THE WORLD'S END (2013 - COMEDY) ***1/2 out of *****
(Holy shite, mates, what did you put in those bloody drinks?)
CAST: Simon Pegg, Paddy Considine, Rosamund Pike, Nick Frost, Martin Freeman, Eddie Marsan, Pierce Brosnan, Rafe Spall.
DIRECTOR: Edgar Wright
WARNING: Some SPOILERS and a few compelling reasons to go an English pub crawl - straight ahead...
IT'S LIKE THIS: Ah, the Pub Crawl... if there was a drinking tradition recognized on both sides of the Atlantic, it's this one. There is just something so exhilarating about spending the whole evening going from bar to bar (or in England, from pub to pub) until a bunch of fairly intelligent, civilized, and sophisticated individuals are all reduced to standing on a street corner, arms around each other, belching out a truly awful group rendition of Sinead O'Connor's "Nothing Compares 2 U." Not that I would know anything about that. Ahem.
Anyhow, our latest flick revolves around an epic pub crawl - on more levels than one. Our heroes are childhood friends who reunite when they are already in their 40s (Or are they still in 30s or even 20s? Hard to tell with some Brits. Sorry…) for one last hurrah that involves hitting all the major drinking holes in the rural English town they grew up in - and ending at the legendary tavern called "The World's End". Our mates are: (1) Gary King (Simon Pegg), punky ringleader who apparently hasn't aged a day, mentally, because he still dresses like the lead singer from "A Flock of Seagulls"; (2) Andy Knightley (Nick Frost), Gary's right-hand man who has certainly aged, mentally and physically, and is now a high-powered business executive; (3) Steven Prince (Paddy Considine), mellow middle-of-the-roader of the group who has mellowed out even more as the years have gone by; (4) Peter Page (Eddie Marsan), follow-the-leader lackey who still gets bossed around by Gary; and (5) Oliver Chamberlain (Martin Freeman), uppity jerk of the group who has grown up to be an even more uppity barrister or something.
Our five heroes reunite at their old stomping grounds - and the pub crawl gets off to an awkward start. For starters, it appears that Andy refuses to drink anything stronger than ice water these days. For seconds, it appears most of the pubs along the path have all been taken over by some facelessly-bland corporate monster and now resemble antiseptically sterile Starbucks-with-booze joints. And for desserts, all the townspeople are acting quite strangely and giving Gary, Andy, Steven, Oliver, and Peter all sorts of strange looks. Then again, if I saw a bunch of pasty, pudgy middle-aged men acting like they were eighteen all over again, I would stare too. Just keeping it real, folks...
Before you know it, however, Gary is accosted by a punky chav (read: street thug) in the bathroom. However, before you start thinking some fucked-up sexual encounter ensues, let me disabuse of that hopeful notion: the chav turns out to be a robot (or something) with inky-blue blood (and not the royal kind, thank you very much) and attempts to kill Gary. Then Andy, Steven, Oliver, and Peter show up - and so do the chav's other robot buddies. Before you know it, the fight is on and we have a bizarre version of the gang battle from WEST SIDE STORY unfolding in a pub bathroom.
Needless to say, the night pretty much goes downhill from there, as it turns out the entire town has been taken over by aliens - and they've been plotting a takeover from this centralized location for years. And it appears Gary and the lads have more to worry about now than not being able to stumble as far as The World's End for that last round of ale. Will they be able to fight the aliens? And who is left that is still human who can help? Andy's hot sister, Sam (Rosamund Pike), whom both Gary and Steven have loved since they were kids? Or will she cross to the dark side? How will the End of the World be, um, ended? How should our lads face down this horrible situation?
With another pint of lager, of course! Cheers!
BUT, SERIOUSLY: When people ask me what the difference is between American and British humor, instead of citing the distinctions as I once would, I now tell them the following: "watch RUNAWAY BRIDE and NOTTING HILL, back-to-back." These two films were 1999 Julia Roberts romantic comedies that were both box-office hits, and both told the same age-old "boy-meets-girl, boy-loves-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-wins-girl-back, and-they-lived-happily-ever-after" story we've seen a hundred times before. The distinction, however, is that the former is an American film and the latter is British.
