The World's End

Sandra and I caught a late showing of The World's End on Friday night, which is unusual because we rarely do a date-night movie thing, and this movie was outside her usual fare. That said, we both had a blast.

The film is R-rated for piles of expletives, but it really wouldn't be the same movie without them. This is a coming-of-age story about somebody who is taking far too long to come of age, and the colorful, witty, crass, unabashed dialog is a huge part of telling it correctly.

I wish it had been possible for me to have seen this film cold, thinking I'm getting a Simon Pegg dark comedy with no fanciful stuff, but I saw the trailers, and if I hadn't you probably couldn't have gotten me into the seat. Still, the first plot turn, where we finally get a look behind the curtain (metaphorically speaking -- it doesn't happen with a curtain, it happens in a bathroom, and it isn't even in the stall) would have been so much more effective if the trailers hadn't telegraphed it.

That said, the bathroom plot-turn is delightful because it's really two plots turn at once, and the event not only fulfills promises made in the first few minutes of the movie, it makes a promise for the rest of the film: every scene will do double duty, because there are two stories going on here.

I need to see the movie again, on Blu-Ray or DVD, and take notes.

But that's not why you want to see a movie (unless that IS why you want to see a movie), you want to have fun, and I'm happy to tell you that I had a blast. The first twenty minutes were a little slow, but they were front-loading plot, character, and call-backs for the whole rest of the film so all is forgiven. The World's End comes in at #7 for me for the year.