Worldly Review

The World's End is the latest in what is now the "Cornetto Trilogy" from director Edgar Wright and actors Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. It follows Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz in crazy mayhem, a very British sensibility, and a prominent reference to an ice cream treat. This one depicts a group of old friends reuniting for a 12-stop pub crawl through a town that turns out to be harboring a dangerous and potentially apocalyptic secret.

Everyone in the group I went with was agreed: all three films in the series are enjoyable. But there was disagreement on which is the best. My nod still goes to Hot Fuzz, for so skillfully lampooning the conventions of noisy summer action flicks. I'd actually call The World's End the weakest film of the lot... though, as I said, it's still enjoyable.

It's nice that they've added a few actors to the mix this time. Joining Pegg and Frost in the pub crawl are three more actors, Paddy Considine, Eddie Marsan, and the ubiquitous (and deservedly so) Martin Freeman. It's a diverse group with lots of comic potential, which is increased by the fact that the character molds for Pegg and Frost have been shuffled up for this film -- as opposed to Hot Fuzz, this time it's Nick Frost playing the straight-arrow stick-in-the-mud and Pegg playing the bumbling screw-up.

I actually found the plot to be somewhat derivative of Hot Fuzz, which is probably why I didn't like it as much. Certainly, nothing is being stolen wholesale from the earlier movie, but the idea of a sweeping conspiracy hiding in a rural British town felt very familiar to me here. The humorously contrasting moments of epic violence felt familiar too -- though they are very well-executed here.

The bottom line is: if you liked Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz, there's little chance you won't also like this movie. For me, it drops down to a B- from the higher marks of the other two, but it's still a fun film.