Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz or The World's End

B.A._Baracus

Just finished watching Hot Fuzz on Sky. I can't remember the amount of times I have seen the movie, or at least watched clips since I seen it in the cinema in 2007 (funny that it was released Valentine's Day 2007!)

So next up is The World's End which was ... Alright. Not as good as Hot Fuzz or Shaun of the Dead I found So I guess this is the point of the thread. What do people think is the best in the so called "Cornetto" trilogy?

My two cents is that Hot Fuzz wins. But expect a lot of people to say Shaun.

dreamers75

Wonder who will be the solitary voter for Worlds End, which is a good strandalone film but after Shaun and Hot it just isnt in the same mould for some odd reason.

Basq

dreamers75 wrote: »

Wonder who will be the solitary voter for Worlds End, which is a good strandalone film but after Shaun and Hot it just isnt in the same mould for some odd reason.

To be fair, At World's End gets a lot of crap.. but it's a lot of fun for the first half - mainly thanks to the great cast, their chemistry and soundtrack.

Shaun, then Hot Fuzz, then At World's End.

Wanderer19

Hot Fuzz, Shaun, great films. World's End a load of crap.

TheIrishGrover

I enjoyed the first 2 (3rd was meh). But I thought Nick Frost's character in Shaun of The Dead was just too annoying. The bit with him on the phone having the conversation just pushed him over the edge. I know he was supposed to be annoying but that was a step too far for me.

Plus, the auld lad going "Jesus Christ" when shot in Hot Fuzz always makes me laugh for some reason.

Harry Palmr

World's End suffered from excess. Shaun and Hot Fuzz both worked due to small scale big laughs. If the production gets bloated the humour can get lost in the action, effects, sets. Also the acting tends to broaden out in the search of easy laughs rather than clever ones.

Tom Mann Centuria

Worlds End tried to be a lot of things, ended up doing them all averagely.

Average sci-fi, average love story, average drama, average humour. Just bang average at best. (I thought it was worse than average, I thought it was crap)

nix

I hated the worlds end on my first watch, but it really grows on you on repeat viewings, i love all three now.

Hot fuzz is my fav of the three though, its just so quotable..

"Lets drink to their demise!"

pixelburp

World's End I still maintain was a tough story of sobriety and chemical abuse, wrapped in a frivolous extension of the "Cornetto trilogy". To the point I've wondered if it started as that and got retrofitted for an easier sell to studios. It might have actually worked better had the alien angle never come into play. Still the weakest of the three movies but not a bad film either.

Hot Fuzz for me; Sean of the Dead launched things but the film lost its way in the 3rd act. Just kinda ended, whereas the final act of Fuzz is glorious, and a perfect homage to action cinema.

StringerBell

Shaun of the Dead I think I must have watched maybe 3 or 4 times, Hot Fuzz about 15 and World's End once.

Hot Fuzz is my undisputed winner here and always has been but SoTD was very good too.

p to the e

dreamers75 wrote: »

Wonder who will be the solitary voter for Worlds End, which is a good strandalone film but after Shaun and Hot it just isnt in the same mould for some odd reason.

This reminds me of an interview I read before where several directors were asked their favourite Spielberg film. You had the usual players like ET, Close Encounters, Saving Private Ryan, Jaws etc. and Edgar Wright says "Duel". I just thought, no it isn't Edgar. No it isn't. Duel is a decent thriller made on a shoestring budget that showcased the early talents of Senor Spielbergo. You chose the one that will make you stand out like a typical contrarian. This explains the obnoxiousness that was Baby Driver.

pixelburp

p to the e wrote: »

This reminds me of an interview I read before where several directors were asked their favourite Spielberg film. You had the usual players like ET, Close Encounters, Saving Private Ryan, Jaws etc. and Edgar Wright says "Duel". I just thought, no it isn't Edgar. No it isn't. Duel is a decent thriller made on a shoestring budget that showcased the early talents of Senor Spielbergo. You chose the one that will make you stand out like a typical contrarian. This explains the obnoxiousness that was Baby Driver.

To be fair, I'm sure Wright at least gave some context to his answer instead of being glib? Maybe he just genuinely thought Duel was the best - or others had waxed lyrical on the boilerplate answers and wanted to mention a forgotten film. Heck, if I was in that interview I'd probably mention Empire of the Sun for that reason. It gets lost among the obvious choices in Speilberg's CV and was a great little adaptation of the book. Hey. Go watch Empire of the Sun!

Didn't find Baby Driver obnoxious TBH; it was a slick, economical thriller whose mechanical gimmick (the action and set-pieces coordinated to the music) worked perfectly. Not an essential film but far from obnoxious IMO.

