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How entertaining? ★★★☆☆
Thought provoking? ★☆☆☆☆ 17 June 2013
This article is a review of THE WORLD'S END. |
“We're going to see this through to the bitter end. Or... lager end,” Gary King (Simon Pegg)
The team up of writer-director Edgar Wright and actor-writer Simon Pegg is staring to get tired. From the lofty heights of brilliant television show SPACED, chronicling 20-somethings in London living their lives through films, to the first rom-zom-com in SHAUN OF THE DEAD, they were on a roll. However, THE WORLD’S END joins HOT FUZZ as another genre take down, apocalypse here as opposed to cops previously, adding hilarity but not much else to sink one’s teeth into. Wright is certainly improving when it comes to the portrayal of kinetic set-pieces. The action in HOT FUZZ was amateurish, while with SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD and THE WORLD’S END he found his mojo, delivering well choreographed, adrenaline-pumping fisticuffs. Overall though, the Wright-Pegg combo is on a downward trajectory of delivering a satisfying experience taken as a whole.
The team up of writer-director Edgar Wright and actor-writer Simon Pegg is staring to get tired. From the lofty heights of brilliant television show SPACED, chronicling 20-somethings in London living their lives through films, to the first rom-zom-com in SHAUN OF THE DEAD, they were on a roll. However, THE WORLD’S END joins HOT FUZZ as another genre take down, apocalypse here as opposed to cops previously, adding hilarity but not much else to sink one’s teeth into. Wright is certainly improving when it comes to the portrayal of kinetic set-pieces. The action in HOT FUZZ was amateurish, while with SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD and THE WORLD’S END he found his mojo, delivering well choreographed, adrenaline-pumping fisticuffs. Overall though, the Wright-Pegg combo is on a downward trajectory of delivering a satisfying experience taken as a whole.
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THE WORLD’S END touches on ideas of male friendship and wasted opportunities, and, like its lead character Gary King, swings away from delving deeper, opting instead for quips over substance. Opening on Gary dourly sitting at some sort of rehabilitation circle revealing his misery, when the lightening bolt of inspiration strikes; his life took a turn for the worse he believes 20 years before when he and his four best friends failed to complete the “Golden Mile” – a pub crawl in their small home town of Newton Haven. The endeavour aimed to consist of 12 pints of beer at 12 drinking establishments. The film wastes no time in rounding up the old gang, no matter their reluctance. Oliver (Martin Freeman), Andrew (Nick Frost), Peter (Eddie Marsan) and Steven (Paddy Considine) have grown up to be responsible members of society - lawyer, luxury car dealer, etc. Gary wishes to recapture the glory days of his youth, but is stuck in a purgatory of self-denial.
The guys do not receive the welcome they were expecting. The townsfolk have a contradictory gormless/menace about them. As the pub crawl commences, and the first two venues are exactly the same décor, making a sly nod to the homogenisation of small communities, things start to get weirder when Gary gets into a fight with a local youth uncovering the latter as non-human. The lead however is myopic in his determination to finish what he started two decades ago, oblivious to the feelings of those he claims to be dear to him, and the unsettling nature of the citizens. There is of course the descent into mayhem. Watching Frost go bananas with two bar stools is the high point. When the revelations come though, the tang of anti-climax is felt sharply.
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