Why are we obsessed with the world ending? It’s as if we all want the world to end, to the extent that we’ll search and search for the next doomsday prophecy to be terrified of. From Y2K to 2012, the stream of supposed dates for the end-of-days seem to, well, never end. This means the movies too will never end, we’ve seen these a lot in the past with garbage like “Disaster Movie” and “2012,” but this year things are looking up for this genre. There are at least three end of the world comedies coming out this year: the star-studded “This is the End;” the follow-up from the “Hot Fuzz” and “Shaun of the Dead” team “The World’s End;” and the smallest of the three, Todd Berger’s “It’s A Disaster.” The first two are big-budget releases, but the smallest has got the bigger films beat with release date.

Tracy (Julia Stiles) takes her new boyfriend Glenn (David Cross) on their third date to a couples lunch with a number of her friends. There’s already a lot of tension between the various couples, but everything escalates in the middle of the lunch when a set of dirty bombs go off near the suburban neighborhood. The film essentially all takes place inside the one house, and at times feel a bit confined, as if it was adapted from a play (although it wasn’t). The characters, too, can get a bit annoying when you spend too long with them, but usually the film survives thanks to some really great dialogue and a fun black comedy tone.

It’s a very simple, short movie, that isn’t anything you really need to see. No one is particularly outstanding in the cast, and it’s not a laugh-out-loud comedy, but it’s a completely serviceable and smart movie nonetheless. There’s not much that can be said about “It’s A Disaster,” but if the idea appeals to you then chances are it’s worth checking out on DVD or Netflix one day.

3.5/5 Stars