Film Review: The World's End (15), (U.K. 2013) (Director: Edgar Wright), Saturday 20.07.2013 15:00, The Cameo Cinema, Screen One, Edinburgh

This is the concluding part of what has come to be known as the Blood & Ice Cream Trilogy, with the first two parts being 'Shaun Of The Dead' (2004) & 'Hot Fuzz' (2007). 'Shaun Of The Dead' is a film that has grown on me with time, and 'Hot Fuzz' is a film I greatly enjoyed since first viewing and reckon to be a very well told yarn. Sadly this final installment is not a patch on the first two. They have managed once again, as with the first two films to get a good supporting cast, that to me is where the positive similarities end.

This is essentially 'Shaun Of The Dead' (another form of Zombie & pubs) without a likable central character. The film revolves around a group of childhood friends getting back together to do 'the golden mile', a pub crawl of 12 establishments, that they failed to finish 23 years previously. Needless to say it is the central character played by Simon Pegg who is responsible for bending the truth to each of the other four to enable corralling them together for this clearly bad idea.

The soundtrack is largely good, revolving around early 1990's British indie pop, then comes an incongruent slice of The Doors. The Sci-Fi element I did not feel to be particularly well handled, and caused me to think the film had delusions of grandeur.

The main problem I had with the film is its grim nihilism; the central character remains the same selfish prick throughout without a single redeeming change or any form of progression, and when he is not dead by the end, I was disappointed. I found myself letting out a sigh at the end, both in acknowledgement of relief and despair.

I had read the director Edgar Wright in an interview recently saying that part of what had spurred him and the lead actors to make the film when they did was that someone who they felt indebted to at the production company 'Working Title' (who the previous two films were made through) was seriously ill, so it was a thank you to that person. This struck me as odd motivation at the time, it's not like writing a song that can  be a nice sentiment though cost nothing, this is a film costing millions of pounds (you can see it on the screen; though it still looks cheap) and months, if not years, of time in work to make. Maybe due to this motivation it was rushed, though that would be a feeble excuse. The film did cause a couple of chuckles, though that does not excuse this downbeat misjudged ego-ride. It is very disappointing, considering how much I enjoyed their last joint venture 'Hot Fuzz' (or maybe it was 'Hot Fuzz' that was the fluke). Whatever the case, don't waste your time with this crap.

Rating: 01/10.