Director Edgar Wright has finally brought his Cornetto Trilogy to an end. What began in 2004 with the romantic-zombie-comedy "Shaun of the Dead" and continued in 2007 with action-movie spoof "Hot Fuzz", has reached its terminal point in 2013 with "The World's End". Wright reunites with a lot of the same players - Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Paddy Considine, Martin Freeman - and delivers a deliciously energetic and clever experience that sadly stumbles in its final minutes.
As per usual, the recognizable Pegg is in the lead role with an unrecognizable crop of black hair. He plays Gary King, an alcoholic approaching his 40s but still stuck in the mindset of a 17-year-old. Gary gets it in his head that he and his four childhood chums have unfinished business in their home town of Newton Haven. About 20 years earlier, they attempted "The Golden Mile" - an epic pub crawl that consisted of 12 stops, culminating at a place called The World's End. Their drunken journey fell short of their goal, however, and now Gary wants to give it another shot. Though they've all grown up and started mature lives, Gary's pals Andy, Steven, Oliver, and Peter (Frost, Considine, Freeman, and Eddie Marsan) all agree to join their old comrade on his pointless crusade. While personal tensions rise during the tour, an outward threat makes itself clear when the group inadvertently discovers that the citizens of Newton Haven have been replaced by ink-filled alien robots.
"The World's End" is amongst the top filmmaking efforts of the year. Wright's style is as uptempo and attuned as ever. Scenes move at a brisk pace without feeling rushed, with neither the comedy nor the science fiction elements getting lost in the process. Sequences of the five friends squaring off against their non-human foes ride an amusing line between awesome and absurd, with actors like Frost looking like unexpected action heroes.
Wright and Pegg co-wrote "The World's End", as they did with "Shaun of the Dead" and "Hot Fuzz". In the past they've shown remarkable acumen when it comes to piecing a story together and this time proves no different. These men are keenly aware that great comedy, and indeed great filmmaking, comes from clever setups and payoffs. "The World's End" has these in spades, with hardly any unnecessary lines being uttered. Ordinary sentences such as "there's no arguing with you" suddenly become nuggets of comedy gold when brought up again later in wildly different context. The setups and payoffs aren't limited to the script either, as Wright is always wittily dropping visual callbacks to earlier scenes, giving them a new sense of meaning and humor.
Unfortunately, "The World's End" stumbles in its final 15 minutes. What was a slyly insightful look into the mid-life crisis of the troubled Gary deteriorates into an unsolicited statement of the nature of all mankind. The climax amounts to nothing more than a pompous, hackneyed speech about basic human rights and how our flaws make us unique. On top of that, the epilogue simply feels cheap.
But looking back at everything that precedes that conclusion, it's hard to think of "The World's End" as anything less than terrific. The ensemble cast does superb work, with Pegg stealing the show with unshakable enthusiasm and a natural presence. With a surprising amount of heart to match its cunning wit, this is a delectable movie that deserves multiple viewings. Just one time through, I found at least three seemingly throw-away lines that ended up being foreshadowing of greater events. I have no doubt that there are still plenty more cleverly disguised gems waiting to be discovered.
