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Year: 2013
Rating: R
Running Time: 2 hours, 1 minutes
Gary King lived the greatest day of his life the night he graduated from high school when he and his friends attempted (but failed) The Golden Mile, a 12 bar pub crawl. Now, 20 years later, Gary wants to relive that epic night and make another attempt at The Golden Mile with all of his old friends who have moved on with their lives. After much persuasion, the group arrives at their hometown only to discover much of it has changed, almost as if it has been taken over by alien robots or something.
"The World's End" is the third film in what is now called the Cornetto Trilogy, a trio of genre comedies directed by Edgar Wright. Wright also wrote this movie along with the film's star Simon Pegg, who plays Gary King here. Joining Pegg is Nick Frost, who always plays Pegg's sidekick in the Cornetto Trilogy films. In this case, Frost plays Gary's old high school chum Andy, who has gone on to attain a successful career while Gary has remained fixated on the past, more specifically, one single night in the past, for his entire adult life. His obsession, this one night, happens to be the day he graduated from high school and attempted The Golden Mile 12-pub crawl with all of his friends, including the aforementioned Andy. His other pals include Oliver, played by Martin Freeman, Steven, played by Paddy Considine, and Peter, played by Eddie Marsan. Now, Gary wants gather all of his friends back together in order to relieve that night lo those many years ago, but things aren't quite the same in their quaint small town. Some of the pubs are becoming corporate drinking holes, and some of the townspeople have been replaced by robot aliens, you know, like they do!
Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and their friends have done it again. If you're a fan of "Shaun of the Dead" and "Hot Fuzz," it's safe to say you'll most likely enjoy "The World's End." Honestly, the best part about the Cornetto Trilogy movies is that Pegg and Nick Frost are friends in real life. It makes their on-screen relationships and chemistry so much more believable and so much more meaningful. This film is extremely well made and gives a hilarious take on the sci-fi genre with an emphasis on movies like "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and "The Stepford Wives." The signature brand of British wit mixed with loads of funny action is always enjoyable, but now, Wright and co. are adding lots of booze and sci-fi robot scariness, and it's even better than you might imagine. All of the players, Pegg, Frost, Martin Freeman, Paddy Considine and Eddie Marsan, all contribute to this former group of friends in their own humorous, sometimes self-deprecating way.
Wright and Pegg don't make everything in "The World's End" a complete berserk sci-fi laugh-fest. They actually manage to find a surprising amount of heart in this story as well. Pegg's Gary King is not a very good person. He is completely selfish and is a total liar. However, he still manages to be sort of charming and sympathetic because he's a guy who has never been able to move on past his highest point in life as a senior in high school. He's pissed away the rest of it on drugs and alcohol, and desires nothing more than to relive that one happy night from 20 years ago because he has not had a happy day since. This actually winds up making him quite endearing through his assholery. This movie also tackles the issue of corporate giants taking out the quaint charm of pubs in England by turning them into cookie-cutter TGI Friday-type establishments, it just does so in a way that also incorporates robot aliens, and we're completely okay with that.
We always laugh a lot when we watch "The World's End," but for this last film in the Cornetto Trilogy, there's a lot more intense friendship drama, unspoken animosities, and delusions of grandeur to go along with the alien takeover and the hometown nostalgia. We love Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost whenever they work together, and this film is no exception. This is definitely worth checking out if you're a fan of the other aforementioned titles.
My Rating: 8.5/10
BigJ's Rating: 8.5/10
IMDB's Rating: 7.9/10
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 89%
Do we recommend this movie: Yes!
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