The World's End

Dustin: 4 of 5 stars Nick: 4 of 5 stars Average: 4 of 5 stars (Live canary)

Dustin: The World’s End brings back the winning team that brought us Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. This time in an alien invasion/robot body snatchers plot that revolves around drinking.

What did you think of The World’s End, Nick?

Nick: While not as good as the prior two films in the Cornetto trilogy, it stands on its own and has one of my favorite endings of any recent movie.

Dustin: I thought it was every bit as good as Hot Fuzz, but it sort of had the same theme with individuality being brutally repressed. Both movies even had a former Bond as a villain (Timothy Dalton in Hot Fuzz and Pierce Brosnan in The World’s End--I reckon we can expect Daniel Craig in the next one).

Nick: Hot Fuzz is my favorite, but something that was exceptionally done in The World’s End was the fight choreography with the direction and editing of those particular scenes.

Dustin: I agree. I thought the action scenes were shot better than your average modern action flick.

Nick: A change from the norm is that Simon Pegg plays the character who is down on his luck and no hope of a good future, while Nick Frost is the more mature character.

Dustin: Nick Frost’s performance was quite good here. He showed depth with subtle facial expressions, and even though he had been previously typecast as a big buffoon, I believed him as a mature lawyer here. I think part of it has to do with his sympathetic face.

Nick: Though Frost does deliver a great performance, I feel that the film lost a lot of what brought the laughs to the first two films. Frost’s buffoonery in Shaun of the Dead and his naivete in Hot Fuzz set up more laughs than anything else in either of those films.

Dustin: Most of the laughs here came from Simon Pegg, usually from his misunderstanding someone or acting totally inappropriately. The scene at the beginning when he is reminiscing fondly of his wild drinking days and lamenting not finishing a pub crawl from 20-some years earlier in an AA-like meeting sets the tone for the film.

Nick: Pegg’s character rarely made me laugh, but in turn had such an emotional depth that made me feel sadness about how many people I know are well into becoming that character.

Dustin: I laughed a lot in this movie, but most of the time, I was the only person in the theater laughing. Pegg’s delivery is rapid and deadpan. It’s easy to miss a lot of the humor that doesn’t involve drunk people tripping over things.

Nick: Not to mention that it lacks a single scene of a character throwing up. This set-up had me scared that they would throw some low-ball humor into the mix.

Dustin: I’m surprised no one threw up too. They set out to drink twelve pints, which is no small task. Myself, I would feel pretty crappy after the fourth pint, and be pretty sick after the fifth and especially sixth. Simon Pegg’s character, Gary King, is still able to stand by the end. And they’re not drinking Miller Lite, its all craft beer.

Nick: Did you notice all the former actors from the previous Edgar Wright films?

Dustin: Not other than Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.

Nick: Well I’ll just give you one example. In Shaun of the Dead, the first girl that the characters realize is a zombie and they accidently throw her on a pole, she’s in the first scene of the AA meeting right next to Simon Pegg. She was doing the same face, which is why I recognized her!

Dustin: I’m sure that was thrown in as an Easter egg to reward fans.

When we reviewed Cockneys vs Zombies, you didn’t think it worked so well as a zombie movie. Do you think The World’s End works as a robot/body snatchers movie?

Nick: A subgenre will work for me if it’s either heavily invested in that subgenre or if the film is more about the drama than the subgenre. In this film the character’s relationships are more central to the film than the plot device which moves it forward. The explanation for the alien invasion is pretty generic, but the fun of Simon Pegg arguing with the “leader” is hysterical enough to shrug it off, especially because it’s more about his character.

In the Cornetto trilogy the drama and the comedy are so closely linked that one always has the other. In almost every scene the comedy comes from Pegg, while the drama comes from his four friends who are tired of his shit.

Dustin: This movie was more about the comedy, so I judged it from that point-of-view. All the Edgar Wright/Simon Pegg movies are delightful and offbeat. I would recommend this over any other comedy in theaters now.