Title – The Worlds End (2013)

Director – Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz)

Cast – Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Paddy Considine, Martin Freeman, Eddie Marsan, Rosamund Pike, Pierce Brosnan

Plot – Has been Gary King (Pegg) wants to get the old school gang back together again for one final crack at the Golden Mile, a pub crawl through 12 establishments in there home town of Newton Haven. Things take a turn for the stranger when the gang realise something is not quite right with the residents in their old sleepy town.

“We’re going to see this through to the bitter end, or… lager end.”

Review by Eddie on 08/08/2013

Have you ever eaten too much ice-cream? Not a nice feeling is it? You feel slightly sick, bloated and get an overall sense of lethargy. That feeling of eating one too many Cornetto’s is the feeling you get watching The Worlds End. The final entry in Wright’s, Pegg’s and Frost’s 3 Cornetto’s trilogy, while not a bad movie suffers from a feeling of self-assurance and almost arrogance that dampens what is a pretty original idea for a movie and a British cast to die for.

One problem is the central plot device of getting the old gang back together and why this is happening. Pegg a usually pleasant presence on screen here portrays one of his worst and most annoying characters in Gary King. Gary is nothing more than a lazy, annoying, drug taking buffoon, a problem when you are supposed to be rooting for him and his plight. Frost and Marsen (Marsen probably providing the bulk of the best lines) come out best as hard working businessman Andrew and Peter, while Freeman doesn’t get much to do as nebbish real estate agent Oliver and any film that wastes the talent of Paddy Considine like The Worlds End does here is a shameful effort. This wouldn’t be such a thorn in the movie’s side if the story was more free flowing.

The Worlds End was in development for around 6 – 7 years and one gets the feeling the story was written in bits and pieces, some days written with more inspiration that others one thinks. Some scenes particularly near the middle of the film drag completely, while some jokes fall completely flat where they should have created rolling in the aisles. Another major misstep from the crew that wasn’t the case in previous films is the beating heart, bromance between Frost and Pegg was never more evident in Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead while here you never really get the sense those two or the gang as a whole really are the “5 Musketeers”.

When we reach the worlds end here one can’t help but enjoy the gang together on the big screen, they have enough audience good will from previous years to carry them
over the line. At conclusion it’s hard not to feel however that this is a very minor film in the scheme of things and a trilogy ending with a whimper not with a bang, despite the last ditch attempts in the final reels to do so.

3 pints out of 5