Film Review: THE WORLD’S END (2013)

Director: Edgar Wright
Writers: Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg
Running time: 109 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 15

Genre: Action/Comedy/Sci-Fi
UK Release date: 19^th July 2013

Watched at the cinema Sunday 15^th September 2013.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE UNINTENTIONAL SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

Finally managed to catch up with ‘The World’s End’. I had wanted to see it since it was announced although the more I found out about it the more I feared a clone of ‘Shaun of the Dead’. I will tell you whether I thought it was or not at the end. It certainly hits all the right comic notes with Pegg and Frost to the fore (as expected). Here’s a very brief (& spoiler-free) summary before I give you my thoughts.

Gary King (Simon Pegg), a 40 year old man desperately trying to cling to his youth, is trying to put the old gang back together. His quest, to complete a legendary pub crawl they had failed to complete twenty years ago. The other members of the group are Andy Knightley (Nick Frost), Oliver Chamberlain (Martin Freeman), Steven Prince (Paddy Considine) and Peter Page (Eddie Marsan). They are returning to the town they all grew up in, Newton Haven, for the legendary ‘Golden Mile’ pub crawl; twelve pubs, twelve pints in one night. But when they get there all it not what it seems. There, said it would be brief and I’ve probably told you a lot less than you could get from the trailer.

Very well made with all the usual tropes you expect from and Edgar Wright/Simon Pegg script. There are an awful lot of references to their past work and very subtle nods to other films along the way. I guess you’d have to watch it many times to get them all. All the performances were excellent with Frost and Pegg taking centre stage (of course) but with the talent on show, nobody could really put a foot wrong. Oh, and I have to mention Rosamund Pike who plays the female lead, Sam Chamberlain, I thought she was excellent as well. So was it just a clone of ‘Shaun of the Dead’? Well, it has many similarities but the characters are all different and the antagonist is also different. So not a direct clone but you can see where it came from. Over all, I liked it, an entertaining romp well worth a look.

SteelMonster’s verdict: RECOMMENDED

My score: 7.7/10.

IMDb Score: 7.6/10 (based on 26,613 votes when this review was written).
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1213663/

MetaScore: 81/100: (Based on 45 critic reviews provided by Metacritic.com at the time of going to press).

Rotten Tomatoes ‘Tomatometer’ Score: 89/100: (based on 184 reviews counted at the time of going to press).

Rotten Tomatoes ‘Audience’ Score: 80/100: (based on 56,125 user ratings counted at the time of going to press).
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_worlds_end/

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LINKS:
(Note: All were working at the time of going to press)
Official Site (UK): http://www.theworldsend-movie.com/uk/
Official Site (Focus Features): http://www.focusfeatures.com/the_worlds_end
Official Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheWorldsEndMovieUK?brand_redir=1
Trailer: