Review – The World’s End

The short answer is that yes, The World’s End (dir. Edgar Wright, written by Simon Pegg & Edgar Wright) is good. It’s funny, it’s smart, and if you’ve liked anything that the trio of Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright have done in the past, you’ll like this. The longer answer isn’t much more complicated, but in explaining it I may fangirl the hell out, and none of us want that.

Gary King (Pegg) is a bit of a waster that wants to reunite his four school mates, Andrew (Frost), Steven (Paddy Considine), Oliver (Martin Freeman) and Peter (Eddie Marsan), and attempt to finish a legendary pubcrawl that they undertook on the last day of school twenty-odd years ago. Five guys, twelve pubs, one ‘Golden Mile’, and the re-creation of what was King’s ‘greatest night of his life’. Except, unsurprisingly, no one really wants to return to their home town, and the four mates don’t really want a lot to do with King any more, as he’s a bit of a narcissistic alcoholic prick. Along the way the history of the five friends is told, some emotional tears are shed, some harsh truths are laid out, and a lot of beer is consumed.

And also they discover that a bunch of robot-y type things filled with blue goo are trying to take over the world.

Those expecting a pop-culture-referencing joke-a-thon are recommended instead to re-watch Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz, as The World’s End is a bit darker and a bit more acidic, but it’s still a worthy end to the ‘trilogy’. It does somewhat fall into the trap of trying to make a salient, sobering point towards the end, but this is handled in a typical Wright-esque manner, and as such doesn’t detract from the film. If you’re not a fan of the previous efforts by this lot, The World’s End won’t change your mind, but for aficionados, it’s further proof that these three are really quite good at what they do.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ibQvQUpMTg&w=400]