Director Edgar Wright and co-stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost broke out with their 2004 zombie comedy, Shaun of the Dead, then reunited with great success for 2007's action movie, Hot Fuzz. The World's End is positioned as the climax to the cutely titled Three Colours Cornetto trilogy, and it arrives with the same appealing sense of film-making camaraderie, if not quite the clear focus of its predecessors. The film tells the tale of five school friends, played as grown-ups by Pegg, Frost and three of the best English actors working today: Eddie Marsan (the angry driving instructor from Happy-Go-Lucky); Paddy Consadine (Dead Man's Shoes) and Martin Freeman (The Hobbit). Pegg is the Peter Pan-syndrome afflicted alcoholic who insists the fivesome recreate a graduation-night pub crawl in their small home town, despite barely having seen each other in the intervening two decades. Plus there are mysterious conspiracies afoot amid all the beer-swilling. Some goodwill for the talent involved may be necessary to really embrace this film, which doesn't disappoint but doesn't fulfil its potential either. Fun is had with the well-executed sci-fi elements but as far as all-star apocalypse comedies go, this is no This Is The End.
Stars: 3/5
Rating: R13; 108 mins. Out now
