The World's End

Director: Edgar Wright
Year Released: 2013
Rating: 1.5

Manic ringleader Gary King (Simon Pegg) rounds up four of his old drinking buddies (Nick Frost, Martin Freeman, Paddy Considine and Eddie Marsan) to go back with him to their old home town and do the infamous "Pub Crawl" there 'for old time's sake,' except the people there are robots and mankind's future is actually in danger (good riddance to bad rubbish). Following Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz as a "satire" - in this case, they're stealing from sci-fi movies like The Stepford Wives and Invasion of the Body Snatchers - I can't help but feel there's something hopelessly stale and contrived (and familiar) about it: it takes roughly forty minutes until anything slightly compelling crops up, as Pegg's disgruntled, "mature" pals tolerate his maniacal behavior and follow along with his heavy drinking, engaging in dull banter all the while. In the end, I had no reason to give a damn about any of these characters, and it's unfortunate that, while watching, I couldn't guzzle beer to excess to make the running time pass quicker (... it was a school night, and no one wants to deal with a hung over Mr. L.).