Writer/Director Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost have (of course) collaborated on what's become called the Cornetto trilogy - with three different flavors of the British ice cream featuring in Easter egg style in each of the Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and the last entrant: The World's End. Edgar Wright wrote and directed all three films, and in doing so has expertly spoofed/paid tribute to three very different genres while simultaneously making damn fine examples of the genres. (In a very British way, of course) Wright has one of the most unique voices and eyes in film today, and can do as much with a quick cut as some other directors can with an extended scene. Compared with most comedies today, which basically consist of letting funny people riff off of one another, Wright's crisp filmmaking is refreshing and occasionally jarring. As a result of the 2012 Mayan apocalypse nonsense, we got two end times comedies in 2013, the very funny This Is The End, featuring Franco, Rogen, Hill and co., and now the British take. So let's take a look.
Simon Pegg (Gary), Nick Frost (Andy), Martin Freeman (Oliver), Paddy Considine (Steven) and Eddie Marsan (Peter) are long-lost childhood friends (maybe mates is more applicable here) who have long since gone their separate ways and moved on from their small town childhoods which basically consisted of raising hell under the spell of man-child rabble rouser Gary. Gary, now a middle aged alcoholic, decides to track down his long lost friends 20 years later in order to complete "the Golden Mile", a 12 pub crawl in their hometown that was attempted but never completed by the friends on a magical night as teenagers. Several deceptions later, the old crew is reunited in their quiet hometown, ready to give the Golden Mile a whirl. Shenanigans ensue.
The Good: Wright, as mentioned above, is an exceptional and unique filmmaker. His direction, writing style and clear chemistry with his actors makes for a fun, madcap style. His films at once manage to be effective spoofs of the genre(s) in question while also being pretty damn effective examples of the genres themselves. Not an easy task, to say the least. Pegg is extremely likable and charming in yet another distinct character under Wright's direction and he really plays up his sad sack character for all of his faux-confidence glory. Nick Frost plays the straight man here, and after you get over how silly that is in retrospect, he does a darn fine job. The rest of the cast exists in their orbit, and the gang rather convincingly plays a group of estranged long lost friends.
The Bad: the film remains wedded to the central pub crawl conceit for far too long... as at a certain point it really strains credibility that these people would be sticking to a pub crawl with all of this madness going on. The idea of wedding a film's plot to a pub crawl is a good one, but some of the cleverness doesn't translate to the screen. In being an homage to classic sci-fi, the sci fi plot winds up being rather nondescript, and falls apart on further look. It's just not enough to fill up an entire film.
In all, like all of Wright's films, this one is a lot of fun to watch. Unfortunately, of the Cornetto trilogy, this is undoubtedly the weakest entry. (Note, when compared to Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz that's not necessarily a bad thing) In fact, I'd say I enjoyed "This Is The End" more than this one. It's fun, and full of laughs, but it ultimately it falls just short.
7/10.
