I looked up that The World’s End cost somewhere in the 20-30 million dollar range. If that’s the case, then Edgar Wright should direct all future special effects movies because he gets more bang per buck than movies with six times the budget. I’m sad the American box office for this film is currently underwhelming. More people should buy a ticket. Especially when failed garbage like White House Down managed to pull in much bigger numbers despite being a much bigger flop on a much larger blank check.
Nothing suggestive here.
In attempting to describe The World’s End I am faced with the problem of trying to review the film without giving away the best moments. The advertising campaign already says too much and ruins one of the big reveals. It’s much like what happened with the promotions of From Dusk Till Dawn. So I will hold back and obtusely say that if Jack Finney and Ira Levin wrote a comedy together, it would be this.
However, Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright wrote the script. Frequent collaborators with past films Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, the duo conjure up another wacky comedy that has trouble being defined in any normal terms. Simon Pegg plays Gary King, middle-aged man but former childhood peer leader who’s in drug rehab and desperately wants to relive his youth. He wishes to avenge a failed attempt to complete “The Golden Mile”: a path through his college town, filled with twelve bars that one drinks a pint at each, culminating in the eponymous bar “The World’s End.” Hatching a plan to gather his four other friends from that fateful night of drinking failure, they head back to town to complete what they couldn’t as youngsters. And along the way reacquire a part of what made being young great. Or at least that’s what Gary wants. The rest seem fairly content being adults.
I should not be in charge.
Gary is a relentless loser who’s willing to lie about his own mother’s death just to get his way. Pegg’s quick delivery is matched equally well by his castmates, including his other frequent collaborator, Nick Frost, who plays Andy Knightley – the jilted former best friend and now teetotaller who has no intention of drinking on this trip to twelve bars. Also along for the ride are fun childhood pragmatists Steven Prince, Oliver Chamberlain, and former bullying victim Peter Page.
The World’s End is a movie with blistering editing and dialogue. It’s a joy to sit back and watch this five-some exchange barbs. In movies with characters that act like a complete idiot you need a straight man to be the conscience of the audience. In this case, there are four straight men to counterbalance all the trouble Gary causes. Like when he tries to relive his bathroom sexual triumph over Oliver’s sister. At 40, she’s having none of it. The humor lies in the little things. What they say to each other in passing or the sound effect and zoom focus on a car door closing. There are a lot of jokes, but they are not necessarily set up like jokes. They just happen – a barrage of well timed banter that left me sitting happily with my trusty movie sidekick GI Joe. We giggled and smiled throughout. All aided by the 80’s/90’s joyous nostalgia of music from my youth. I heard The Housemartins, The Beautiful South, Blur, Inspiral Carpets, and Definition of Sound. These are all in my collection and with each recognized ditty I mentally told myself to “go back and listen to that again.”
That’s it. No more drinking!
About halfway through, the movie kicks into a new gear, amping the energy and crazy factor. Gary tries desperately to give his life meaning by completing the mile, despite losing friends to the unexpected chaos around him. If this doesn’t sound like a comedy it’s because I’m leaving out detail on purpose. Fear not, this movie has jokes galore.
Near the end the logic goes astray as a sudden attempt to create human connection and healing is made. It doesn’t work because everything beforehand was dark, edgy, and quick witted comedy on blast. None of that leads organically to the sudden focus on friendship with Gary, the world’s least likely adult survivor. They groundwork wasn’t laid for such a shift. So that fails to register, but the rest is wonderfully entertaining.
I revelled in director Wright’s comic timing, his use of editing to punctuate moments, and the understanding of what can be done with a small budget, inventive skill, and a pair of legs where arms should be. This is a movie unlike anything many have seen before. It might be off-putting to those who who like predictable affairs, but this is the kind of filmmaking we need more of. People who take risks and do something wacky, weird, interesting and yet still of high quality.
At 109 minutes the first 90 min play like 75 and the last 19 play like 27. I can live with that. We should celebrate risk taking and not playing into the same old stories we’ve seen before. While The World’s End might not be everyone’s pint of beer, I say you go see this and I’ll go see your rom-com starring Rachel McAdams or whomever.