Wright stays true to the formula of his previous two forays into the genre. He casts Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in the main roles, throws them into a town with just a couple people on their side, and some horrible, fantastic, surreal disaster slowly builds up as they venture on.
Pegg plays against type compared with his sane-man performances in Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead, this time as alcoholic man-child Gary King. King of the cool kids and leader of his pack of friends back in his high school years, Gary longs to finish a quest the group once attempted as kids—to go on one long crawl through all twelve pubs in their hometown. It’s been twenty years since, and everyone has moved on but him, so Gary manipulates, lies, and guilt-trips his working pals, played convincingly by actors such as Nick Frost, Martin Freeman, and Paddy Cosidine into coming along.
Finally back in Newton Haven, they begin their crawl, but slowly get the feeling that something’s not right. People are staring at them, the town’s been developed more, and though so many people from their childhood are there, no one seems to know who these pack of five are. Is it just the effect of time and growing older, or is there a deeper plot and some well-executed science fiction and social commentary beneath the façade?
The film moves at an incredibly fast pace, with quick editing, rapid camera movement, and constant suspense. One early fight scene makes use of some clever editing to create a mirage of one constant long-take, as the camera rapidly, but fluidly, shifts from one protagonist to the next. You see every single second of the fight, which comes as a welcome break from the monotonous shaky-cam festivities modern audiences have gotten used to.
Violence is lower than Wright’s other collaborative efforts, but your cathartic dark comedy desires will be satisfied. Given that it’s five grown men undergoing a high-school challenge, the laughs flow as quickly as the beer from the taps. They visit each and every pub, with no montages to hurry the plot along. Instead, the twisting and turning narrative engrosses on its own.
Actors give it their all, with Pegg stealing the show as usual. Tricking his friends into coming along by playing with their emotions, “borrowing” from them all these years, and yet having more free will than all of them combined, you love Gary and sympathize with him just as much as you envy and despise him. Freeman’s in prime form, as is Frost, both playing business men who are so guilt-tripped by Gary that despite their friendship, you get the feeling they really hate him.
Surprisingly, the film contains a good deal of well-developed characters and maturely addresses Gary’s problems in a moving way that feels much less jarring than Wright’s previous efforts at incorporating drama into Shaun. The side characters are more forgettable than you’d expect, even with Pierce Brosnan present. Bill Nighy proves an exception—keep your eyes (or rather ears) open for him.
Despite some slip-ups with the writing, The World’s End is a brilliant way to close out the summer. Wright aficionados will spot some in-jokes, but the film remains accessible to everyone. It’s a dark comedy with heart. Remarkably original, quick, well-acted, and if you only ever see one movie this fall, it’d make the perfect beginning and end.
