The World’s End
Starring: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Martin Freeman, Eddie Marsan, Paddy Considine, Rosamund Pike
Directed By: Edgar Wright
Reviewed by Danielle Muir
[rating: 2.5/5]
*Slight Spoilers Ahead*
Bursting on to the commercial scene with Shaun of the Dead in 2004, Wright, Pegg and Frost cemented themselves as a comedic force to be reckoned with. Impeccable timing, hilarious characters, super-charged editing transitions, a dose of unashamed silliness – it really had the perfect mix to make anyone inclined to English sensibilities fall off their chairs with laughter. 2007’s Hot Fuzz followed suit bringing the laughs and brilliant cameos by Britain’s funniest gents.
The World’s End, the ‘climatic’ end to the Cornetto trilogy has strayed from its counterparts emphasis on silly laughs, instead re-routing down a darker, more dramatic path. It’s certainly still a comedy by all means, but don’t expect to find any Nicholas Angel’s or delightfully dimwitted Ed’s here.
Instead the duo have switched persona’s – Pegg plays wild child Greg ‘The King’ King, a middle-aged punk itching to relive the glory days with Frost as his now-lawyer friend Andrew Knightly from yesteryear. Back in the day Knightly, King and their rag-tag bunch of school chums attempted ‘The Golden Mile’ – 12 pubs, 12 pints in their native Newton Haven. Unsurprisingly they fall on their drunken posteriors about number 8, but nonetheless the gang peg it as one of the best nights of their lives. Now everyone’s got steady jobs/wives, all except dead-end King who rustles them back together to finish the job.
There’s a fabulous ensemble here, and by gee they try their best – almost busting veins to deliver their lines, imploring you to laugh. Unfortunately the jokes are just a bit weak, bar a few shining moments of physical comedy. It makes you fervently wish that the cornetto gang had stuck solely with their tried and tested formula. And there have been a few shocking casting decisions – Paddy Considine (who usually pops as some caricatured side character) takes centre stage as Steven and boy does he stick out like a sore thumb. He seems uncomfortable with the idea of portraying normalcy, and whilst the others have settled convincingly into their characters Considine noticeably acts. It’s quite a distraction. Not otherwise helped by the fact his love interest Rosamund Pike’s performance solely consists of a disturbingly crazy-eyed surprised expression and the line “aww crumbs!”
We’re pretty much itching for the gang to get into their drinking binge, because surely some proper laughs will come from the drunken louts having to fight hoards of blue-blooded aliens who’ve taken over the general Newton Haven public. And to be sure, Wright knows how to craft a cool fight – you can’t really go wrong with a screaming Nick Frost pulverising the not-robots into blue splattered shards.
As the gang unravel the mystery of what really has happened to Newton Haven in rather tedious fashion, we’ll beg that the ending packs some wallop. Emotionally, Frost and Pegg get the chance to show their serious chops and they certainly don’t disappoint, but it does feel a bit thrown in for the sake of it – and then it’s straight back into the marginally funny fare when an exposition filled alien leader (voiced by Bill Nighy) also cranes for laughs. And then there’s a bit of a twist that’s so out-of-place by the time you’ve comprehended what’s happened, the films over.
The World’s End tries desperately to make you laugh as hard as you did in its older brothers, and also show you some maturity but ultimately you’ll wish they stuck to the formula that made them famous.