Despite the surface differences between her characters in RUNAWAY BRIDE and NOTTING HILL, Roberts essentially played the same woman: an alluring, enigmatic American who entrances everyone she meets - but is absolutely elusive and "un-catchable," which frustrates the smitten man (played by Richard Gere and Hugh Grant, respectively) pursuing her. What sets these two films apart is the humor used: RUNAWAY BRIDE (set in Maryland, USA) displays broad humor that leans more to slapstick and is pratfall-oriented, while NOTTING HILL (set in London, England) uses a more nuanced and droll touch, relying more on clever word-play and subtle wit. That, in a nutshell, is the difference between American and British humor.
This summer, we ran into the same scenario: two films that have strong common links - but are still very different from one another: THIS IS THE END and THE WORLD'S END. Both movies revolve around a group of male friends or acquaintances. Both movies pivot on the subject of Armageddon. Both films portray this normally-serious matter for laughs. Both films weave subtexts about friendship and loyalty into their narrative fabric. And both films have the word "End" in their titles. That is where the similarities end, because just like with RUNAWAY BRIDE and NOTTING HILL, the former is thoroughly American in its execution, while the latter is unmistakably British. Which is funnier, though? Without question, the title must go to... THIS IS THE END.
Let me be clear that I love British humor and the cleverness of it (and its surprisingly ribald quality). I also prefer NOTTING HILL to RUNAWAY BRIDE, not just because it is a better and more heartfelt love story, but also due to its wonderfully unique humor that manages to be intelligent and edgy at the same time. However, in the race between THIS IS THE END and THE WORLD'S END, the former wins because it is simply more brilliantly inspired and clever than the latter. That isn't to say that THE WORLD'S END isn't funny - it is. It simply doesn't have the "lightning-in-a-bottle" quality that propels a good comedy to become an excellent one - which is what THIS IS THE END has in abundance.
One reason for this film's lower standing is the length of time it takes for the laughs to actually roll down the pipe, in full. During the first act when we get to know the boys, we get some clever bits here and there, but not enough. And I have to wonder if this "fleshing-out-the-characters" section couldn't have been written with more "spark." Quite simply, this British fivesome doesn't have the same combustible chemistry as their American counterparts in THIS IS THE END, which made even their smallest exchanges irresistible to watch. Also, THE WORLD'S END's premise of an alien invasion plays out less engagingly than THIS IS THE END's large-scale destruction. The stand-off against the chav robots in the bathroom, and the whole discovery of the "aliens-in-our-midst" thread that follows, feels more amusing than genuinely hilarious.
What saves THE WORLD'S END is a bravura third act where true laughs finally come fast and furious. This whole section (particularly Gary, Steven, and Andy's final confrontation with the disembodied voice of the head baddie) automatically elevates the movie to a ***1/2 (good) rating. If only Simon Pegg (co-writer of the script in addition to playing Gary) had found a way to energize the first and second acts of the film and bring on the big comedic guns much earlier, it would stand head-and-shoulders next to THIS IS THE END.
Pegg does well in the lead role, even if Gary is markedly less amusing than the other leads he played in SHAUN OF THE DEAD, SUPER FUZZ, and even PAUL. Pegg's usual co-star Nick Frost is solid as Andy, while Paddy Considine, Martin Freeman, and Eddie Marsan do their best with roles that feel underwritten. Rosamund Pike, who debuted impressively as "ice-princess Bond Girl" Miranda Frost in DIE ANOTHER DAY back in 2002 and has since found success in "serious" roles, proves here she can do comedy, too, and hang with the boys. But, like some of the male characters, her character of Sam is also sketchily-drawn and underused.
In the end, I love all things British (particularly British cinema and television like DOWNTON ABBEY) and often err on the side of their humor (as with NOTTING HILL vs. RUNAWAY BRIDE). However, in the case of the showdown between THIS IS THE END and THE WORLD'S END, I'm afraid that, this time, the trophy goes to the Americans...
