THE WORLD’S END Rating: NNNN
Edgar Wright and co-writer/star Simon Pegg complete the unofficial trilogy begun with Shaun Of The Dead and Hot Fuzz by following five old friends (Pegg, Nick Frost, Paddy Considine, Martin Freeman and Eddie Marsan) who reunite at 40 to recreate the epic pub crawl they began – but never finished – as teenagers.
But just as the old gang isn’t what it used to be, neither is their sleepy village of Newton Haven, and the nature of the threat raises the stakes well beyond the personal. Pegg is terrific as the dissolute, barely functional alcoholic determined to recapture his former glory at any cost, and his co-stars (particularly Frost and Marsan) do a fine job of hinting at decades-old wounds just waiting to reopen.
Funny and moving, it’s a fine bookend for Shaun, though this time the ending doesn’t land quite as well as it could.
