The World’s End
General Information:
Released: 8/23/2013
Opened: #4, 1551 Theaters
Current Box Office Numbers:$38,883,387 (as of 9/9/2013)
Metacritic: 81 of 100 & 8.5 User Rating
Rotten Tomatoes Aggregated So Far: 90% Critics & 80% Audience Approval
IMDB Profile
Movie Website
Editorial Biases:
I had not seen a single trailer on this film (at all) when I went to see it. I gained early screening access to do a review. That was my notice this film existed. It simply slipped through the cracks. I had virtually no notions of what this film was going to be, and seeing the poster on my way into my screening, I figured it was a British Comedy with a variety of actors I love watching in British Comedies…Cheers, Carry on then!
The Good
This was dumb idiotic fun, virtually purposeless, but still had a variety of complexities in it’s primary character that related to me on a deeply personal level; having the same set of issues with a close personal friend that was also trapped 20 years in our past, unable to grow up. It was interesting to see such a dramatically drastic approach to that archetypal personality. While at first I was getting irritated, because of my connection to the same type of walking human disaster. I was fixated on the screen. So this movie related to me in one aspect of my life. The other characters related to me in terms of what I became, but not completely. Because i'm sort of an amalgam of the wild and the contained. But message received, and accepted; so (generally) mission accomplished.
The Bad
The opening story arc, because I had no expectation of the insanity that would occur later in ths film, let me to believe this was an insipid British version of Beerfest (somewhat). That drove me mad, at first, because the repetitive nature of the Gary King character. I wanted to stab myself in the ear. Repeatedly. Because I was having trouble associating such an over the top exacerbation of the archetype. Eventhough the DNA of the personality was completely familiar, and I was gaining the body twitches my friend would give me when I simply wanted to exit the situation. It simply kept me there in this moment for 30 minutes or so, not moving on after the point was made.
The Ugly
The film picked up In a direction that went from crazy stupid to interesting and had an amazingly random ending that caught me by surprise. Which I loved, but then decided to kill itself completely with an absolutely stupid closing. I could have been happy without it. It almost seemed a dirty need to use a dumb one-liner joke that had been waiting to be used; only remembered at the last minute and tossed into the film in post.
The Great
The crazy alien invasion twist with the awkward and hilarious British humor tidbits were exceptionally funny, and an absolutely welcome surprise. I definitely laughed at the end of the film with the great booming "oz-like" voice having a one sided argument. We see this type of comedy in much of Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and Martin Freeman’s films. All completely welcome. All completely hilarious.
…and, Amazing?
I absolutely loved Nick Frosts take on his character in this film. Perhaps I’ve missed a few of his passed movies; however being used to his work in Shawn of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Hyperdrive, and Paul, among his many others. This character had a great set of believable serious tones. Frost can actually do dramatic characters well! He delivered mature and frustrated adult beautifully, I didn't just dismiss him as an idiot character. His performance was honest and stoic.
I also loved Eddie Marsan, his role was sweet, and innocent; something completely different (surprising) from the usual dirty bastard characters he plays. A complete departure from his role on Ray Donovan as an example. A series I watch religiously, where Marsan plays one of three Irish brothers who suffers from Parkinson’s.
Simon Pegg was equally phenomenal. Simply, phenomenal! He completely drove me insane by connecting me to my past. An old friend who was literally trapped in high school for the better half of my post-high school years, until we simply drove each other (so far) apart in our maturity that I didn’t want to see this person anymore. His performance confronted me with this person all over again. He was certainly over the top, but having experienced someone like this, for most of my life, he was eerily too close to the chest; uncanny.
I’m sure many of us have someone like this in our life. Possibly just a master manipulator we love to hate. I wasn't sure if the film was going to take it to the lesson learned and epiphany of finding oneself…blah blah blah. Instead it took us deeper into that persons asshole mentality, filter listening, and perfectly demonstrated “F*** you to the world I’m free, eat bags of deeze!” persona. That in itself was more the trip in the film than anything else. Learning to accept that he is in fact a complete and utter asshole, even in the face of certain doom; falling in the middle of an alien invasion, and literally irritating them to the point of the be-all-end-all “F*** Off!”
What Might have Hurt This Film…
The film opened at 4th but has been showing financial success already accomplishing nearly twice its budget in the box office, with some more time in the theaters and eventual home and digital releases; it will more than likely be a complete financial success. However it opened with an R rating. I’m still not completely sure why it needed an R rating, the language was milder than most PG-13 films, there wasn’t any nudity (that I can remember), and virtually no blood. The violence was comical, and short of blue liquid shooting out of the people they struck; a PG-13 rating on this film could have led it to #1 opening in the theaters. Further showing how most of Hollywood and foreign film studios will usually fight for PG-13 over R to gain broader audiences equaling in high revenues.
While the film itself was fun, witty, and full of the usual British charms, it did have a ridiculously annoying 20-30 minute deluge of boring dialogue in the opening, while my initial connection to the film was the main character, had I known more of what I was to expect, I may have been more inclined to want the tedious amount of character development to end sooner. The opening sequences of flashbacks were phenomenal and sufficed for the bulk of the storylines needs; without so much unnecessary and irrelevant character development.
Overall Verdict?
This was an extremely fun film with a crazy ending. While the opening sequences sucked me in, the tedium of the early character development drove me a little nuts, and the very end scene killed what was an awesome plot twist; what I thought was already a perfect ending to the film. But those are nitpicks and not really major issues. If you also happen to be fans of these actors and their brand of British comedy, you will end up loving the film even more, especially given the showcasing of some of their acting ranges outside of their norms.
4 out of 5 Movie Geeks will love it!
Have you seen The World’s End yet? Are you planning to? Did this review help you? Do you agree, disagree? I want to hear from you! Comment, share, tweet, pin, whatever tickles your fancy.
@EmanuelFCamacho