This is a movie “review” of The World’s End. If you have not seen the movie, but intend to, stop reading. I don’t think I’ll ruin much of it for you, but you know how it goes once I start rambling.
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Last week I went to a movie marathon of sorts. A couple buddies and I went to see Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World’s End – apparently known as the “Cornetto Trilogy” – at a nearby theater. Director Edgar Wright and actor Simon Pegg wrote all three movies, including the newly-released World’s End, and the films feature many of the same actors, as well as common cinematic techniques and jokes (for instance, if you’re a fan of people humorously jumping over fences, check these movies out). Their plots aren’t really tied together in any way, but I guess everything has to be a multi-film franchise these days, so it gets labeled as a trilogy.
Despite not caring for the zombie popularity trend, I love Shaun of the Dead. I wasn’t as big a fan of Hot Fuzz because there is a stretch of the film that just isn’t funny. For a comedy, I believe that’s bad. Upon a second viewing, I forgot how much I loved Shaun of the Dead, and I liked Hot Fuzz a little bit more – until we got to the not-funny part, and I remembered what my problem was.
As for The World’s End, Pegg plays Gary King, a guy approaching 40 who was most happy when he was still approaching 20. Through persuasion – and outright lies – he reassembles the five-man crew that never finished “The Golden Mile” – a 12-bar pub crawl back in their old home town.
The believability of Gary actually succeeding in putting the proverbial band back together notwithstanding, the first part of the movie has plenty of scenes and one-liners reminiscent of the other two films. There’s a good mix of subtle humor and slapstick laughs as the guys visit their old haunts, learning that they’ve been essentially whitewashed of their old character and turned into multiple iterations of the same thing. I certainly was enjoying it to a point.
I say “to a point” because the trailers for the movie kind of give away that there’s going to be a plot turn, and I’m not a fan of sitting and waiting for something like that when I know it’s coming. Without giving too much away myself, it turns out that it’s not just the old pubs of Newton Haven that have been “Starbucked,” so to speak. You see, the townsfolk of Newton Haven have changed, and the guys spend the rest of the night attempting to behave like they haven’t noticed, in the hopes that they will survive the experience.
Of course, because no one else has a better idea, Gary’s plan to finish the pub crawl wins out. That leads the group into the other aspect of the movie that is reminiscent of the other Pegg/Wright movies: massive fight scenes. Of course, these fights are much funnier because of the makeup of the group; aside from Gary, none of them appears to be the fighting type, but there they are fending off swarms of locals in various different pubs. Again, without revealing anything, the way in which they defeat the townsfolk in these fights also lends itself to laughs, albeit some of them cheap. However, as someone who can’t write a single blog post without cracking a joke, I will admit that cheap laughs are laughs nonetheless.
In the end, Gary and Andy (played by Nick Frost, who also plays the main supporting characters in each of the previous films) make it to the final pub: The World’s End. Rather predictably, it turns out that this is, in fact, the world’s end, but first there’s a pretty lengthy scene that gets a little too preachy and on-point for my taste. Look, I have zero problem with a filmmaker wanting to “say” something, and there is nothing wrong with comedic actors/directors/writers delving into some deeper, more affecting material. I just personally prefer that when they do, they either keep the two worlds separate, or at the very least mix them a little more subtly.
I still think Shaun of the Dead is, by far, the most enjoyable of the three movies, but I definitely liked The World’s End better upon first viewing than I did Hot Fuzz. If you’re a fan of any of the main figures involved, well, you were always going to go see this movie, but rest assured that when you do, you won’t be disappointed.
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