The World's End Review: A Toast to a Life Half Lived.

Before I get all critical, I'd like to plop this clip from the end of The Wire on your face. If you always meant to get around to it, then skip on down, it's easily the best monologue the show ever had. But for the curious, this is essentially what The World's End is all about:

Sh*t just got real up in this action comedy review.

The work of Edgar Wright holds a very special place in my movie lover's heart. I've seen the best of the best. Citizen Kane, The Man who would be King, Schindler's List, classics new and old. But my favorite movie, the one I've watched more than twice as many times as any other, is Hot Fuzz. I love it to pieces. It's so funny, so well constructed, acted, and executed. To me, it's the perfect movie. Come at me film critics, and to a lesser extent Shaun of the dead fans (still great, but not as great), I will defend the Fuzz to the bitter, bloody end.

Did the World's End live up to it? I don't see why that's necessary. I can critique it without holding it to my single highest standard for film making. But if, hypothetically, I did view it as a contender to my all time favorite film, did it live up to it? Yes. Yes it f**king did.

No one from this day forth will be able to doubt the acting chops of either Pegg or Frost. They are no longer just talented comedians because they both turn in spectacular performances that would be praise worthy even if they weren't a complete 180 from past roles. Pegg in particular stuns as Gary King, a developmentally arrested 40 year old who sees a failed attempt at an all night pub crawl as the high point of his entire life. In an attempt to recapture that feeling literally decades too late, he corrals his old pals together for one more shot at the infamous "Golden Mile." Gary's an addict. Not a nice guy who just needs someone to believe in him (or hollywood) addict, but a conniving and unbearable lost cause.

STOP! ...in the name of loooooooove.

The simple fact the film doesn't collapse under the weight of such a downer of  a lead character, comedy or not, is a major miracle. Pegg owns every aspect of Gary, he's simultaneously pathetic and magnetic. You roll with his bull, just like his friends do, because you just can't look away. Frost finally gets to be the straight man and shows a much more dramatic side than I ever thought I'd see from him. He used to be Gary's best friend but (dot dot dot, ellipses) I'm not gonna spoil it for you here. It's a damn good bombshell.  

But what of the sci-fi action half of the movie? This is a Wright joint, isn't it? That should answer your question. It raises a worthy philosophical conundrum that could work divorced from Gary's story, but manages to mix together to make both greater than the sum of thier parts. Again, it's a Wright move, of course that's what happened.

The usual meticulous details abound, the pubs all foreshadow plot points and blink and you'll miss the green cornetto. There's some great cameos from the other films as well as another James Bond.   Suffice it to say, you're gonna want to see it more than once. Oh, and see if you can guess Bill Nighy's role.

I'm at a loss of what else to say, it's a great movie from a great trilogy, there's really nothing else to discuss. Maybe you've heard the ending is weird or uncomfortable. Yeah, I guess it is, but it's still ballsy and I respect the hell out of it. Just go in with an open mind and don't expect the lighter endings of Shaun and Fuzz.

But uh... I've already said too much.