Andy Knightly: Nick Frost
Steven Prince: Paddy Considine
Peter Page: Eddie Marsan
Oliver Chamberlin: Martin Freeman
Sam Chamberlin: Rosamund Pike
Guy Shephard: Pierce Brosnan
Voice of The Network: Bill Nighy
Focus Features presents a
film directed by Edgar Wright. Written by Simon Pegg & Edgar Wright.
Running time: 109 min. Rated R (for pervasive language including sexual
references).
“The World’s End”—the
supposed third film in the “The Three Flavours Cornetto” trilogy by filmmakers
Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost—is bloody brilliant. There’s no better
way to say it; and I just don’t feel like beating around the bush about it.
It’s bleedin’ aces, Bob’s your uncle! That’s no codswallup. You aren’t going to
see a funnier movie this year. You’ll laugh your arse off. It’s truly the dog’s
bollocks. It takes the piss out of 50s/60s science fiction/alien invasion
films, and yet it is one at the same time. It’s just bloody brilliant.
For those uninitiated, the
Cornetto trilogy isn’t really a trilogy at all beyond the fact that it refers
to three movies. The three movies are “Shaun of the Dead”, “Hot Fuzz”, and “The
World’s End”. According to the trio of filmmakers behind them, who disapprove
of the term “trilogy,” there are a few elements to these movies that connect
them. Edgar Wright directs them all. They each star Simon Pegg and Nick Frost
as the two leads. Wright and Pegg write each. Nick Frost comes in later in the
process. They are based around the geographical areas these artists know well.
They focus on the friendship between the Pegg and Frost characters. They are
each comedies based on a specific non-comedy genre—“Shaun” is a zombie flick,
“Fuzz” is a buddy cop movie, and “World’s End” is a science fiction film in the
tradition of the b-movies of the Cold War era. And finally, each contains a
reference to the ice cream treat known as a Cornetto. Other than those elements
these are three freestanding films, and this latest one is the best.
The movie starts out simply
enough. We learn of Gary King and his band of friends when they were still in
school. Gary, Peter, Steve, Oliver, and Gary's very best friend, Andrew ruled
the world their final year of school; and Gary was their... king, as it were.
To celebrate the end of their school captivity, the crew decides to run all
twelve of the pubs in their hometown in an all night pub crawl ending with the
town's legendary pub, The World's End. The boys don't make it through the entire
crawl, but Gary still feels this was the greatest day of his life.
Some twenty years later,
Gary says life never got any better. Upon his release from some sort of
rehabilitation program, despite the fact that the other four men have moved on to
successful careers and family lives, Gary gets it in his head that they should
relive their "glory days" by finishing their abandoned pub crawl. The
other men, who have all moved away from their small town, reluctantly join the perpetually
juvenile Gary for one last midlife hurrah.
For a good portion of it's
running time, "The World's End" has the semblance of a pretty
straight forward midlife crisis comedy, with Gary leading these grown men in a
night of misguided debauchery. During this night many old wounds are reopened,
and the old crew has a harder time hiding their frustration with Gary's
inconsiderate behavior than they did when they were teenagers. The film's
themes and the crew's characters are very solidly established in this section
of the film. The quick wit of the dialogue begins to rev itself up. Pegg and
Wright's dialogue is sharp and wickedly funny.
Pegg and company work very
well together. I've never seen Pegg so comically on before. His energy is
through the roof, and it’s easy to see how his character could infect others
with his screwy ideas. It's also easy to see how his shtick could wear thin
after a while. Of course, Pegg and Frost are longtime friends in life, but the
entire cast seem very much like old friends. Martin Freeman has excelled in sharp-witted
material before with his work in the original British version of "The
Office". I don't think I've ever seen Paddy Considine or Eddie Marsan
deliver such laugh out loud material before though. They hold their own quite
fine. Rosamund Pike is the right choice to play Oliver's sister and former
fling of Gary's. She's a beauty and just cold enough to fend off Gary's
lecherous tendencies. Even if the plot remained in this realm of hilarious
revelation, the movie would've been an immensely enjoyable entertainment; however,
the filmmakers have much more in store.
After a few pub stops, it
becomes clear to the guys that something has fundamentally changed about the
town in which they grew up. At first it seems that the changes are those typical
of places you once lived after you’ve spent some time away. McDonaldization has
homogenized the pubs. Some of the architecture has changed, but there are other
clues. People they once knew don't recognize them. The behavior of the town’s
people seems unnatural. There's a crew of kids just like Gary's crew when they
were the same age, but they don't have the same irreverence or disrespect for
authority. The town’s people seem happy, but not in a normal way. Something
sinister has happened here.
I won't reveal what is
ultimately behind these changes, but it is right out of a classic sci-fi film
from the 50s or 60s, such as "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" or
"The Day the Earth Stood Still". What's really remarkable about what
the filmmakers pull off here is that this is no spoof of the genre but a
legitimate entry, right down to the metaphorical meaning behind it all. No
great science fiction story is really about what it is about; rather it is all
an allegory for some universal truth about what it is to be human. Here Gary is
desperately trying to regain his youth and avoid the conformity of adulthood,
but none of it is really that simple. The others have sacrificed to build the
lives they have, and although that required some conformity, what they've built
is unique to them. We all stand to lose in the face of total conformity.
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