The World's End Review
My first exposure to the comedic duo of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost came around 2008 during a boring Autumn evening. Me, my sister, and my dad were looking for something to watch on the DVR and stumbled upon an action film titled "Hot Fuzz." I had heard of the movie before but never had the opportunity to see it in theatres. We decided to give the movie a chance, after all, if worst came to worst we would only lose a few hours and five dollars.
I still remember that night on the couch with my family. Hot Fuzz was a fantastic action/comedy film that blew my mind. The movie was a superb combination of both ridiculous and serious content mixed in with dry humor, unnecessary gore and slap stick comedy.
I quickly snatched Shaun of the Dead off the library's shelves. At the time the Dawn of the Dead reboot had been released and I suspected that Shawn might be another rip off. The movie is a hilarious parody of not only Romero's work but was a semi-realistic portrayal of what goes through people's heads when a tragedy strikes. Who can forget watching Pegg and Frost go through their records to find ones they'd be willing to toss at the zombies? After watching two great movies, I became a fan of the Pegg and Frost's work.
Now that I was caught up with their previous work, I patiently waited for another movie to appear. In 2007, I watched Run, Fatboy, Run. It was a great film but I missed Nick Frost. Five move years passed and the comedic duo that had made me laugh so hard seemed to have disappeared. Pegg went on to star on the Star Trek movies and the Mission Impossible films while Frost was featured in Attack the Block and Snow White and the Huntsman.
In 2011, I found the two in an unexpected movie. Pegg and Frost were reunited as officers Thompson and Thompson in The Adventures of Tintin. The movie certainly wasn't one of their comedy films, but it was a treat just to see them together again. Could this reuniting possibly mean that another movie was on the horizon? I could only hope.
Finally, early in 2013, I saw a preview for a movie called The World's End. The third movie in what some call the "Three Flavors Cornetto trilogy" had finally arrived.
I recently got to see the movie this week. While the movie is in the same vein as the previous movies it lacks some of the humor I have come to expect from the comedic duo from across the pond.
The films starts out with Gary King (Simon Pegg) recounting the greatest day of his life to an AA group. Twenty years earlier, King and four of his best friends attempted the Golden Mile, a trip all twelve pubs in their hometown of Newton Haven. On a sudden whim, King gathers his old friends and tries to pull off the Golden Mile one last time. King is joined by Peter Page (Eddie Marsan), Oliver "O-man" (named for the birthmark on his head in the shape of a six) Chamberlain (Martin Freeman), Steven Prince (Paddy Considine) and Andy Knighly (Nick Frost).
Gary has remained the same egotistical drunk idiot that he was twenty years ago while the others have grown up. After discovering that the town has been taken over by robots, the five friends decide to continue their plan to visit every bar in order to avoid detection and escape their hometown.
World's End is filled with the same witty dialogue that you'd expect from the previous films. Jokes go from clever hi-brow puns to gutter lines in six seconds flat. Add a little slap stick in there and you've got another great Pegg/Frost movie. There is definitely great humor here even if the movie takes a while to get started. I had fun watching several middle-aged men attempt to relive their rambunctious teen years.
One of the main problems I had with the movie is that Simon Pegg and Nick Frost have switched comedic roles. Pegg plays the idiot while Frost dons the role of the strait man. The role change threw the whole movie off balance for me. You rarely see Frost crack a joke throughout the movie but instead he rebuffs Pegg's many cracks and one-liners. As for Pegg, he doesn't come off as loveable goofball but instead is portrayed as a manipulative man-child. If they were going to switch roles, they should've at least kept the same humor.
Another issue I had was with the many characters in the film. All the different side stories and backgrounds takes away from what is funny: the banter between Pegg and Frost. The other actors do a fine job on their own, but the film suffers from the lack of focus on the escapades of the duo.
The final problem comes from the whole theme of the movie. It focuses on the awkwardness of reliving one's youth rather than the out-of-place jokes I've come to expect from these films. And what is with those robots that go down so easily? They take a few hits and their done. It makes the action look lazy.
Despite all this, The World's End is a fine film, just not as good as the previous entries. I enjoyed the mixture of dry humor with pointless violence and ridiculous conversations. If the world should end with robots, you can catch me at the local pub.
Final Verdict: 7.9/10
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