Film review: The World's End

Runtime: 109 minutes

WHATEVER happened to those likely lads of Shaun Of The Dead and Hot Fuzz? You know the ones: skinny blonde one, well-upholstered oppo, sense of humour that's Carry On meets GQ by way of a dip into Viz? They're back, in the heroically daft action comedy The World's End, a tale of a very British pub crawl that turns into an out-of-this-world experience.

In Shaun, the enemy to be conquered was zombies. In Hot Fuzz, it was small town insularity. In the third instalment in the Cornetto trilogy, so called because said cone features in all three, the two amigos (Simon Pegg and Nick Frost), plus others, battle that most terrifying beast known to western man and woman: the mid-life crisis. There are some other enemies too, but let's not spoil the fun. While not quite the blood-hungry undead, middle age is still a formidable foe. Taking it on makes for a comedy that is more bittersweet than the previous instalments, but is all more satisfying for that.

Indeed, if the movie did not have the problem common to the other two capers – overstaying its welcome, allowing bagginess to creep in – director Edgar Wright and his co-screenwriter Pegg would have had an unqualified triumph on their hands. Still, you can't blame them, or the likely audience for this film, for not wanting the night to end just yet. The Cornetto trilogy has single-handedly made British film comedy acceptable again, no mean feat in a universe of Richard Curtis twee-fests and ghastly wedding farces that are about as funny as verrucas. If this is farewell to all that, and it feels like it, then Wright, Pegg and co are going out in style.

The film opens as it means to go on, with silliness, a touch of sadness, and a banging soundtrack featuring the tracks of all our yesterdays (assuming you came of age when this lot did). We are introduced to five lads about to leave school who decide to embark on a pub crawl around their home town. The mission is apparently simple: tear round 12 pubs (you can tell it's the past by the number of pubs the place supports: these days it would be 12 charity shops), down a pint in each one, and home for The Word. Alas, the mission proves impossible, life goes on, and no-one thinks any more about it.

All except for one man: Gary King (Pegg). As a specimen of wisdom and maturity, Gary makes The Likely Lads' Terry Collier look like Yoda. Still wearing the Goth look adopted when he was a teenager, Gary has been stuck on pause while all his friends have been on play. They have grown up, married, had families and established careers. Gary's story is different. The only thing he appears to have succeeded at is keeping the past alive in his own mind.

Deciding to go one better and bring the dead to life again, Gary contacts his old muckers and suggests they try the pub crawl once more, this time making it to the bitter/lager end. They initially greet the idea like an invitation to dine with Hannibal Lecter, but for old time's sake, and that of the movie, they decide to go along.

So begins a night of Gary waxing nostalgic about the past while his friends engage in a desperate battle to make him grow up. Pegg and Frost have worked together so long now they are brothers in barbs, displaying the sort of exquisite comedy timing that brings to mind a more knowing version of Morecambe and Wise.

Here, their presence is added to in fine style by Paddy Considine, Martin Freeman and Eddie Marsan, playing a common sense sort, a slick estate agent and a nervous Nellie respectively. Freeman's character is also blessed with a sister, allowing the excellent Rosamund Pike (Barney's Version, Made In Dagenham) to crash the lads' party in the way that Olivia Colman and Kate Ashfield did in Fuzz and Shaun.

And it is predominantly a lads' party, as were the previous two films. Those of a certain sex and age are the perfect target market for everything from the movie in-jokes to the soundtrack that stretches from Primal Scream's Loaded to Suede's So Young.

Similarly, it's not hard to imagine one half of the audience rolling their eyes at the length of the fight sequences or scenes that chunter on for too long. Perhaps it's not a matter of sex but boredom threshold. Enjoyable as this trilogy has been, matters would have been improved immeasurably by the addition of a long hooked stick with which to drag a joke off stage once it has gone past its amusing point.

One element given more screen time and proving hugely deserving of it is Nick Frost, long in Pegg's shadow but here showing that there is more to him than just being a sidekick. That said, this remains Pegg's movie. Although the film sends his character on an interesting path that it never fully explores, Pegg still enjoys the chance to show that there's a serious dramatic actor lurking behind that pixie face.