EDGAR WRIGHT AND SIMON PEGG COMPLETE 'THE WORLD'S END'

Nicola Cunningham and Simon Pegg reunite for The World's End Year: 2013 Rating: **1/2

British cult-classic director Edgar Wright and his leading man and co-writer Simon Pegg return to the theme of a group of losers forced to battle a horde of... well they're basically zombies liken to SHAUN OF THE DEAD but since THE WORLD'S END is of the INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS science-fiction mold, these monsters are able to move really fast and fight pretty well...

Making no sense that five mundane/thirty-something former college buddies could fight like Bruce Lee in far too many mindless action sequences, opposite of what SHAUN and HOT FUZZ perfected throughout its entire first half: fleshing out interesting human characters before thrusting them into inhuman peril... 

Simon Pegg in THE WORLD'S END

For which END has only one fella of any real significance, and it's Simon Pegg, once the popular/confident leader and now an oblivious alcoholic loser, desperately getting "the band back together" in the BLUES BROTHERS crashing-their-various-nowhere-jobs tradition... 

But even Pegg's always faithful, scene-stealing sidekick Nick Frost is such an uptight, aloof and downright bitter grownup, he could have been played by anyone... In fact the whole lot are so turned-off by Pegg's Gary King aka King Gary, they seem as reluctant to be in the movie as its plot-line...

Nick Frost shoots THE WORLD'S END

Involving HOT FUZZ "other team" cop Paddy Considine along with Martin Freeman (and a bland actor who looks just like him) forced to reenact their age-old Pup Crawl, hitting twelve different joints to down one pint each before moving on to the next, and in a town that seems all too pristine and modern...

A potentially intriguing premise that falls short since, with non-stop action overshadowing the humans, Wright and Pegg created more of a video game these guys' college-age selves would play than a character-driven romp they're eventually stuck in, and, particularly compared to SHAUN, this WORLD is basically... with Wright's sublimely-flowing direction aside... an overlong and tragically contrived DEAD END.

Nick Frost and Simon Pegg in THE WORLD'S END

SPACED reunited Mark Heap in THE WORLD'S END

SPACED reunited  Julia Deakin in THE WORLD'S END

Paddy Considine along with Martin Freeman in THE WORLD'S END

Peter Serafinowicz from SHAUN OF THE DEAD annoyed again for The World's End

Nick Frost and Simon Pegg in THE WORLD'S END

Simon Pegg in THE WORLD'S END