On topic ... apparently Hot Fuzz was a bit of a slog to film: budget overruns and shooting issues. Even some falling out between Pegg, Frost & Wright. So I recall reading so could be misremembered bullsh*t.

Best thing I can say about the end result is that despite being a spoof of Action Cinema, it stands up as a legitimately great example of that Cinema. It mocked, but from a point of love, not superiority.

p to the e

pixelburp wrote: »

To be fair, I'm sure Wright at least gave some context to his answer instead of being glib? Maybe he just genuinely thought Duel was the best - or others had waxed lyrical on the boilerplate answers and wanted to mention a forgotten film. Heck, if I was in that interview I'd probably mention Empire of the Sun for that reason. It gets lost among the obvious choices in Speilberg's CV and was a great little adaptation of the book. Hey. Go watch Empire of the Sun!

Didn't find Baby Driver obnoxious TBH; it was a slick, economical thriller whose mechanical gimmick (the action and set-pieces coordinated to the music) worked perfectly. Not an essential film but far from obnoxious IMO.

On topic ... apparently Hot Fuzz was a bit of a slog to film: budget overruns and shooting issues. Even some falling out between Pegg, Frost & Wright. So I recall reading so could be misremembered bullsh*t.

Best thing I can say about the end result is that despite being a spoof of Action Cinema, it stands up as a legitimately great example of that Cinema. It mocked, but from a point of love, not superiority.

Penn

As great and as much of a classic Shaun of the Dead is, Hot Fuzz always pips it for me. There isn't even any particular reason, it just edges out SOTD on almost every level for me. So many more of the supporting characters are all great, the story is fantastic and it just feels packed full of more jokes rather than SOTD which relies on many similar jokes repeated and changed slightly.

The World's End was good and I enjoyed it more on repeat watches, but it still never hits near the same heights.

Harry Palmr

Everyone knows Something Evil is Spielberg's best film.

TheIrishGrover

Slightly off topic: Empire of the Sun is one of my favourite Spielberg films with a fantastic performance from a young kid called Christian Bale. Wonder whatever happened to him......

About the only issue I had with Hot Fuzz was that when I went with a friend of mine and his wife we embarassed the sh*t out of her laughing at all the references she didn't get. The instant we saw that low angle Michael Bay Bad Boys camera sweep we were already laughing and were waiting for the whole "Sh*t just got real" line. (Apologies for others at the time). I mean they weren't subtle but she wasn't into her movies the way we were.

As for the way Shaun ended: Yeah, I remember thinking it felt so weird the way it just stopped. Was quite jarring.

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts

Shaun Of The Dead for me. Hot Fuzz had its moments too and is very re-watchable but I hated The World's End. I just found it a bit bitter and did not care for the characters at all, and the jokes weren't good enough to counteract that for me. I get the feeling that Edgar Wright didn't want to make it but felt obligated to close out the Cornetto trilogy.

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts

p to the e wrote: »

This reminds me of an interview I read before where several directors were asked their favourite Spielberg film. You had the usual players like ET, Close Encounters, Saving Private Ryan, Jaws etc. and Edgar Wright says "Duel". I just thought, no it isn't Edgar. No it isn't. Duel is a decent thriller made on a shoestring budget that showcased the early talents of Senor Spielbergo. You chose the one that will make you stand out like a typical contrarian. This explains the obnoxiousness that was Baby Driver.

Duel is a great film and probably my favourite Spielberg. It's not that odd a choice.

mikhail

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts wrote: »

Duel is a great film and probably my favourite Spielberg. It's not that odd a choice.

Yeah, it's basically Jaws as a truck. Tight premise, executed brilliantly. I have no doubt there's quite a few people who might list it as their favourite Spielberg. I think the other poster said "best", but people interpret that in many ways.

Homelander

Definitely Shaun of the Dead for me. I actually must be one of the few people who didn't love Hot Fuzz, been a while since I watched it but I just felt a bit let down - not bad, just not what I had been expected. World's End was just plain poor. It shouldn't have been made.

arcticmonkeys

I was trying to look for a good comedy to watch for tomorrow night.I think Hot Fuzz wins out again after going through this thread.

Rothko

Shaun Of The Dead > Hot Fuzz > The World's End

Love SOTD and HF. Might give them both a watch soon as it's been a while since I've seen them. The World's End isn't that bad of a film really. I think that it suffers from the same problem as The Godfather Part III in that the previous two films were so good and it falls short of that standard.

fluke

Hot Fuzz all the way, SotD is a nice companion to it, but The World's End is a limp dick.

