it should be no surprise to you that Kendrick outshines him in every aspect, making him more of a decently funny backup to Kendrick’s awkward reactions, enthusiasm, smiley demeanor, and movie-saving performance. As a fan of Kendrick, she’s the reason I decided to watch this in the first place, and she was one of the major reasons as to why this movie didn’t completely fail in my eyes.

Craig Robinson is very funny as the villain. I’ve seen a lot of films with the antichrist as a character but none as funny as Robinson is here. His outlandish sexual comments to Lindsey throughout are unexpectedly hilarious. This was a very unique take on a bad guy character we’ve seen countless times before. I can’t say it’s for everybody, but I enjoyed the outrageousness of his characterization because it helped bring us into the world that is Rapture-Palooza. It’s different, and different is always welcomed if done right. His interactions with Ron Huebel were an underrated part of the film, as was saying that Daley looked like Rachel Maddow (which is EXTREMELY accurate). All of the small roles are filled up by known comedic actors you find in almost every comedic production of the 2010s, and they inject a lot of life into the story even if they have limited screen time. People like Thomas Lennon, Ana Gasteyer, Ken Jeong, John Michael Higgins, and Ron Huebel all have some memorable, short-but-sweet moments in the movie.

Personally, I think Rob Corddry steals the show. This guy is funny as hell in virtually everything he does. Even in a lower-level movie such as this, all of the funniest scenes involve him and that’s a fact. There’s one scene where he defends the antichrist to Lindsey and Ben with the argument that he’s “done a lot of good”. They respond with the fact that The Beast blew up Chicago, and he immediately responds with “I was against that!”. Right after, he gives numerous reasons why someone would blow up Chicago. He’s great. The whole sequence is pretty damn funny, and Corddry’s whole-hearted commitment in playing this piece of shit makes this film a lot more entertaining than it has any right to be. Little conversation stuff like this really helps the comedy of the film, but I’ll admit I needed way more of it with him involved. His relationship with Lindsey and Ben is terrible too, so there was plenty of opportunity for there to be more. Regardless, the bits we got with him were still funny.

There’s not a crazy amount going for Rapture-Palooza. It’s obviously low budget, it loses a lot of steam towards the end, and it’s not nearly as funny as it should be, but the performances were solid and there were some genuinely funny moments. Unfortunately, there just wasn’t enough of it. The cast came to play, but the writing was subpar. They had funny ideas from time to time, but they weren’t capitalized on. There were a lot of amusing opportunities and conversational humor that could’ve easily been inserted in certain scenes that would make this film, at the very least, a cult classic. It would’ve helped immensely in this rougher take on a tale we’ve seen fictionalized plenty of times before, but they seem to miss the boat on a lot of obvious opportunities to make things better and as creative as the twist on the premise. The world they create for us is interesting but not enough is done to give it any lasting power.

Again, it has humorous moments, and it’s nice seeing a different take on the “end of the world”, but so much more could’ve been done. It’s a shame too because I liked everyone involved in this project.

Maybe it’s still got a chance to be a cult classic. Weird fandoms tend to have a lot of time on their hands, so a legacy could start to brew. On the other hand, it has a better chance at being the last option on your “watch list” on a random streaming service.

You’re right, the latter is much more plausible.