By Sasha Moedt (The Cascade)– Email
Print Edition: September 25, 2013
The first time I watched Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in action was in their 2007 film Hot Fuzz. It was screamingly funny for me, so much so that I don’t want to watch it again because I’m afraid I’ll be disappointed. I’ve always enjoyed films that are essentially satires of overdone genres; although these days, it seems that these genre-satires are overdone themselves. But anything directed and written by Edgar Wright (and co-written by Simon Pegg) is safe from boring moments, cliché, and predictability.
So when I saw that the dream team—Wright, Pegg, and Frost—were back with a comedy, I was ready for a couple hours of good fun.
While Hot Fuzz satirizes cop movies, and Shaun of the Dead zombie flicks, The World’s End isn’t quite as easy to pinpoint. It’s a coming-home film, about five middle-aged men reuniting with one another and going back to their old stomping grounds. Of course, the reunion wasn’t a result of their own free will, as they were coerced by the troubled protagonist, Gary King (Simon Pegg). The return trip will be a pilgrimage – to attempt a pub crawl left unfinished when they were 18. The final pub is called The World’s End, and Gary King is determined to finish the final pint there.
Gary King is pushing 40 with the gloriously self-interested brain of a 17-year-old. With his sagging face, jet-black (dyed) and thinning hair, cigarette consistently hanging out of his mouth, and long black trenchcoat that was only cool on a rebellious high school student 20 years ago, Gary King seems like a character we should feel sorry for.
And sometimes we do – but Pegg coaxes it out of the audience only to throw it back into our faces in the next line.
This is the style of The World’s End: seeming cliché or predictable, then BOOM! Turn it on its head.
This of course means that Gary King doesn’t have a heart of gold as most at-first-unlikable protagonists have. And this is the weakness of The World’s End – the characters aren’t incredibly compelling. Each of them is dominated by Simon Pegg’s character.
They have the stereotypical personalities found in a high school gang: the leader (Gary King), the best friend and side-kick (Andy, played by Nick Frost), the shy bullied guy taken under the gang’s protection (Peter, played by Eddie Marsan), the wannabe ladies’ man (Steven, played by Paddy Constantine), and the competent smart guy whose homework everyone copies (Oliver, played by Martin Freeman). Of course, the film plays with these characters—where do these high school personalities end up?—but they never seem to be fully formed and made memorable. It’s not the lack of strong acting, it’s the script. Pegg’s character is constantly given the spotlight when a more appealing character might be a better choice.
As they arrive in their old hometown of Newton Haven, we feel the small-town creepiness, and coming home to a place that feels no longer like home – things are not what they seem. And, yes, the overdone things are not what they seem theme had fun poked at it.
But of course, Wright doesn’t stop there – his plots are always taken two steps further than I expect, and The World’s End is certainly no exception. At some points it felt like I was being yanked along pell-mell, but in a satisfying and unique way comedies don’t often have. If you’re a stickler for logic, perhaps this isn’t for you, but if you’re up for some excitement peppered with Pegg and Frost’s clever comedy, it is.
