The World’s End

Drunkards of Newton Haven

         
 

22 August 2013| Comments Off on The World’s End     by Sean Chavel

 

It’s so rare to have a comedy that’s a first shot to last laugh riot, but here we go. The World’s End is a gut-busting beerfest of a movie with Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Martin Freeman, Eddie Marsan and Paddy Considine. You know Brits Pegg and Frost from “Shaun of the Dead” and “Hot Fuzz” and this makes it their third teaming with director Edgar Wright. The setup: Days after 12-step sobriety, Pegg the party-hard prankster convinces his four friends to join him on a home reunion 12-stop bar crawl. Fair enough premise, but I should have known it wasn’t going to be just an average guys hanging out movie. Confession: I have to tell you that I went in cold without seeing the trailer, and I giddily flipped out over the plot twist. I have seen the trailer since then which reveals and ruins everything.

By all means, if you haven’t seen the trailer or commercial ads, and you like these guys’ other movies, go to “The World’s End” before it’s spoiled for you. What I am willing to tell you about it is they arrive to their hometown to find it’s not reminiscent really of the mischief life they had as young lads. The commencing three bar stops are sleepy and mirthless, for they have turned into bland corporate quasi-pub/restaurants that have lost their edge. Jeers to new ownership.

What happens by the fourth bar stop (or was it the fifth?) is staggeringly funny, a rug-pulled-out-from-under-you feeling. I am not telling you what it is. But I can tell you about two new arrivals. Rosamund Pike, the proper and pretty lady, joins the boys for anarchy. Pierce Brosnan stops by too who is pleasingly droll as the anti-fun and solemn scholarly type. But boy, how about that twist!

Worlds End_Rosamund-Pike-2013There are times I even liked this movie better than “Shaun of the Dead.” Wait a minute. I simply loved this movie more than “Shaun of the Dead.” All of it. “The World’s End” is a major comedy classic in my eyes. Years from now I hope most will agree with me that “Tropic Thunder,” “Midnight in Paris,” “This is the End” and now “The World’s End” were the best comedies that came out during the early twenty-first century. And yes, a special nod to “Sideways,” “Toy Story 3” and “Soul Kitchen” that belong in their own category for generating laughs with pathos.

I laughed and laughed, but truly tore up into pieces over the finale where Pegg and company plead that they enjoy being stupid. “Err is to be human. Uh… err…!” Leave these guys alone to be who they are – knuckleheads. The title The World’s End, by the way, is the name of the last bar on the crawl. These guys are all pretty smashed at the “End.” You might laugh hard enough to simulate that level of booziness too, that’s no small feat.

If the cat’s out of the bag and you’ve seen the trailer already, then well, I promise you the movie still delivers wonderfully, hysterically and spectacularly.

109 Minutes. Rated R.

COMEDY / CRUDE HUMOR / SATURDAY NIGHT CHUCKLES

Film Cousins: “Shaun of the Dead” (2004); “Beerfest” (2006); “Hot Fuzz” (2007); “This is the End” (2013).

Worlds-End _Weird-Comedy

 

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Sean Chavel

About The Author / Sean Chavel

Sean Chavel is a Hollywood based author and movie reviewer. He is the Executive Director of flickminute.com, a new website that has adapted the movie review site genre by introducing moodbased and movie experience based reviews.

 

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