Movie #22 - The World's End

This was the first movie I saw of two similarly named and kinda similarly themed movies which just happen to have come out at the same time.  This is not the Seth Rogen/James Franco/comedian filled version set in Hollywood.  That one will be reviewed next.

I already had a soft spot in my heart for this film before I even went to see it, due to the makers of it and what it represents as the final movie in what has come to be known as the “Three Flavours Cornetto” trilogy started off with ‘Shaun of the Dead’ and followed by ‘Hot Fuzz’.  All three are directed by Edgar Wright (also known for ‘Scott Pilgrim vs the World’) and co-written by Wright and star of all three movies Simon Pegg (Scotty in the Star Trek reboots) and ably assisted by Pegg’s real life best friend Nick Frost (‘Paul’).  These guys are geeky and funny and they do a great job of mining comedy gold from the bromance between Pegg and Frost.  So I was prepared to love it and I have to say I really, really, liked it but I didn't totally love it. Not sure if it was too much expectation by me, or they wrote it too fast and didn't have time to polish it (it was written when they discovered a producer they'd worked with had cancer and they wanted to make this before he passed away).

The World's End is the name of the film, and the name of the pub at the end of a series of 12 pubs that a group of friends did not get to on a pub crawl after finishing high school.  Bad boy Gary (Pegg) and best mate Andy (Frost) almost made it, but Gary's rival/bandmate Steven (Paddy Considine), uptight Oliver (Martin Freeman) and passed out early Peter (Eddie Marsan) pulled out early.  All have lost touch over time.  All but Gary have built successful careers and/or good family lives.  All but Gary have forgotten about the unfinished pub crawl.  Gary is a pretty pathetic character who has never moved beyond his high school glory days and is generally just a really unlikeable guy.  So what better idea than for Gary to visit the old gang and convince them through bribes or trickery to head home to Newton Haven and finish that pub crawl?

The early part of the film is enjoyable for the 'getting the gang back together' humour, mostly at the expense of Gary.  It is particularly fun to see Frost as an uptight non-drinker on a pub crawl and Pegg and Frost not being best friends (Andy has the least love for Gary after he OD'd, causing Andy to drive him to hospital, have a serious car accident on the way only for Gary to come to and run off).  As the afternoon wears on, the guys are seriously considering pulling the plug on Gary when a weird turn of events spins it into becoming essential to finish the mission.  And that weird turn of events is a fantastic scene in a men's toilet where Gary is first to discover that some of the residents of Newton Haven seem to have been replaced with some kind of alien robots, soon confirmed by the other 4 in a fantastic humans vs robots fight scene.  From there we are more in sci-fi mystery territory rather than straight comedy.

Most of the 'twists' are pretty easy to pick and ultimately the sci-fi elements are just a plot device to get back to what the "Cornetto" trilogy is really about - friendships between men.   The bond between these 5 guys and particularly Gary and Andy is revived as they soon become the potential saviours of Earth.  The jokes continue right through almost to the end, but they're of a fairly gentle variety.  A running joke through all 3 movies about jumping over fences really hits the spot for fans.  But it's just not hilarious, and this one is a bit of a case of falling a bit short of what 'might have been'.