Hello Everyone :-)
I don’t know about you but I love the creative triumvirate of Simon
Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright.
The effect that ‘Shaun of the Dead’, ‘Hot Fuzz’ and (to a lesser extent
in the greater populace but to a MASSIVE extent in my circle of friends)
‘Spaced’ have had since they first appeared on screens cannot be
underestimated. My Mum decided to re-watch ‘Shaun...' and ‘Hot Fuzz’ the other
week (she, unlike me, hasn’t been watching them on a two weekly rotation care
of ITV2 for the past three years) and she commented on how many things I,
my Dad, my Brother and even she says on a day-to-day basis that
have come from those films. She’s right, those films have embedded themselves
into the public consciousness to the extent that the default answer to “I’m
going to the shop does anyone want anything?” is “Cornetto”.
The concluding part of the ‘Cornetto Trilogy’ is ‘The World’s End’ which
I went to see :-)
‘The World’s End’ charts one night in the lives of five reunited school
friends as they attempt to complete the ‘Golden Mile’, a run of twelve pubs in
the sleepy town of Newton Haven. Gary King (Simon Pegg) gets his friends (Nick
Frost, Paddy Considine, Martin Freeman and Eddie Marsan) back to their old
stomping ground but everything feels a bit strange and it isn’t long
before our group discover how strange
their hometown has become.
There is a massive expectation weighing on the shoulders of ‘The World’s
End’ and I realise that it’s dangerous to build your hopes up too much lest you
be disappointed (COUGHprometheusCOUGH). Even so, I’m happy to report that ‘The
World’s End’ didn’t let me down. ‘The World’s End’ is a different beast to its
Cornetto Trilogy predecessors but that doesn’t make it any better or worse,
just different.
Not to get too deep about what are ostensibly three comedy films,
but the Cornetto trilogy is a multi-layered affair. In ‘Shaun…’ you had a
twenty-something still living like a student and needing to grow up, in ‘Hot
Fuzz’ you have a thirty-something work-a-holic who needed to learn how to make
friends and stop being a control freak. Granted these stories are set against a
backdrop of zombies and murderous neighbourhood watch societies which makes
them fun to watch but that narrative is still underpinning the hi-jinks. This
time we close the loop with a story about a forty-something overgrown
man-child still clinging to his rose-tinted youth.
That man-child is Gary King who, to my mind, is the most profoundly
dislikeable character Simon Pegg has ever played. It is to his eternal
credit then that Gary is one of Pegg's best turns to date. I think everyone
knows a Gary King, that one person who is always harping on about how great the
old days were and still thinks they’re 17. I suspect that Gary is one of the
reasons that some won’t take to ‘The World’s End’ as easily as they did
‘Shaun…’ or ‘Hot Fuzz’. This is a massive contrast to Pegg’s most famous,
nice-guy roles and it's a big shift to get your head around, however, free to
be as asshat-ish as he likes Pegg turns in an energetic, enjoyably irritating
performance which enables the rest of the cast to play off him
to great effect.
‘The World’s End’ differs to the other films in the trilogy because it
expands its horizons to a group of 5 central characters rather than the
previous bromantic emphasis on two. I really like this; Pegg and Frost are the
film’s ultimate focus but opening it up to more characters makes ‘The World’s
End’ a richer film. The gorgeous Paddy Considine is the fabulously dead
pan Steven that’s always had a crush on his mate’s sister. I also really loved
Eddie Marsan as Peter. Marsan is hilarious and adorable and proves what I have
always suspected; those of us that get picked on at school never really get
over it.
My favourite character was Nick Frost’s Andy. It’s my favourite
performance of his. Admittedly Danny from ‘Hot Fuzz’ and Ed from ‘Shaun…’ are
more slapstick and laugh-out-loud kind of characters but Andy is so brilliantly
real. His exasperation at Gary's latest antics, the way his patience quietly
frays before he's pushed too far and finally flips out is so true to life you
have to laugh. Plus Andy gets all the best fight scenes :-)
Speaking of fighting, I loved the action scenes of which there are
many. Each fight scene appears to have been shot in one take and without any
cuts which looks fabulously stylised and sets 'The
World's End' apart from the usual, choppy action flick. The
characters are all inexplicably awesome at brawling which amused me greatly. Particularly
Andy, whose battle cry of “I fucking hate this town!” had me silently whooping.
My only real criticism of 'The World's End' is it's pacing which is all
over the place. It starts really slow which is a bit off putting but then when the gang get back to Newton Haven it's quite stop-start before we
settle into full on action. Even when we do get into the action proper there
are moments where it comes screeching to a halt for a bit of contemplation.
These problems soon fade into nothing when you’re watching because of the constant
jokes. Admittedly some don’t land as well as they could’ve done but there are
some lines that had me doubled over. Without spoiling anything, the ‘Legoland’
line towards the end of the film is possibly one of my favourites in the whole
trilogy.
Some may be put off by how different Pegg’s character is to his previous
roles but I really enjoyed the change. ‘The World’s End’ is a fitting finale to
the Cornetto trilogy; consistently funny, action packed and very very British :-)
‘The World’s End’ is still hanging around in cinemas so catch it if you
can!
It’s time for…
Reasons to be Cheerful :-)
1. THERE IS NO OTHER NEWS THAN THIS.
That’s it for today!
Goodbye till next time :-)
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