THE WORLD’S END

“The World’s End” is the third and final part of director, Edgar Wright’s series of films involving actors Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (Shaun Of The Dead, Hot Fuzz). Pegg plays Gary King, the once fearless leader of a group of misfit highschool friends. The group consists of Gary, Oliver (Martin Freeman), Peter (Eddie Marsan), Steven (Paddy Considine) and Andrew (Nick Frost). As teenagers the group attempted to complete a 12 hotel pub crawl in the quant little town they grew up in. They could only complete 9 of the different pubs. Now years later as adults they have reunited in the hopes of finishing the entire pub crawl. I say they, it’s mostly Gary’s idea. Everybody else in the group has a job and a family life except for Gary so he’s clinging to the notion that he will have made something of himself if he completes the pub crawl. Gary and the gang return to the small town but they have no idea whats in store for them until it’s to late.

I was a big fan of Hot Fuzz (the last film of Wright’s, that had Pegg and Frost together). I thought it would be interesting to see what these two would get up to in the final chapter of the series of films. Pegg and Frost definitely steal the show in this one. There characters have such different personalities and naturally that causes them to clash. They clash in the best kind of way, there is a bunch of quick-witted and humorous back and forth dialogue between them. I don’t want to ruin any of the laughs for people who haven’t seen the film, but its a funny one that’s for sure! It’s really well shot too. It’s brisk pacing and clever script make for a very entertaining film. The rest of the group has their moments as well, the best stuff comes out when the entire group are in the scene together though. The movie has a sci-fi element when robots start taking over the town. The second half of the film feels more like a cheesy 80’s action film.

I thought I would have a difficult time relating to this idea because I’m not a drinker. The pub crawl isn’t really the heart and soul of the story or even that much of the comedic aspect. It’s more about humans and the mistakes we make. The fact that we all need friends to help us through life. Of course this is all shown in fairly random and obscure comedic moments, but none the less I found it easy to enjoy. The sci-fi aspect of the film was pretty good as well, although this would have worked just as well as a pure comedy. I didn’t like that the robots blood was blue and that they could be decapitated and still attack you, that’s taking “stupid” a bit too far. The action sequences were pretty cool so I think if the blood was red, it could have made for a truly gory element to accompany the comedy. The last ten minutes of the film was a little long-winded too and I thought it would have ended with the group all together that was a bit of a disappointment.

The small issues aside and for what it is, this is a very good film. Frost and Pegg’s chemistry has always been great and that shines through again in this film. It’s a little crass in a few spots with certain jokes but it’s very witty and genuinely funnier then most of the comedies I’ve seen in the last 18 months. This is exactly what Seth Rogan and Adam Goldberg’s film “This Is The End” should have been. Sadly Americans have never been as funny as the English and that’s glaringly obvious if you look at both of these films. Check out The World’s End!

My rating for “The World’s End” is 7/10