The World's End

It’s good, but my expectations were higher. Hot Fuzz set the bar very high, blending with more grace the serious plot of a thriller with parody. The World's End tries to blend this style of humour with a horror sci-fi thriller, but it grinds a bit (though not as much as, in my opinion, Shaun of the Dead), sometimes the humour is too much, sometimes not enough. What I’m most sorry about is the weird and unnecessary end-credits scene, it ruins the positive impression of the bold and surprising twist with which the film had won me over. (29/09/2013)

The first third is like a flowery hop, boyish-bodied ALE with a delicious taste, whereas the second third begins to smell like an ordinary Eurolager, but it's brisk and drinkable. The final third is like a musty small cellar beer with the dull aftertaste of steamy socks of people who saw too much in their idea. A film whose wheels fall off. Wasting talent and good ingredients for something that again does not lose sight of the genre, but desperately loses sight of itself. History repeats itself, but compared to Hot Fuzz, this is an even thinner attempt at a cheeky meta-party. Most of all, it's quite sad to see how all the overlap literally stamps out the film at the end of the verbatim and still stays with only a few badly grafted references. This is simply not cheeky or clever, just weathered. I pour the end out the window. [65%]. (22/10/2013)

Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright meet for the third time in a row. And for the third time in a row, do a decent job. It’s no longer so much fun as Shaun of the Dead but it’s still good. It’s not as much about fun rather than about the boys getting together and shooting another crazy but good movie, this time poking fun at sci-fi. Moreover, I saw The World’s End after about six beers, so my rating reflects that. Nevertheless, I think that had I not returned from a pub, I’d have opened a beer while watching this, because a movie like this needs that. As pubs are its subject matter, it’s hard not to think about beer during the first five minutes. Anyhow, the boys managed to get a great cast for their movie – Freeman, Marsan and Considine were really cool. Each of them did their own thing and it fit the movie well. I wouldn’t mind going on a beer trip like this, maybe except for the global consequences. I’d give those a pass. But the rest was a wild ride indeed. (18/12/2013)

I'm wavering between three and four stars, and that's ultimately one of the biggest surprises that The World's End brought me. The other ones are that Simon Pegg is similar to Tomas Hajíček from the band Krucipüsk, that Nick Frost plays a truly completely different character than you would expect, at least at the beginning, and that Edgar Wright seems to have abandoned his typical bullet shots, or at least is trying to limit them, because there are noticeably less of them. I can't say that I was completely disappointed, but the fact is that I liked The World's End a lot less than the previous two films. I thought it was too long and unnecessarily action-packed (the first encounter with the UFOs was great, but the others just repeated it - and not in the funny "déjà vu" sense). Kudos to the music (the irresistible “Whiskey Bar" scene by The Doors) and all the actors, and I really liked the epilogue. I was thinking that is was too bad that the first half of the film didn't take place "before" and the second half "after". I round down the three and a half stars for now with a heavy heart and will wait to watch it on DVD.__P.S. I don't know how much the other viewers enjoyed the film, I was alone in the movie theatre. (10/11/2013)

I'll be upfront — I've got a soft spot for Simon Pegg. But even with that bias aside, this film landed as my least favorite among his works, both as an actor and a screenwriter. Why? It felt like a rehash of Shaun of the Dead with a few tweaks. And frankly, that just doesn't cut it for me. The cast looked promising and I couldn't wrap my head around why this film had such a low rating. Well, now I get it. Compared to Shaun, Hot Fuzz, and Paul, this one fell noticeably short, leaving me with the impression that Pegg might've rushed through the screenplay. Aside from a handful of standout moments, I found myself less entertained than usual — even bordering on boredom, which is a first for me with the Pegg/Frost duo. The only silver lining? I finally understand why they use blue blood in certain ads. / Lesson learned: When things don't go as planned, don't lose your head. (06/01/2024)