Film Review: Farcical Themes Bring Laughs to ‘The World’s End’

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CHICAGO – In the collaboration of actors Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and director Edgar Wright, the best in life come in threes. Following their sublime “Shaun of the Dead” and the wacky “Hot Fuzz,” comes ther third comic film rendering, “The World’s End.”

Rating: 4.5/5.0

This is the last film in the infamous “Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy,” named for a British ice cream company. It possesses all the Pegg/Frost/Wright trademarks, familiar in “Shaun” and “Fuzz” – dry humor, stylish slapstick, weird villains, deep friendship and quick-cut camera work – plus a bit more. This is more personal, as Simon Pegg’s over-the-top character is a recovering addict, and it focuses on themes like “you can’t go home again.” In essence, “The World’s End” is exactly what the title implies, it’s the end of the Trilogy, it’s the end of youth and it’s the last tavern on an epic pub crawl.

Gary (Simon Pegg) is a man in his late thirties with a severe case of arrested development. His glory days were in his youth, when he was the leader of his gang, including Andy (Nick Frost), Steven (Paddy Considine), Oliver (Martin Freeman) and Peter (Eddie Marsan). Gary escapes from a substance abuse recovery center, and begs his old mates to have a reunion in their small British town. Their mission is to have a pint in all 10 pubs in town, finishing with the last one on the “golden mile,” The World’s End.

Besides Gary, the rest of the crew are all respectable citizens and family men. They reluctantly agree to the reunion, but have problems getting into it. That is until Oliver’s comely sister Sam (Rosamund Pike) joins the journey, and strange things start happening. There is something not right about the citizens of their hometown along the golden mile, they are seemingly captured in a state of a weird possession.

Continue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full review of “The World’s End”

Opposites Attract: Andy (Nick Frost, left) and Gary (Simon Pegg) in ‘The World’s End’ Photo credit: Focus Features

Continue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full review of “The World’s End”