Synopsis: Gary King (Simon Pegg) persuades his mates from childhood to return to their home town to try and complete the infamous 'golden mile' pub crawl but they soon discover that not all is well in the town.
Stan's thoughts: Was listening to a discussion about The World's End on Radio 4 last night (rock and roll I know) and they spent a lot of time talking about it as a film about not growing up and growing up too much.
I do sometimes think high-brow arts programmes look a little too closely at films that have been made as pop corn fodder and that isn't to disrespect the film-makers, pop corn films have an important entertainment role. I certainly didn't buy my ticket expecting something deep and meaningful, I just wanted something diverting and funny. I'm not thinking about nuanced character portrayals when they are joking about having sex in the disabled loo.
So is it any good? Well, maybe I've moved on from this type of film or Edgar Wright et al have used up all their best ideas because while were a handful of good laugh out loud moments it wasn't Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz. In the case of the former replace zombies with robots that spout blue ink when they are decapitated and it is pretty much the same.
It isn't helped that Gary is an extremely annoying character and his big character reveal comes a little too late to really make for any emotional impact. The World's End was at times funny but it was also at times a little boring. Gary's friends exchange a look when they realise just how many more pubs they will have to visit, on an evening that is already proving trying and I knew just how they felt.
Ratings
- Stan's: 50%
- IMDB: 77%
- Metascore: 77%
- Rotten Tomatoes: 89%
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