What a fun movie! I wasn’t expecting too much from The World’s End, but it grabbed me from the start and never let go. Having lower expectations can help sometimes.

The World’s End can be seen as the third movie in the Pegg/Frost/Wright collaboration universe. Even though they don’t share characters or a trilogy plotline, they do share the same soul. They also share the same genre bending approach of story telling. While Shaun of the Dead clearly starts as a zombie movie, it’s the last act where the horror/gore really gets cranked up to meet marks for John Romero homages. Hot Fuzz less so, it starts with it’s feet in one lane and then shifts it’s weight over to insanity for it’s wild reveals and heroism. The World’s End is much like Hot Fuzz where you think you know what your watching and then they switch it up at the end of Act 1.

I like this much more than Hot Fuzz with it’s better characters, pacing and humor. Peter hasn’t done much with his life since high school, unlike his 4 other friends. They share a past as best friends, grow apart and come back together to indulge in Gary’s desire to “get the band back together” to relive their pub crawl attempt from 1990. At the 4th stop they find themselves smack dab in the middle of an alien assimilation plot. Sticking together, they do their best to get out of their home town in one piece.

I loved Simon Pegg as Gary King, a man who never grew up and clings to one night in his teenage years as the peak of his life. Nick Frost as Andy continues his streak as a brilliant foil for Pegg’s characters. Martin Freeman as Oliver, Paddy Considine as Steve and Eddie Marsan as Peter round out the stellar main cast. They convincingly play as old friends and each keep up with the quick and spastic wit that the movie is infused with. There’s a manic kind of direction and editing here that works really well (Edgar Wright is one of my favorite directors). Extensive and well done visual effects ratchet up the intensity and fun of the movie. Brilliant dialog with a really satisfying ending make this one of the bigger surprise movie treats for me. My favorite project that Simon Pegg has done so far.