Movie #152 2020: The World’s End (2013)

We end our whistle stop tour of the Cornetto Trilogy with its thrilling conclusion: The World’s End.

Perhaps the most ‘British’ of the trilogy, (yes, they’re all very British, but this is something else), we follow Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and co. on their final outing, which entails an almighty pub crawl through the village in which they grew up. This is not just a movie about some lads on a drinking binge however, as things soon take a surprise (or not so surprise if you’re reading this thoroughly) sci-fi turn. Yep. I said sci-fi. Just like that, the bloke gang are now responsible for saving the entire universe.

The humour within this movie is possibly the most British of them all too, and that’s the only reason I can muster for it to be the lowest rated of the three. In my opinion, this is a better movie than Shaun of the Dead, but its British-isms are so deep-rooted in British culture and the British psyche that I can understand why it might be more difficult for other nationalities to get completely on board with it.

In my opinion though, this movie had the best script of the three. There are some clever zingers, and a bunch of one liners that really had me cackling. My favourite line of the film came from Pegg’s unruly, drug addict character: ”We’ll always have the disableds”. I won’t provide any context to that here though for fear of ruining the joke.

As with all of this trilogy, the cast was once again outstanding. David Bradley makes his mandatory cameo (and ends up being one of the funniest parts about the whole thing), and even Oscar-nominee Rosamund Pike showed up as a childhood sweetheart, albeit before said Oscar nomination came about.

The best part about this film? That. Soundtrack. Just take a look at a snippet of the track listing here:

1. Loaded – Primal Scream
2. Step On – Happy Mondays
3. Fool’s Gold – The Stone Roses
4. This Is How It Feels – Inspiral Carpets
5. Happy Hour – The Housemartins

I mean… Come on! There’s no shortage of absolute 90s Britpop anthems in this, which is very clever as they are all songs that were presumably around when the characters were in school. It’s simply brilliant, and possibly the best soundtrack (scores not included) of any movie I’ve seen so far this year. Remember, this marks the 152nd new film on TQR – not an easy feat!

The most flaw-filled part of this movie is – quite annoyingly – the conclusion. It all just becomes very convoluted and too lengthy, meaning the ending is not wrapped up neatly but rather thrown into a brown paper bag and plonked in front of you.

Aside from that, this is a solid conclusion to Edgar Wright‘s trio of first big blockbuster feature films, especially considering that perhaps it may not have been made were it the proposed first movie of the trilogy.

A resounding recommendation for everyone – particularly the Brits.

The World’s End is available to stream on Sky Cinema and Now TV in the UK.

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