Movie Review: The World's End

The Cornetto Trilogy has come to an end. As the final movie ends, I felt a little sadness knowing it was over, but at the same time I am hopeful that the trio of Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost, will work together again at some point. I think it is inevitable, I doubt you will be able to keep these three away from each other. I was also left with a desire for Cornetto, or at least a Drumstick. For those not in the know, this trilogy is comprised of Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World's End.



The movies are a trilogy similar to how Chan Wook Park's Vengeance Trilogy is a trilogy. It is not made up of continuing stories, there are no common characters, there are just some ideas and such. Well, it might be less than a trilogy like Park's, at least that one has the whole vengeance thing. The Cornetto trilogy has ice cream, a fence gag, and cast.

I had the opportunity to see all three films played back to back on the big screen and it was a fantastic experience to see the progression. While Shaun of the Dead is very likely to remain my favorite, The World's End seems poised to settle in right behind it. Something else I found interesting through the three films is while not directly connected, The characters seemed to show a progression in their friendship from the determined immaturity of Shaun through something a tad more mature with the realization of age in this last outing. Of course, I could just be reading too much into it.

The tale centers on Gary King (Pegg), a man who seems to be stuck in the past, with perhaps a bit of 80's era Bill Murray irreverence. He has never made peace with not completing the Golden Mile, a twelve pub crawl he and his closest friends embarked on as teenagers but ever completed. He has decided to put the band back together (Nick Frost, Eddie Marsan, Martin Freeman, and Paddy Considine) and head back to their hometown in an effort to complete what they attempted so long ago.

It is a story fraught with themes of friendship, maturity, growing up, moving on, all sorts of typical stuff like that, but it is then mashed up with action and science fiction. It works, it works beautifully. Edgar Wright is one of the best at making these genre mashes work. They create these characters and allow the comedy builds organically from them, nothing ever seems forced. Them the screws get turned and the genre mash begins to take over.

Do you ever wonder if, as you grow older, it is you or the world around you that is changing? Sure, it is a mix of both, but thinking about it can have a chilling effect. With The World's End, reality is dawning on Gary King and it is not completely what he was expecting. In addition to facing the reality brought on by his old school chums, he, and the whole group, are faced with a change in their hometown.

It turns out the town is being replaced by alien robots. The group decides the best route is to continue the crawl. This proves to get crazier and crazier. Forced to fight their way through waves of wacky robots, realizing the world is changing, and all that.

I am not sure what I can say that hasn't been said better by others. This movie is hilarious, has some fantastic fight sequences and just flat our entertains. It so a great example of quality comedy, one that works on multiple levels and can be enjoyed in a variety of ways. It never lets up and is a great time at the movies.

Highly Recommended.