The World's End (2013)

Incredibly strange, uneven film. As a comedy, it's not especially funny - hard to expand on that, just thought the comic timing was wayyy off and the wit not particularly sharp. Heck, some of the jokes were funnier in the trailer. As an action sci-fi, it's equally all over the gaff - it has a particularly bad case of 'shaky cam fight scene' syndrome, and the ending is very poor indeed ( ). What saves it is that there's actually a relatively engaging, even poignant character study bubbling under the surface and sometimes breaks through with surprising force. Pegg and Frost do a really good job, crafting believable characters with a believable relationship even when the script and direction let them down (and it was undoubtedly several script drafts and edits away from being properly coherent). It is, in it's way, a fascinating examination of the tribulations of middle-age, a subtle dissection of conformity, a pretty dead-on portrait of modern middle England.

It's a mess, strangely inert in the areas where you'd think this team would effortlessly excel. In fact, I was left with the feeling that they should have just reigned in all the fantastical stuff and forced comedy and they'd actually have had a surprisingly mature, intelligent film. It's still in there, but it's all the other stuff that just doesn't come together.

Oh, and Rosamund Pike still has the screen charisma of a rake, faring poorly against the homogenised automatons at the film's core.