I had high hopes for the third and final movie in the Simon Pegg/Nick Frost/Edgar Wright so-called "Cornetto Trilogy". The World's End is the final installment in the very loosely linked trilogy, which includes Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. I thoroughly enjoyed the other two and it wasn't that I disliked this one...it's just that it was a little less satisfying than what I was hoping for.

(HERE BE SPOILERS!!!)

I wasn't really expecting to be disappointed. I was convinced that this would be a home run -- outta the park. The problem isn't that it's a bad film, it's more that it takes a large helping of Shaun of the Dead (aliens this time instead of zombies), a mild dash of Hot Fuzz (the whole town ends up being in on the "conspiracy") and a certain amount of the dreadful 2011 Paul (the only film of the Pegg/Frost collaboration that I've actually disliked). The film also reminded me of another Frost film, Attack the Block, which concerned aliens landing in a poor London neighborhood, but was also a much better film. That being said, World's End itself is still entertaining because of the goodwill that I have towards the wonderful cast (it's been years since I've seen such a great cast in a British comedy), the fact that the dialogue is well written for the most part, and the surprising pathos to be found here in terms of the character's relationships with each other.

That being said, the third act is absolutely ridiculous and made me want to run screaming from the theater. It does relate back to the title and the ending of the world, but to me, it felt like so many other apocalyptic films and not in the typically fun Pegg/Frost skewering sense, but more like Paul, which was absolutely fucking exhausting.

I love these guys and I liked this movie (for the most part), it was just a letdown after the quality of the first two movies.