Film review - The World's End

This isn’t a must-see movie—the language is coarse and the film focuses on heavy drinking—but The World’s End isn’t as mindless as you might think. You could watch it as mere slapstick humour, but there are deeper ideas at play: friendship, growing up, nostalgic longing and the place of alcohol in today’s society.

The final in a loose ‘trilogy’ of comedies about mayhem in small-town Britain (Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz), The World’s End is written by director Wright and star Simon Pegg. Pegg plays Gary King, who hasn’t moved on since he was the cool kid in high school. But was Gary really ‘the king’, or did it just look that way through his often drunk and stoned eyes?

Gary is still driving the same car, wearing the same clothes and listening to the same music as in the ’90s, but his mates have moved on. That’s until Gary persuades Andy (Nick Frost), Oliver (Martin Freeman), Steven (Paddy Considine) and Peter (Eddie Marsan) to revisit their home town of Newton Haven so the ‘Five Musketeers’ can knock off an unfinished ‘epic’ pub crawl through 12 local pubs, ending with one called ‘The World’s End’.

As with their previous two films, nothing is what it seems. Newton Haven has been taken over by a sinister force. And this is where we see the effect of alcohol on our heroes. Although the danger around them is ever clearer, alcohol makes them increasingly blind to even the most obvious of clues.

Two of the five actors (Pegg and Marsan) don’t drink, Freeman hardly does, and the remaining two have reportedly cut back hugely. Yet all did a brilliant job of illustrating the increasing unattractiveness and sometimes idiocy of those heavily under the influence.

Anyone connected in any way to Salvation Army addictions work will have heard stories of people who wish they’d never let alcohol get a grip on their lives. Decades later, there’s a path of hurt, broken relationships and missed opportunities; and today, they face the consequences: regret, limited life choices, loneliness and poor health. A depressed ‘world’s end’ is the outcome for some. Others make a stand, get help and start again. For ideas about how to do that, go to www.salvationarmy.org.nz/addictions

Review by Christina Tyson

The World's End
Genre: Sci-fi Comedy
Director: Edgar Wright
Rating: R13 (violence, offensive language, sexual references)
Running time: 108 mins