Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost reunite for the final installment in their “Blood and Ice Cream” or “Three Flavours Cornetto” trilogy with the World’s End, and they pull out all the stops in this one, quite possibly making it the best of the series. No matter what your opinion may be on that, there’s no doubt that the World’s End is an ambitious film with such heart that’s impossible not to love. Plain and simple, this is the funniest, most heartfelt, and enjoyable film you will see this summer season.

 

The film opens with Gary King (Simon Pegg) recounting the greatest night of life at therapy session or Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, establishing the character from the opening minutes (a very smart move). A summer evening that took place in 1990 when he and his four childhood friends attempted to conquer “the Golden Mile,” a pub crawl in their hometown of Newton Haven consisting of 1 pint at all 12 pubs, culminating at the eponymous establishment: the World’s End. However, they were not able to complete their journey, and the group of friends disbanded and grew up. Except for Gary, who, after speaking about the failed attempt, decides to track down his former friends in order to finally conquer “the Golden Mile.”

 

Surprisingly, the first part of his plan works. Gary is able to convince his friends to show up, despite their reluctance, specifically that of Gary’s former best friend Andy (Nick Frost), who has an especially strong dislike of his former friend, which is played out and elaborated on throughout the film. For the first hour, the film is a rich study of each of these 5 friends. From Peter (Eddie Marsan) who is very obviously emotionally timid and scarred from years of bullying in high school to Steven (Paddy Considine), who is in love with Oliver (Martin Freeman) “O-Man’s” sister Sam (Rosamund Pike), as is Gary, each character is given room to develop. After that first hour, though, the film is a rich study of each of these 5 friends….but with a full-scale Invasion of the Body Snatches-esque alien-robot invasion as an added obstacle. And the really successful thing about this film is that it never misses a beat or sacrifices the growth and drama of these wonderfully written and acted characters once the madness ensues. 

 

Of the fantastic cast, it is, probably unsurprisingly, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost that shine. Pegg in particular puts on an acting clinic that is, at once, off the walls hilarious and heart-wrenchingly emotional. Gary King is quite possibly Pegg’s greatest role to date, and that’s saying something since I consider Shaun (of Shaun of the Dead) to be one of the greatest cinematic characters of all time. Nick Frost is no lightweight, though, because he too breathes such life into the character Andy, it really is astonishing. Now how many casts of sci-fi comedy films can you say that about? 

 

The World’s End is a fitting end to this trilogy. It is truly a testament to and celebration of the extraordinary cinema that has been created by Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and Edgar Wright. In a time where people tend to bemoan Hollywood’s films for being paper thin and superficial, the World’s End is a heartfelt, emotionally powerful film with layers upon layers of subtext, drama, and humanity. It's a film about friends, growing up, the desire to be an individual and to be special, and the desire for things to remain exactly as they were when you were happiest, and the crushing defeat one feels when he is faced with realization that, thanks to robot aliens or good old fashion time, everything and everyone eventually must change. To put it simply, this film will make you laugh, cry, and want to call up some old friends, have a drink, and maybe fight a robot or two.