The World's End

When you're the third film in an unofficial trilogy that includes Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz then there is a lot of pressure on you to maintain that quality and unfortunately this film doesn't do that. There are good aspects to this comedy but not enough of it really comes together well enough to make it stand up to the previous two films. The plot here sees Gary King trying to reclaim happiness by convincing a group of his friends to revisit the "good old days" by going on a pub crawl they attempted when their lives lay ahead of them and they felt full of potential. However, when they do return to their home they feel like they have changed too much and should never have come back – but they are only half right, because they should not have come back, although it isn't them that has changed.

I like the ideas behind this film. On one hand we have a sci-fi movie which owes its debts to 1950's America while on the other we have a very British plot involving a pub crawl and someone who can't let go of the time in his life where he felt important and potent – a time which has left him behind and now appears a bit pathetic to still be trying to be the person he was rather than just moving on. This is a nice idea and it is one that occasionally goes somewhere but far too frequently it doesn't and it isn't consistently applied. It also doesn't help that Gary himself is a wholly unlikeable character; writing this type of person to work as someone we support is hard and the script never achieves it, it never consistently shows the cracks to the extent that you feel for him. Many of us will have a small part of Gary in us but the film never reaches it. It also doesn't help that the film seems to take his side at the end as well.

This gives us the sci-fi side and it does work better as an all out comedy sci-fi; the fight scenes are silly but yet well done and the action is quite engaging. That said it never feels grounded in the dreary British reality in the way that Hot Fuzz and Shaun managed to do so very well, so while it is decent, it never feels as clever or as special as the previous two films. It does have laughs and the film does have good elements so I don't think it is bad, just that it isn't really anywhere near as successful as it needed to be. The cast are mostly good but the material doesn't make the most of them. Pegg is the lead, has the toughest character and really can't make it work – not all his fault, but still. Nick Frost is better because his character is simpler and he is fun in the action sequences. Marsan, Considine and Freeman are better actors than the material they get given here – likewise the many familiar faces in support, from Brosnan down to Oram, although they do OK.

The World's End is not a bad film and if you liked the previous films then you'll be more likely to find things to enjoy here – but chances are you'll still feel a little disappointed as the aspects that made the previous films work so well don't really come together with this one.

Saw it at a midnight premier last night (free Cornettos were given out!) and myself and the rest of the audience were laughing throughout, having a thoroughly enjoyable time. I thought it was great, definitely on a par with Hot Fuzz, though - to me - not quite as good as Shaun of the Dead, which is fair enough as it is one of my all-time favourites. It is definitely a worthy close to the "trilogy" though, and it stands up well against the other two.

Amongst the highlights were seeing another former Bond actor, even if it was in a small role, along with various other regulars from the past films and Spaced - Tyres, Julia Deaking (Marsha), Bill Nighy's voice, Mark Heap, et al.

With a plot as ludicrous as this one the film relies on the strength of it's leads to succeed, and they pull it off admirably. I liked that there was a role reversal of Pegg and Frost's usual character dynamic, with Frost especially noteworthy in his performance. The lads have clearly come a long way over the years. Pegg is clearly having a whale of a time, and carries us the audience along with him. Having such a talented group of back-up actors in Marsan, Considine and Freeman helps massively too.

I feel they missed a trick by not using the line "You've got blue on you", though.

"We're going to see this through to the bitter end. Or... lager end." Gary King (Simon Pegg)

Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright are at it again satirizing pop culture, this time with an entertaining send up of zombie movies (even their own spoof, Shaun of the Dead) and boy-man buddy vacations like Hangover. Five middle-aged blokes, led by the perennially immature Gary King (still the "King," he'd like to think), return after 20 years to their hometown to finish the crawl to the 12th and final pub, The World's End.

The obvious allegory is fun to follow as robotic replicas of actual humans try to take over the world. Their mission is to make earth and humans perfect, a goal any lame brain knows is impossible. Aliens have been trying to conquer earth since movies began with little success given our need for independence and ingenuity finding the alien weaknesses.

The real strength of The World's End is in the dialogue with its rapid repartee. For example:

Gary King: And here we go! Just like the five musketeers. Steven Prince: Three musketeers wasn't it? Gary King: Well nobody knows how many there were really do they? Oliver: You do know that The Three Musketeers was a fiction right, written by Alexander Dumas. Gary King: A lot of people are saying that about the bible these days. Steven Prince: What, that it was written by Alexander Dumas. Gary King: Don't be daft, Steve; it was written by Jesus.

Covering authorship and ignorance issues while being amusingly clueless is the endearment of Pegg and Wright's democratic humor—after all, none of the players is exempt from stupidity.

Perhaps more importantly, however, is the thematic point about never being able to go home again. The protagonists grew up in the same town, and returning to finish their crawl reveals that no one remembers them! Of course, since the townies are almost all robots, they couldn't remember them anyway. Yet the point is figuratively well taken: Nobody cares about you after you're gone.

The Smashing Pumpkins may have mused that 'The End is the Beginning is the End,' but Edgar Wright knew better. He knew that for his beloved 'Cornetto Trilogy,' he would need an ending that could somehow tie up all of its strains of manic, voracious genre pastiche, savage wit and silliness, and, most importantly, its symphony to the reluctant aging of the schlubby, post- Shaun adult male. He knew he needed to do something special.