Harry Palmr

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/may/04/shaun-of-the-dead-edgar-wright-simon-pegg-how-we-made-zombie-classic

gmisk

Hot fuzz for me I have rewatched it quite a few more times than the others. Some brilliantly funny lines and the action scenes are really good.
Shaun of the dead is excellent, the world's end isn't so bad but pales a tad in comparison to the other two.

razorblunt

p to the e wrote: »

This reminds me of an interview I read before where several directors were asked their favourite Spielberg film. You had the usual players like ET, Close Encounters, Saving Private Ryan, Jaws etc. and Edgar Wright says "Duel". I just thought, no it isn't Edgar. No it isn't. Duel is a decent thriller made on a shoestring budget that showcased the early talents of Senor Spielbergo. You chose the one that will make you stand out like a typical contrarian. This explains the obnoxiousness that was Baby Driver.

At a guess I’m going to say that was an interview with Empire!



Hot Fuzz for me, more focus on the others on the cast and a step back by Pegg.

Porthallian

Red Cornetto, Blue Cornetto, Green Cornetto in that order for me. Enjoyed all 3 but Shaun of the Dead was just fantastic!

bucketybuck

The Worlds End suffers from the problem that they made the main character just too much of an arsehole. I know what they were trying to achieve but they overcooked it, I couldn't have any sympathy for him or his issues because at no point in that film is he anything but a selfish prick. If they had toned that back a little the film could have worked as a character study but its hard to enjoy a film when the lead is so detestable.

I like Hot Fuzz a lot but Shaun of the Dead is the better film, so I voted for that.

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts

Homelander wrote: »

Definitely Shaun of the Dead for me. I actually must be one of the few people who didn't love Hot Fuzz, been a while since I watched it but I just felt a bit let down - not bad, just not what I had been expected. World's End was just plain poor. It shouldn't have been made.

Hot Fuzz was grraaaand for me. Some good laugh out loud moments though so I still think it’s pretty good but I wasn’t blown away.

In the Hot Fuzz vs. Shaun Of The Dead debate, I’ve seen it mentioned that which you prefer comes down to which source material you have more fondness for. Well, I was not a zombie film aficionado and I have no idea what Hot Fuzz is calling back to so I just judge them as standalone films on their own merits. I know they make lots of references to other films but I think you don’t need to know about any of that to enjoy them. And so for me, SOTD is the stronger film. Funnier and tighter.

This thread is about the trilogy so that’s cool but I hate in comment sections about just one of the films how the ‘which one is better?’ debate always seems to dominate so the film never really gets discussed.

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts

bucketybuck wrote: »

The Worlds End suffers from the problem that they made the main character just too much of an arsehole. I know what they were trying to achieve but they overcooked it, I couldn't have any sympathy for him or his issues because at no point in that film is he anything but a selfish prick. If they had toned that back a little the film could have worked as a character study but its hard to enjoy a film when the lead is so detestable.

Abso-fucking-lutely. You nailed it. I didn’t care about Pegg’s character because he was deeply unpleasant.

I can understand Pegg wanting to flex his acting muscles and play a different type of character to the lovable loser but it was a swing and a miss in this film, IMO.

Potential-Monke

Ah I dunno, I could kinda relate to the character a bit. I'm firmly of the belief that having kids and getting a mortgage and 'settling down' or 'maturing' are ideas people blindly follow without question, and look down or judge those who don't follow the same path. I'm not saying we should all become childless, relationshipless alcoholics, but I can see how not being able to follow the same path, and be judged for it, can make one act out as 'immature' (granted, Gary being the higher end example for film purposes). Most people saw a selfish prick, I suppose I saw and empathised with the reason for being that way, having had similar-ish struggles myself.

It's also for this reason that I just don't get the immediate emotion one is supposed to get when kids are involved in movies/games and I have more logical thoughts like "if the kids weren't there, they would all survive/it would be easier" train of thought which then ruins that moment for me and takes away from the film. Recent example being the forced storyline in the first DLC for AC Odyssey, it has put a taint on a game I genuinely loved up to that point (120+ hours of it).

I digress. I picked SotD, but after reading the thread, I think Hot Fuzz does just outdo it for me.

Fysh

Spurred by this thread, I rewatched The World's End last night as I don't think I've watched it since I saw it at the cinema.

It's definitely the weakest of the 3 films, but oddly I think watching it at home served it better. The script is definitely the weakest of the three; the addiction storyline doesn't really dovetail with the going-back-to-your-home-town storyline as well as it needs to, and while it's riffing on action sci-fi movies the balance of character comedy to action daftness felt off to me. Even watching at home, it feels too long - whereas SotD and Hot Fuzz both feel like they're the right length for the stories they tell.

The core cast is good, though, and some of the comedy is great - there's a real chemistry between the leads. Shame we didn't get something that focused more on that and a bit less on the bombast.