Today's Mini-Review: The World's End

The World's End: ****/*****, or 8/10

The triumvirate of Wright, Pegg and Frost deliver their final aria (for now) with this conclusion of their 'Three Flavours Cornetto' trilogy, a threesome of films connected only by their own presence in front and behind the camera, the cameo appearance of the famous ice cream brand and the great fun and delightful British humor throughout. Whereas the previous installments (Shaun of the Dead (2004) and Hot Fuzz (2007)) addressed the horror and cop drama genres respectively, The World's End tackles science fiction, the creepy secretive alien invasion sort to be precise (think Invasion of the Body Snatchers, It Came from Outer Space and Day of the Triffids). Thankfully, it does so to the same hilarious effect their predecessors did. While he played a police sergeant in Hot Fuzz, a token of societal responsibility and virtue, Simon Pegg this time gets to play a character the complete opposite named Gary King, devoid of responsibility and virtue, who prefers to focus his life on drinking, doing drugs and other assorted hedonistic endeavors. Once the centre of a close group of childhood friends that largely revolved around him, he never left childhood, while his friends (Nick Frost, Martin 'Bilbo' Freeman, Paddy Considine and Eddie Marsan) grew up and embarked on an ordinary, mundane lifestyle with all the perks (family life, decent jobs) and downsides (boredom) that came with the territory. When Gary reemerges in their life after an absence of a decade, they soon find themselves drawn to revisiting their high school town, against all of their better judgment, in a second attempt to complete the epic pub crawl once left unfinished, all the way from the First Post to the World's End. Twelve pubs, sixty pints total (at the least!), five former comrades who have grown apart mostly because of Gary's never ending irresponsibility, one long night in store for all of them... Especially when they discover – in an epic, instant classic gents' bathroom brawl – their old town has become the center of an alien invasion that has slowly but surely replaced the village denizens with robots. Can these “five musketeers” halt this impending Apocalypse, armed only with beer, mutual dislike and an old car with the silly moniker 'the Beast'?

More importantly, can Wright and co. deliver another comedy that is on an equal level with their duo of previous 'blood and ice cream' movies? The answer is an undeniable 'yes, they can'! The World's End is at least as witty, fast paced, catchy and thoroughly funny a film as its forebears, but also appropriately borders on melancholy as its creators make us realize they've grown up as actors/directors themselves, and this film in many ways is an end to their cinematically cohesive world they have caused us to come to love. Though there's bound to be more joined projects on their part somewhere in the future, in terms of subversive, all-English comedy poking fun at specific film genres, this is a definite conclusion and it feels as such throughout. It doesn't stop them, or us, from enjoying themselves as they continue to do what they did best so far once more, as The World's End is loaded with extremely snappy gags, great one-liners and excellent comedic timing from all involved. Wright again concretely illustrates the fact he has a cinematic style all his own, which is marked by fast dialogue, dynamic editing and visual and thematic parallelism, which underscores The World's End status as a part of a trilogy tonally if not narratively. And despite all the hilarity, there's room for a moral message that never gets overly preachy or in-your-face: you can walk a path between growing up and staying young without losing your identity to society's norms, if you stay loyal to your friends and family. But if you opt for downright immaturity, you might just find the world exploding in your face. In the case of The World's End, the latter is all the more enjoyable as the Cornetto trilogy comes to its grand close.