The World's End (2013) review

Out of all of the film trilogies that we have seen over the years, one easily stands as the most unique trilogy ever made. That honor belongs to the Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy (AKA the Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy or, just simply, the Cornetto Trilogy), consisting of 2004’s ‘Shaun of the Dead’, 2007’s ‘Hot Fuzz’, and finally, 2013’s ‘The World’s End’. Now, at first glance it may seem that these three films have nothing in common because aside from the fact that all three are directed by Edgar Wright and star Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in the lead roles (along with some recurring cast members), each film is part of a different genre. What links them together, you ask? Cornetto Ice Cream, that’s what. It makes an appearance in every one of the movies. Ok, in reality this is mainly just a joke that Wright and Pegg came up with after ‘Hot Fuzz’, but whether or not you consider these films a trilogy, one thing has been certain; these are fantastic films. The previous two films in this ‘trilogy’, ‘Shaun of the Dead’ and ‘Hot Fuzz’, are two of the greatest comedies in recent years, and ‘The World’s End’ is no different. Is it the funniest of the three? Not really, but it’s probably the smartest and a fitting conclusion to this ‘trilogy’.

When they were teenagers, five friends; Gary King (Simon Pegg), Andy Knightley (Nick Frost), Oliver Chamberlain (Martin Freeman), Steven Prince (Paddy Considine), and Peter Page (Eddie Marsan), attempted ‘The Golden Mile’, an infamous pub crawl in their hometown of Newton Haven consisting of 12 pubs starting with ‘The First Post’ and ending at the fabled ‘The World’s End’. However, they never made it to ‘The World’s End’. 20 years later, Gary reassembles ‘the old team’ to attempt ‘the Mile’ once again and together the five friends head back to their hometown. When they return, though, they realize that something is different about their town and they soon learn the reason why. The residents of the town have been replaced by invading robots. As the five friends try to survive the night, completing ‘The Golden Mile’ soon becomes the least of their worries.

You have to hand it to writers Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg for these three movies because they are more than just comedies. With ‘Shaun of the Dead’, it was a zombie film, romance film, and comedy film all rolled into one; a loving homage to George A. Romero’s ‘Dead’ series. ‘Hot Fuzz’ was inspired by numerous action films from the 80’s and 90’s. As for ‘The World’s End’, it is, obviously, a sci-fi comedy, and here it seems like they’re mainly taking inspiration from ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’. But how does the film fare as a comedy? Well, like with the last two ‘Cornetto’ films, it is very hilarious. Is it the funniest of the trilogy? Not really, but I’d say this film holds the honor of being the smartest written, with a good cast of fleshed-out characters and a few touching moments here and there. The film is very entertaining from beginning to end and there’s never a dull moment.

A lot of this is thanks to the great cast. As the two leads, Pegg and Frost are once again terrific. The dynamic between the two is a little different here than it was in the last two films. Here, Frost’s character Andy is actually rather pissed off at Pegg’s character Gary for an incident that happened years before. In fact, Frost is playing the ‘straight man’ compared to Pegg this time around (sort of a first in this trilogy) and, without spoiling anything, he has some badass moments in this film. But while Pegg and Frost headline the movie as they did in the last two films, the rest of the cast is terrific as well. You can definitely see the great camaraderie that the five friends have and it never feels like Pegg and Frost are overshadowing the other three. Freeman, Considine, and Marsan all have their own great moments in this film.

‘The World’s End’ is one of the most entertaining films of the year. In a year where a lot of comedies have not been that good, this is easily the best comedy of the year so far. I can’t really say that it’s the best, or even the funniest, film in the ‘Cornetto Trilogy’; even that’s up for debate as all three of these films are excellent for their own reasons. But ‘The World’s End’ is probably the smartest of the three thanks in part to its fleshed out characters and Wright and Pegg’s clever writing that has been consistent throughout the trilogy. Whether or not the ‘Cornetto Trilogy’ stands as a true ‘trilogy’ is up for debate, but in the end (no pun intended), they are three of the best comedies of the last decade. It’s just sad that, despite the fact that these are much-loved films, they never do well at the box office (the fact that this might get out grossed by ‘Grown Ups 2’ is just sad).

Rating: 5/5! (The same rating I also give to ‘Shaun of the Dead’ and ‘Hot Fuzz’)