The Worlds End, starring Simon Pegg & Nick Frost (directed by Edgar Wright) makes up the third instalment of the affectionately titled 'Cornetto Trilogy' that sees this trio set out for the final time (?) after the previous two moves Shaun of the Dead & Hot Fuzz took audiences by storm.
In this most recent and non-related outing, 5 lads from New Haven (after graduation) in the early 90's set out to complete the Golden Mile, a 12 stint pub crawl ending at The Worlds End. Sadly, first time out they failed to reach then end and now 20 years on, Gary King (Pegg) sets out to rekindle the 'bro'mance of his former years, rally the troops and finally - finish what they couldn't all those years.
As for the story line its pretty solid and easily recognisable to anyone who grew up in leafy towns and villages. As with the other two movies, the focal point of a pub(s) is all important so this just takes it to another level although in this one, the 4 other attendees aren't initially as keen as Gary as they've all moved on with new lives and its only King that has remained well and truly in the past. There are deep back stories to each of the leading cast and their own reasons for deciding to tag along but on the whole - this movie mostly focuses on the relationship between King & Knightly and starts quite dark in comparison to other comedy roles they've completed.
Due to the nature of the other movies, I was hoping for side-splitting laughs almost from the outset but in all honest, for me - the laughs only started drip feeding through once the 5 of them were drunk and the sober part of the movie just looked like a cheap copy of a potentially good Simon Pegg movie.
For once, Nick Frost plays the straight guy (Andrew Knightley) in this movie in retrospect to PC Danny Butterman & Ed from the first two 'fall-guy' roles in the aforementioned trilogy and the remaining 3 pub crawlers are familiar faces Martin Freeman, Eddie Marsan & Paddy Considine with the lovely Rosamund Pike as Freeman's sister and object of
most of the groups desires!
The supporting cast in this for me actually outshone Pegg, although you have to give him credit for returning to a low(er) budget home-grown comedy since he landed on his feet in Hollywood with Start Trek & the recent Mission Impossible movies.
As I said, the laughs in this just didn't come as quickly as I hoped and I wasn't alone, the cinema barely chuckled along with the first 45 minutes of this until about pub number 5 and the beer was flowing freely and that coincided with the remaining plot of the movie - where they discover that the residents of New Haven have all (mostly) been taken over by Robots, comparable to Ken & Barbie dolls (detachable limbs) with blue blood. One thing however that I was impressed with were the numerous fight scenes - our seemingly 5 soft-lads did mash it up with the best of them when it came to the destruction of aliens and Frost stands out as a bit of a bar room brawler, as does Pegg, Considine & Freeman but sadly Marsan spends most of the time cowering in the loo's. Even Pike goes 2-on-1 against a pair of twins in the beer garden and comes out smiling.
So far then, Comedy - 0, Fight Scenes - 1
(If you don't want to know how it ends, skip the next paragraph) !!!Warning - spoiler alert!!!
Sadly, I wasn't too enthralled with the ending - what starts out seeing Pegg & Frost square off one-on-one with the alien leader (voiced by Bill Nighy?) and then apparently win - results in the breakdown of a 'network' that is surprising holding the World as we know it together and with its destruction - wipes out the entire economic advancements we have ever made, effectively returning the planet to the dark ages............how's that a win?
Anyway - after the brilliant Shaun of the Dead & Hot fuzz this movie sadly didn't come close to being a worthy part of the Cornetto Trilogy and although die hard 'Spaced' fans would probably disagree with me, relishing everything that comes from the pen of Pegg I have to stand alone and say it just wasn't my kind of movie - drunken frolics in a pub, definitely but there just weren't the laughs I'd hoped for.
The next outing for Pegg & Frost together comes in the form of animated 2014 release The Boxtrolls, one for the kiddies so cant really judge but I hope the next movie that's 15+ from them gets me back on side with this legendary comedy duo.
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