K-SCORE: 93
Director: Edgar Wright
Writers: Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg
Starring: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Rosamund Pike, Paddy Considine, Martin Freeman, Eddie Marsan, Pierce Brosnan, Bill Nighy
Spoiler Level: Major
For years I’ve joked with my friends and brothers about how awesome it would be if a film had the balls to switch genres halfway through. The assumption always was that if you do that you’re making a quintessentially stupid film that can’t be taken seriously or have anything meaningful to say. The World’s End disproves that theory in style. It tells a story of friendship and growing up using an ensemble cast of lovable British guys that progressively get drunker and drunker throughout the film. Tossed in with that, there’s a thematic link between all of the bars in the town and what occurs at that bar. The movie has inside jokes that seem to appreciate throughout the runtime and definitely get better on rewatch. It’s deep and funny and interesting and in the middle of it fucking robots invade and destroy the earth. Sorry, robots is a slang term meaning slave. Smashy-smashy eggmen.
The apocalypse of the smashy-smashy eggmen that’s presented isn’t the most original but it’s definitely more so than zombies. Also the smashy-smashy eggmen’s blue blood that’s actually more like ink makes all of the well-choreographed fight scenes humorously absurd. The shift in genre has things flying off the rails, but not nearly as much as you might expect, considering one minute they’re talking about drinking 12 pints of beer in an evening and sorting through the lies of their old friend Gary King and the next minute they’re negotiating with an alien called The Network and convincing it Earth is too stupid to be indoctrinated into their galactic civilization.
“very talented actors are very funny when they’re drunk”
The World’s End is a great movie and one I look forward to watching again and again as the years go by because it has huge amounts of entertainment and depth, and that’s what makes you want to return to a movie. (That’s why Star Wars has more rewatch value than any other film by a huge margin. Go to Wookieepedia and then we’ll talk of depth of universes.) It could be better. If there was more explanation paid to O-man’s indoctrination, more information as to how and when people turned into smashy-smashy eggmen in general, and even more hints to the impending genre shift in the first forty-five minutes, then it would be a tighter plot. There’s also an issue with the drinking. I think very talented actors are very funny when they’re drunk. See Parks and Rec. But too drunk and, while still funny, you can’t reliably expect them to get things done. After twelve pints and some shots, Gary and Andy are having arguments with a diplomat from another species, so they can’t be wonderfully fall-over-stupid drunk.
Even if The World’s End was just so-so, a part of me would really love it. This film shows that the crossover can be done! My friend Willard and I have an idea for a film called The Return, a genre about soldiers returning home from war and struggling to shake what they experienced and reintegrate into society. You know, it’s got the scenes where the soldier hears war noises instead of dogs barking and children playing. It’s got some confrontation at a bar with a few wannabe thugs. A wife that nags. Sound absolutely terrible? You wait. Highest second weekend box office ever!