The World's End (2013)

The World's End (R) - Review

"You can never go home again (and drink 12 pints)"

 Gary, an unrepentant substance abuser, attempts to relive the single best night of his life by reuniting with his old school chums and reattempting "The Golden Mile", a pub crawl in their old hometown that they were unable to finish over 20 years ago. However the cadre has all drifted apart and (besides Gary) all grown up.  This is especially true of Andy, he is still quite angry with his old best friend due to an incident involving his past drug use and moneys owed. Somehow convinced by their old leader Gary to meet and drink like the old days, the crew bounces from pub to pub while reminiscing about the bad old days as sinister outside forces begin to coalesce against the boys.

The third (and weakest) in the "Cornetto Trilogy" by filmmakers Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright and Nick Frost (responsible for Shawn of the Dead and Hot Fuzz), The World's End has a completely different tone and construction than the other two entries and therefore ends up the black sheep. While certainly humorous in parts and with a good amount of drunken UK kung-fu brawling (which isn't all that convincing), the overall anger and depression seeped into this tale of alcoholics and bad blood between buddies poisons the already tenuous humor of the situation. Throw in the iffy conspiracy movie trope and you end up with a mish-mashy confused film, very unlike its brethren that each had clear cut targets for their lunacy (Zombie flicks and Hollywood Action flicks respectively). The World's End doesn't know whether to choke back emotions or choke down the next beer from scene to scene. While the other entries in the trilogy start off strong and maintain a comedic momentum through their ludicrous pinball-like plots, The World's End starts off with a severely unfunny intro and then takes another 15-20 minutes before the suds start to flow and the comedy starts to show, and by then the movie is certainly crawling through a conspiracy subplot that while the filmmakers have thoroughly interwoven it can never be full accepted as nessecary to the plot.

While Gary (Simon Pegg) definitely becomes more likable and his selfish mannerisms become a tad more endearing by the 6th pint, he is written as a self destructive self centered mildly amusing alcoholic, and as central to the movie as he is the role is removed from the loveable half-slacker or reclusive procedural bad ass he played in the other two films.  The darkness inherent to the character bleeds into the humor and relationships, knocking the overall cinematic greatness down quite a few pegs (haha).  On top of that bad pun, the filmmakers have thrived on skewering/homaging famous Hollywood genres, and here the Conspiracy source material just isn't ripe enough, doesn't have a cinematic look to ape and doesn't have it's own cliche's or mythologies to mine that it feels very tacked on and quite a bit tacky.  The final confrontation, in fact all the confrontations, just seem cheap and almost an afterthought to all the talking, especially in comparison to how razor sharp and beautifully minutiaed the other films were (let's not even talk about how weak the ending is in TWE).  The undertow of black depression fights the theme of anti-homogenization of society for which gets in the way of the funny first.

Thankfully, Nick Frost gets the meaty part here as Andy, the wronged former best friend who is seething with rage and unresolved issues.  Normally relegated to the off kilter chubby sidekick, once Andy starts downing drinks and WWF Bionic Elbowing the enemy the movie really starts to pick up.  He has the best role here, both emotionally and action heroey, and since Pegg's Gary's shadow is so stunted in TWE Frost is finally able to step out of it and become a force to be reckoned with. Single handedly Nick saves The World's End from total oblivion (just as Andy saves his friends), leaving a half and half, black and tan kind of movie where even though its suds are warm and mostly flat, can still be drunk and gotten some kind of buzz from it.  Individual tastes may or may not enjoy the resulting hangover.

5.5 Marmalade Sandwiches out of 10 (MEDIOCRE)