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The World's End
Release Date: Aug. 23, 2013
Reviewed: Aug. 28, 2013, 2:10 a.m.
The World's End image Cover your hydrangeas. Frost warning in effect.
Get Lasik.
Offer me alternatives, and I decline.
By: Christian Treubig
The World's End image
“drunk guy” = best Google Image search ever

As you can tell by this site’s domain name and favicon, the Dueling Chaps love all things British (other than the land, food, and people), and don’t acknowledge the supposed independence that America bestowed upon itself in 1776 (we both pay tea taxes and eagerly quarter British troops in our bedrooms). As honorary Brits, we have obviously been hotly anticipating the latest installment from the Anglo-triumvirate of Simon Pegg/Nick Frost/Edgar Wright, The World’s End. This cinematic ode to good brews, good friends, and good times was sure to be the event of the summer, and we would pre-game appropriately. The morning of The World’s End premiere, I cleaned out my step-aunt’s basement to make way for the scores of Dueling Chaps fans set to join us for the pre-theater party. Dueling Chap Steve dollied in two kegs of Newkie Brown around noontime, and we waited for the inevitable rush of revelers.

No one showed up. This left the chaps quite a bit of time to consume copious amounts of Northumberland’s finest spirit while engaging in drunken small talk that of course deteriorated into yet another heated Kate vs. Pippa debate (sorry, but I prefer class over ass). When things cooled off, we mutually concluded that blame for the party’s sparse attendance likely lies with some combination of me and my personality, so I agreed to cover our cab fare to the cinaplex.

If you’ve seen any of the grainy YouTube video titled “Dueling Chumps”, then you know of our less than gentlemanly behavior once we arrived there. Both chaps were blacked out, and it’s a miracle we even made it to our seats to view the film and cobble together a review. After using three ten dollar bills to purchase our tickets totaling $14.50, Steve immediately forgot the existential purpose of a movie theater, and went to sleep on top of the kiosk counter. Meanwhile, I was leaning against the concessions cash register, sporting a cocky smile with my arms folded and one leg crossed in front of the other, making baller comments to the patrons like “You gonna have any popcorn with that butter?”, then laughing hysterically.

That laughter carried on as we stumbled down the theater aisle and The World’s End commenced. If you’ve seen the first two films in the Pegg/Frost/Wright pseudo-trilogy, Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, then you know what to expect here. (If you haven’t seen those films, then you should probably leave this site for something more suited to your comedic tastes.) It’s a spectacular display of economical filmmaking, such that it will spoil you for nearly every other movie you watch. You’ll no longer be able to tolerate a 2.5 second shot of a character walking from one side of a room to another, with nothing consequential happening in that brief timeframe. The usual screenplay dead spots where characters carry out mundane actions just to get to the next plot point are nonexistent here. Instead, they are circumvented with ninja-esque direction and sniper-precise editing that is in itself funny, plus never leaves one at a loss for what’s going on.

Also like SOTD and Hot Fuzz, The World’s End has very few moments that are knee-slappingly funny. This is not a criticism, but rather a trait of the unique brand of humor on display here. It combines obvious/corny jokes with absurdly cartoonish and loveable characters, and puts the onus on the viewer to buy what they’re selling, which you’ll find impossible not to. Moreover, as discussed, they don’t have time to dwell on their best material; there’s no opportunistic pauses ostensibly designed for the audience to insert their laugh track. They need to get on to the next joke, and it’s on you to keep up.

Though this is hardly saying much, in the SOTD/Hot Fuzz/World’s End trilogy, the latter entry is probably the weakest. In SOTD and Hot Fuzz, you were never unclear on the motivations of the protagonists, as the circumstances they encountered, regardless of the absurdity (i.e. a zombie invasion or hyper-violent rural townsfolk), were presented with such crisp matter-of-factness that you were never distracted from just enjoying the characters. This is not the case in The World’s End, where we follow Pegg, Frost, the Die Another Day Bond girl, and three other charming English blokes as they attempt to cope with an apparent robot/alien invasion that breaks out in the middle of a pub crawl. The move would be just to leave town, right? That’s not interesting though, so they reason that it’s better just to stay the course to avoid looking like they’re onto the robots. It’s actually so far, so good at this stage, as this absurd reasoning isn’t unexpected from these simpleton characters. However, when shyte really hits the fan and things get violently out of control, the purpose of the characters' actions starts to become ambiguous.

Though not apparent until this latest film, the SOTD/Hot Fuzz/World’s End trilogy has a very clear theme running through them: the rejection of conformity. In SOTD, Pegg and Frost were threatened with transformation into mindless zombies, and fought them off with cricket bats. In Hot Fuzz, the duo employed M-16s to mow down village dwellers guarding their master-planned community to the death. And now, in The World’s End, they fight off enslavement by hive-minded robots with brilliant hand-to-hand combat that rivals the best close-quarters action sequences ever produced by Hollywood. In real life, Pegg, Frost, and director Edgar Wright have practiced the “do your own thing” philosophy in its best possible light, creating movies with cores that are nothing more than fun little concepts firstly intended for their own amusement, but executed with such spectacular originality, joy, and professionalism so that the rest of us can’t help but be drawn into their fantastic worlds.

There’s dialogue throughout The World’s End concerning the characters now being “old guys”, perhaps hinting at an end to Pegg/Frost/Wright collaboration. If this does indeed become the case, no hard feelings here, as they have gone above and beyond the call of duty in service to cinematic culture. Well done.

SCORE (Out of 10):
8
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