The World's End Movie Review

From the guys who brought us comedy gems like Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, comes this epic ending to the Cornetto trilogy that is amazingly...just kinda good.

The World's End centers around Gary King, played by Simon Pegg. 20 years ago, he and his four best friends attempted a pub crawl. The 5 friends weren't able to complete the challenge, and they all went on living their lives. Except for Gary. Now he must reunite all his friends and go back to the town to finish the crawl or die trying. Unbeknownst to Gary and his old childhood friends, however, the town has changed since they've been there last, which is where the story begins. Sounds like a fun plot, right? Yeah. Personally, I love Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. They are two of the funniest movies I've seen from past 20 years or so. I thoroughly enjoyed Spaced which was brought to us by the same people. That being said, I was extremely disappointed with The World's End. The main killer in this film were not the robots (aliens?), for me what killed this movie the most were my outrageously high expectations. I'm one of those rare people who actually enjoyed Shaun of the Dead and Hot fuzz equally. They were both witty and entertaining, and a lot fun. So, naturally, I was under the assumption that I would love this one as well. I didn't. Before I go off on the negatives, I want to start talking about what I liked about this movie which is a longer list. First off, the cast in this movie is phenomenal.

 As a fan of the predecessors, it was nice to see all of these familiar faces popping up here and there. Including some new faces such as Eddie Marsan and James Bond himself, Pierce Brosnon. Nick Frost, Paddy Considine, and Martin Freeman return after appearing in Shaun and Fuzz, but for me, it was Simon Pegg who really stole the show. In the first two installments, Simon played relatively kind characters. The character of David King is the total opposite of that. He is crude, and rude, and completely immature. Which not surprisingly makes him an incredibly entertaining character to watch. The first half of this movie I really liked. The first 40 minutes felt a lot like Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead with all of the fast cuts, not so subtle foreshadowing, and quick-witted humor. Once they got to the town, the movie felt like it was dragging a bit and didn't really feel like it's predecessors. It didn't have that daunting, somber, and even macabre tone that the first two films had in spades. It just felt like your run-of-the-mill sci-fi comedy, while still being much better than Neighborhood Watch. Once they got around to the action the fun returned, didn't feel like Shaun fun, but fun none the less. Which then led to the last 30 minutes of the movie which, I swear, felt like some of the messiest writing I've seen, in a couple weeks- but that's only because there have been some real sloppy movies this year. The movie started off pretty strong but it got to a place that was, and it pains me to say this, kinda boring. At that point, I had my head in my palms and a lump in my throat. Leading to an ending that made me utterly and completely disappointed. In the end, it was a big let down for a fan of the first two installments. It defiantly had it's moments and was still better than a lot of the other piles of garbage that came into theaters this year, but I still left the theater with the nagging thought bouncing around in my head "It Could Have Been Better, It Could Have Been Better." It could have been so much better. Final Rating- B