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There’s something that rang true about Simon Pegg’s character, Gary King, in the last of the Cornetto trilogy, The World’s End.
And that is that we’re witness to a man who finished school in June 1990, thought he could take on the world and, to this day, still behaves like a big kid with no intention of getting married, having children or settling down in any shape or form. All of those apply to me, although I went to University from 1990 to 1993. Then again, I mostly drank a lot while I was there, graduating with a proud 2:2.
Gary King’s plan is to, as they say in the Blues Brothers, “get the band back together”, a line used here which also has additional depth, and it’s little touches like that in Pegg & Wright’s script which makes it such a joy to watch. He wants to complete ‘The Golden Mile’, a pub crawl of 12 ale houses in their hometown of Newton Haven, which they weren’t able to complete first time round. At one pint per pub, that should total 60 pints, except for the fact that Andy (Nick Frost) has been tee-total ever since “the accident”… something we’re not privy to until the script tells us at the appropriate time.
He faces resistance from them all, none of whom really want anything to do with them, but if he didn’t find a way of persuading them then this would be a very short film. Once they’ve arrived and are starting their pub crawl, the plot folds out in a relatively surprise-free but pleasing way. I say ‘surprise-free’ because while there is something about Newton Haven which has definitely changed since they arrived, it’s already been splashed about in the trailer. If you haven’t seen that, then I won’t spoil it, but it’s safe to say that it’s a well-known fact that in this film, the end of the world is upon them.
All I’ll say is that I wasn’t expecting a film as good as Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz, as this appears, on the face of it, to be a straight-forward comedy about a long-awaited pub crawl – and it plays out in fairly linear fashion for a while – but the writing from Pegg and Wright is consistent, the reaction to the weird situations is consistent and, quite frankly, there is nothing to find fault with, here, bringing the ‘Cornetto Trilogy’ to an end in superb style. There was even a nice hint of Douglas Adams at one point.
And I had to laugh when, early on in ths credits, I saw that the music supervisor was Nick Angel. I presume he was the inspiration for Simon Pegg’s character’s name in Hot Fuzz.
On a music note, there’s so many good songs in it, mainly from around 1990, such as Primal Scream – Loaded, Soup Dragons – I’m Free, Suede – So Young and Happy Mondays – Step On. In fact – check out the soundtrack album which has 20 music tracks on it, plus 8 dialogue segments.
Of the copious cast, Pegg and Frost do what they do best when working with Edgar Wright and it works a treat. Martin Freeman, Paddy Considine and Eddie Marsan provide spot-on backup with their fellow roles as, respectively, estate agent, property developer and car salesman, on the pub crawl, Marsan playing a nice character for a change, compared to the angry/nasty character he normally appears as, and at which he excels. Considine appears in a role in which you’d normally expect to see Craig Parkinson, most recently seen as Glyn in ITV’s sadly cancelled Great Night Out.
The only weak link in the main cast is Rosamund Pike as Sam, brother to Freeman and object of desire to Considine, but that’s because I never thought she could act her way out of a paper bag. She proved that in Die Another Day, Jack Reacher and now here, too.
There’s also great support from all concerned, including Mark Heap as a publican, Julia Deakin, Pierce Brosnan as their former teacher Guy Shephard, Bill Nighy in a voiceover role I won’t reveal here and David Bradley as mad old man Basil, and note that while the actor appeared in the last series of Doctor Who, he’ll also be featuring in a new, related, documentary as William Hartnell, who played the original Doctor.
Go to page 2 for my conclusions.
For me, the trio of Pegg/Frost/Wright only work best when they’re all together. I wasn’t drawn to Paul and I didn’t get Scott Pilgrim Vs The World, only managing to get halfway through it before calling it a day, as it just didn’t work for me in any way. To be fair, I’m not a big comic book fan, so the style it portrayed just looked way too outlandish, but I had a feeling that would be the outcome when I tried it.
If I had a slight niggle – and this isn’t a spoiler – it’s that the credits begin with The Housemartins‘ Happy Hour, which in a way is fair enough as it’s a song about drinking in pubs, which is what the film is about. However, it then goes onto The Sisters of Mercy‘s This Corrosion which would’ve been a far stronger kick at the end – especially given *how* the film ends – and also because Gary’s favourite band is The Sisters of Mercy. I’m not sure what would’ve followed is, as it needed a further song to play during the end credits, but the Housemartins feels a bit twee by comparison.
And, yes, I’m one of those people who stays for the end credits – and, damn, did the Sisters of Mercy sound wonderful booming out through the auditorium.
Cert: 
Running time: 109 minutes
Year: 2013
Released: July 19th 2013
Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Super 35)
Rating: 10/10
Director: Edgar Wright
Producers: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and Nira Park
Screenplay: Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg
Music: Steven Price
Cast:
Gary King: Simon Pegg
Andrew Knightley: Nick Frost
Oliver: Martin Freeman
Peter: Eddie Marsan
Steven: Paddy Considine
Sam: Rosamund Pike
The Network: Bill Nighy
Guy Shephard: Pierce Brosnan
Basil: David Bradley
Publican: Mark Heap
Young Gary: Thomas Law
Fitness Instructor (26): Jenny Bede
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.
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