Gary King, a middle-aged alcoholic (Simon Pegg), tracks down his estranged schoolfriends and persuades them to complete “the Golden Mile”, a pub crawl encompassing the 12 pubs of their hometown of Newton Haven. The group attempted the crawl as teenagers, but failed to reach the final pub, The World’s End. Gary arrives in Newton Haven with friends Peter Page (Eddie Marsan), Oliver “O-Man” Chamberlain (Martin Freeman), Steven Prince (Paddy Considine), and Andy Knightley (Nick Frost). The group is briefly joined for a drink by Oliver’s sister Sam (Rosamund Pike), whose affections Gary and Steven fought over in school. As they attempt to reconcile the past and present, they realize the real struggle is for the future, not just theirs but humankind’s. Reaching The World’s End is the least of their worries…
“The World’s End” completes what Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright refer to as “The Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy” consisting of “Shaun of the Dead” (2004), “Hot Fuzz” (2007) and “The World’s End” (2013). I personally have´t liked any of these films to be honest as the makers Pegg & Frost move around in a comic sphere that simply doesn´t appeal to me. The irony in this is that I don´t like their collaborations, but I think they do quite ok stuff separately. Simon Pegg is great in both the Mission Impossible franchaise and the Star Trek franchaise for example. It´s them together that sparks ridiculous teen comedy I don´t like or laugh at. But, what they have succeeded with in this one is a great set of supporting actors in Marsan, Freeman, Considine and Pike. All does a good job. While Pegg´s character is just one of those ones you hate throughout the movie despite his sad and lost life to alcohol. You recognise the type and I think we all have bumped into that sort of person in our lives and that´s not someone you will invite back. A person who will alienate himself due to his obnoxious ways of making people feel like crap to make himself feel a bit better. Initially there´s a spark as the old school friends come together and the dynamics flies between them. But, that dies when the movie becomes “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” and a tiresome homage to that sort of movies. The best part are the supporting actors (and it´s always a pleasure to see the lovely/talented Rosamund Pike) and the phenomenal 90´s soundtrack. (2 and a half out of 5)