So, in the words of Shaun, "what do you mean, DO something?" Well, getting the old gang together for a nostalgia-fuelled 'one last job' pub crawl, charged with more emotional weight and subtext than meets the eye should about do it. In this regard, Cornetto #3 is by far the most personal, mature, reflective, bittersweet and cognizant film in Wright's oeuvre. It knowingly winks at his past works (don't forget to say hi to Brian, Marsha, and Tires, listen for the fruit machine, and enjoy an appropriately sly Cornetto cameo), while introducing some of his most hysterically snappy wordplay yet ("maybe it's a windoor...!"). And, as no Wright film could ever be that straightforward, it's also, naturally, about the end of the world. Duh.

To some, The World's End will be a cracking sci-fi pastiche - Invasion of the Body Snatchers handled with the chilly British terseness of The Day of the Triffids. To others, it's a riotous, boozy action-comedy with a kickass set of tunes, and prime viewing before hitting the pub (or several) with your mates. All of these things are true. But for me, it will always be a film about growing up. A film about finding closure, and purpose. A film about coming home and moving on at once. A film encouraging the Gary King in all of us to make peace with friends, the past, the future, and ourselves. It's the perfect filmic encapsulation of playing James Bond video games in my adolescent basement. And it's a film about pursuing your dreams, even - nay, especially - if your dreams are pointless, idiotic, and involve a sh*t-ton of drinking.

Things get going at an almost ponderously slow and repetitive pace, forcing the viewer to be bludgeoned by Gary King, alongside his estranged high school buddies, into going on his quest with him. The tone is fun, but with a bit of an edge, Pegg bravely playing obnoxious at full tilt, keeping it unclear as to whether you can or should like him. But, upon arriving in the impossibly quaint Newton Haven (and here Wright coins the most on-the-nose term for cultural assimilation and the dearth of family-run local business: "Starbucking". Remember that theme; it'll come in handy later), things pick up, and then some. Here, King's raucous enthusiasm becomes almost worrisome, especially in contrast with his bemused buddies, all more content to act their ages. Thankfully, the sci-fi framework comes to the rescue right when King is on the cusp of having to be serious. The solution, like fellow extraterrestrial alcoholicomedy Grabbers? Keep drinking - to "blend in", of course. And, as the Doors kick in, that's where the fun really begins.

Wright's characteristic swish-pans and dynamic sound effects, paired with some of the most intricately crunchy fight choreography seen in ages make The World's End thrilling in the most visceral sense. There's no purer cinematic joy than a long-take tracking shot of Pegg weaving in and out of a chaotic robot throwdown, stepping on bar stools and counter tops, sipping his pint and throwing the occasional like a tipsy Buster Keaton, and it's impossible not to share in Wright's glee. The robot designs are eerily simple, the pace and physical slapstick are howlingly perfect, while the grim, sepia lighting is perfectly atmospheric for the intensifying sci-fi peril and slurring melodrama unfolding. And the climactic, belligerent belch of a speech demanding agency on behalf of the human race? I dare you to find more galvanizing words.

Gary King is a courageously different Simon Pegg than has been unleashed before, and his manic energy, boundless but strained charisma and desperate arrogance make for his most achingly human (but still hilarious) creation yet. Nick Frost also digs into unforeseen dramatic meat, pairing his juggernaut physical comedy with real pain and hard-won regret, all the funnier for being so truthful. There's also a gag involving him (literally) punching a clock which may be the funniest in Wright's oeuvre. Paddy Considine and Martin Freeman collectively ace the two sides of the middle-aged-hipster coin (post-meathead athletic emotional sensitivity and antiquated, bluetoothed tech-speak respectively), while Eddie Marsan finds both huge laughs and the most raw hangdog pathos in the sweetness of Peter Page. Sadly, in the film's only real fault, Edgar's boys club has no proper room for Rosamund Pike, and it's a real shame, as she's on typically superb form, and amiably hilarious to boot. As this instalment's former-007-turned- villain-with-uncomfortable-facial-hair, Pierce Brosnan tweaks his debonair charm and silky Irish accent to their most calmly sinister, while the inevitable Bill Nighy is deliciously bemused as a big lamp who just won't f*ck off back to Legoland.

The World's End (or, as everyone should henceforth refer to it, 'Smashy-Smashy-Egg-Men'), is not only a stupendously satisfying Cornetto resolution. It's perfectly paced, technically flawless, thrilling, hugely fun, and bravely emotional romp. It's arguably the funniest and most real mediation on friends, homecomings, and befuddled male aging to date. It's a belligerently, obstinately, chaotically, damn good film. It's something truly special. So hop into the Beast, blare those Soup Dragons, and ride Wright's beautiful disaster all the way to the bitter end. Or lager end. Because, be honest: what could be a more heartfelt answer to Primal Scream's recurring query - "Just what is it that you want to do?"

-10/10

I must start by admitting to have reviewed this previously and removed it, last time round I must have been in a bad mood, I criticised it for going off the boil, however in recent times I've gotten so into it, it's meant to be bonkers, outrageous and utterly over the top and it sure is. I think there's something incredibly British about the humour, the world could come to an end, but there's still time for nostalgia, and more importantly there's still time for a pint. It's still perhaps my least favourite of The Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, but the other two are that good, and hard acts to follow. It is clever, it's witty, and which of us doesn't know a Gary? If only it didn't have to be a trilogy, would have loved more from this successful group, it's an underrated gem.