Jordan Wolff
Promotion and Distribution Director
Five friends walk into a bar and find a bunch of robots waiting to convert them into a dull, yet somehow superior, alien society — and everyone’s English. Sounds somewhat entertaining right? Throw in some choice comedic bits and you have a movie called “The World’s End.” But despite the English comedy, robots, and beer on beer on beer, I found this movie to be bloody awful.
“The World’s End” is directed by Edgar Wright and written by both Wright and Simon Pegg, starring Pegg as Gary King, the eccentric alcoholic group leader. King’s group of misfit friends consist of Andy Knightly (Nick Frost), Steven Prince (Paddy Considine), Oliver Chamberlain (Martin Freeman), and Peter Page (Eddie Marsan). On a quest to complete the ultimate bar crawl to reach the legendary pub named The World’s End, the five friends attempt to visit and down a beer at each of the 12 pubs in their hometown of Newton Haven, a feat they are finally finishing after 20 years. On their journey to complete the “Golden Mile,” these friends notice that things are not the same among their old stomping grounds. In fact, the entire town has been robotically replaced by, you guessed it, aliens.
Now before I start complaining, I will say that I have yet to see “Shaun of the Dead” or “Hot Fuzz,” which are also from the creators of “The World’s End.” Thus, it could be that I have yet to acquire a taste for this type of English comedy. There were choice moments of robot killings that couldn’t help but spark a chuckle from me, but again, this was not common. I like slapstick comedies as much as the next person, and as much as I wanted to find this movie funny, I could not; I simply did not get this movie’s humor. It was a sad realization to find that the most humorous parts were practically the entire movie trailer. I had already seen the funniest moments of the film long before I arrived.
Of course, the idea of a bar crawl is epic and I couldn’t help but reminisce on my own experience of the Isla Vista Loop, but despite having a cool idea, the comedy was too subtle and too moronic. This film was like a long ride of stupid jokes, occasional whispering giggles, and boredom, all of which never led up to an epiphanous moment of laughter. To make matters worse, people were actually laughing in the theatre. I felt like more people were trying to laugh than actually laughing. The lady behind me, who found this movie to be quite hilarious, made me question mankind’s intelligence and humanity’s idea of a good time. For a moment, the movie had significantly corrupted my idea of England, which was, needless to say, a bummer.
It’s incredibly rare that I feel the need to get up and leave halfway through a movie — as in, it never happens — but I did stay so I could warn and save you from an hour and a half of boredom mixed in with embarrassment. The scariest thing is that people seem to genuinely enjoy this movie. IMDB has given this movie 7.8 stars out of 10 and worst of all, Rotten Tomatoes gives “The World’s End” an 89% rating. Who the hell are you people voting in favor of this movie? This has caused me to question everything that I believe to be funny and comedic.
I’m going to give this movie a 6.0 out of 10. It has reached D- status in my mind. Not an F, but nowhere near passing either. Basically, I’m guessing it comes down to what you thought of “Shaun of the Dead” and “Hot Fuzz.” If you liked them both, then go for gold with the third movie, “The World’s End.” If not, then learn from me and stay as far away from this movie as possible. The lesson: we all really do have different tastes in movies. Who would have thought?