The World's End
Dir: Edgar Wright
2013
***
The World's End marks the end of the Blood and Ice-cream or Cornetto trilogy as it has come to be known. A trilogy of films written, starring and directed by Spaced trio Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright. You know this already though. So, is it as good as Shaun of the Dead and/or Hot Fuzz? Well yes and no. Firstly, you can't beat Shaun of the Dead. Secondly, Hot Fuzz is a little overrated. For me, The World's End is somewhere in the middle. It's a good story with a few laughs and plenty of action but for me it was too much action and not enough laughs. The characters were a little bit too serious for my liking, particularly Simon Pegg's character who verged on annoying and then plain unlikable towards the end. The pub-crawling 5 are the cream of actors working in the UK today, Eddie Marsden, Paddy Considine and Martin Freeman were perfectly cast in their supporting roles but I don't feel they were used enough. The possibilities were huge and while I like the way they kept it thoroughly British, I still think they missed a few tricks. Apocalypse films are tricky buggers when it comes to writing a good end and I'm afraid I'm not sure this one is a winner but overall, I liked it. It reminded me enough of the original TV version of The Hitchhikers Guide of the Galaxy to appreciate and there were enough Spaced/Cornetto trilogy in-jokes to keep me amused.