Never liked Shaun the Dead as much as I hoped I would, but absolutely loved Hot Fuzz. So, Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg wrote another one that will bring the ‘trilogy’ to an end: The World’s End.
Yay for Eddie Marsan.
I loved Spaced and Hot Fuzz. I was also weirdly lukewarm for Shaun of the Dead. Hell, I even loved Scott Pilgrim. I’m quite excited for this.
Spaced is one of my favourite TV shows of all time (it helps that I was just the right age for it when it aired). I love Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. And I love alien invasion movies. So, yeah, I’m looking forward to this.
I loved all the others but that trailer leaves me feeling a bit underwhelmed. Will still see the film though and hold out hope it’s smarter and funnier than the trail.
Anyone seen this yet? (mainly just bumping this up to the top)
I was kind of disappointed. I saw it got great reviews so I went in there expecting my sides to split open from laughter from the best comedy I’ve seen in years. It didn’t really click enough. Maybe they played it a bit too straight. Either that, or it was because I lost my buzz from drinking before the movie. (Does that happen?)
Lots of people in the audience were laughing. It’s probably just me this time.
Good! Definitely good. As far as Edgar Wright movies go, I’d rank it just below Hot Fuzz.
I didn’t laugh that much. It’s more bittersweet drama than comedy. The main problem I had was the tone was confusing. There were stretches of serious, realistic drama then you had very silly ‘comedy’ mixed in there. It had funny bits that made me chuckle here and there, and it was watchable entertainment. I just wouldn’t call it a comedy.
I think it was a huge mistake to make the main character the way he was, that was a downer character. He reminded me of the Jack Nicholson character in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, but without the charm and likability. They needed a counterbalancing character to bring it all together, but the best friend character was also a downer character until the second half of the movie, so the first part of the movie was kind of a bummer.
I think Seth Rogen and gang win this summer’s apocalypse comedy movie competition. Their movie works better on all levels.
I had to give up trying to decide if I liked Hot Fuzz or Shaun of the Dead better, and it looks like I’ll be stuck unable to decide which of the three movies is the best now. Just back from the theater, so maybe my opinion will shift a bit with time or repeat viewings, but immediate reaction is that it’s just as great as the other two.
Saw it this afternoon. It is the weakest of the three, but that is like saying Space Mountain is the worst Disney coaster, it’s still a hell of an entertaining ride. A lot more serious moments than SotD and HF, but plenty of laughs while being smart, and completely did not expect it to end like it did. Very much worth a watch.
Just saw this as well. I really enjoyed everything up until the ending, which seemed really lame and contrived. It was alot of fun seeing a bunch of people from Spaced show up throughout as well. I’d say I liked it about as much as Shaun of the Dead, but not as much as Hot Fuzz.
That was my impression too. I enjoyed it…and any film that includes Paddy Considine, Eddie Marsan, Martin Freeman AND pegg and frost is going to get my butt in the chair.
The big surprise was how damn well Frost held his own in that company. He’s really become a pretty decent actor over the years. I’m happy he’s showing more range.
But that ending…
I went into this knowing pretty much nothing about it aside from the cast, and ended up kind of disappointed when the sci-fi stuff kicked in. Really funny at times, but the tonal shifts bothered me and I’d pretty much checked out by the end.
Yeah, big tonal and pacing issues. Especially in the first half. I liked more of it than I didn’t, but felt disappointed overall. Hot Fuzz is by far my favorite still.
It’s probably my favorite of his movies, largely because of the first half - also liked the bathroom scene quite a bit (sounds odd), and their initial coming to terms with what’s happening, up until them having the big bar fight scene - then it basically sputtered to an end. He really needs to work on the endings of his films.
I probably would have been prepared to watch a whole movie of Pegg trying to get the band back together, but that abrupt left turn in the bathroom was very nicely done, yeah, and since I had seen no trailers or anything it managed to catch me off guard. I mean, yeah, I kinda expected it wasn’t actually going to be the sort of movie it was purporting to be, given the previous two, but still, I had no idea what form that was going to take.
If you think about it, though, all of the Pegg / Wright / Frost films have that end-of-first-act twist, without rejecting the first act’s buildup. Shaun of the Dead starts out as a romcom about a slacker who has to put his shit together…then the zombies show up, but it’s still about a slacker who has to put his shit together. Hot Fuzz starts out as a odd-couple cop-buddy tale about an uptight supercop who has to learn to unwind in a quaint village…until it segues into serial-killer-meets-Agatha-Christie-meets-Stepford-Wives territory, but it’s still an odd-couple cop-buddy tale about an uptight supercop who has to learn to unwind. Likewise, The World’s End starts out as a dramedy about a 40-year-old washout who’s desperately trying to recapture his glory days and/or find some closure…then they run until alien robots taking over their hometown a la “Body Snatchers,” but our washout is still hunting for his glory and closure.
Loved this movie. Here’s a nice analysis:
http://htmlgiant.com/film/25-more-pints-revisiting-the-worlds-end/
Ehh… I’m not sure I buy what initially seems to be his main point, that “The World’s End is a very different movie than Hot Fuzz or Shaun of the Dead”, especially when pretty quickly in his list he’s simply listing and explaining jokes and clever bits of the movie’s structure—jokes that are very much in the vein of Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead.
I loved the movie though.
I thought that the “fuck it” at the end was a damn near perfect summation of humanity. I roared.
The epilogue was less impressive, but at least it brought Gary’s story full circle.