THE WORLD'S END Review

THE WORLD’S END Review

By Darin Skaggs

     How people decide to watch a film is usually based on an actor they really like or what genre they are fond of.  I however go into a movie because of a director.  Edgar Wright has only made three films Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.  He made a short lived television series called Spaced.  All of these products are amazing and among some of my favorite films.  His discovery is near flawless.  And that brings me to The World’s End.  It shows how amazing Wright is as a filmmaker.  This film is on the weaker side of his films, but I would still call it amazing.

     The World’s End is a film about a near forty year old man named Gary King who decides to get his old friends back together to do the “pub crawl”. One night, twelve pubs, and it all ends with the twelfth pub called The World’s End.  They tried this once before the day they were done with High School and it did not go well.  King though says it was the greatest night of his life and nothing has lived up to it since. All the friends agree and return to their home town with King.  It is apparent even before they get into town that this means more than just reliving a few memories for King.

     That is what makes Wright so brilliant, he makes some of the most hilarious films ever made but also there are always some subtle yet emotional things happening with the characters. All of the films are about friendship, both Shaun and Hot Fuzz are about Simon Pegg’s and Nick Frost’s friendships and Scott Pilgrim literally earns the power of self-respect because he helps the people that have been helping him his whole life.  Hot Fuzz is about not judging a group of people until you get to know them.  Shaun shows a man going through the stages of growing up in the midst of a zombie attack.  He has to say goodbye to his mother and move on, like every young adult at one point, though it’s not usually because they have turned into a zombie.  The World’s End is also about friendship and how growing up means you can lose some people who once meant the world to you.  It also has a theme of alcoholism.  King is nearly forty and he drinks at every pub he can, even though that was the plan, his drinking is so much harder to watch because you know he is just drinking his sorrows away.

     Shaun, Fuzz and Scott are some of the funniest films of all time.  The World’s End which is still very funny is not as funny as all the other Wright films.  There are great laughs; Nick Frost as usual is the comedy king.  He is one of the greatest psychical comedians of our time.  The editing is brilliant making many of the jokes and the actors, along with the writing get plenty of laugh out loud moments. Yet, there is something missing from this film that I can’t quiet put my finger on, but I would still watch this film in a heartbeat.

     Now in all of Wrights film he takes on a genre and makes it his own, with a dash of comedy.  It is not a parody; there are parts of the genre he is honoring.  Shaun was the horror film, Fuzz is the action genre and Scott is a play on video games.  The World’s End takes on Science Fiction.  Just like all the other films, it takes after the first act for the characters and even us to realize that the film is taking on the genre.  It is used well and goes back to the whole 1950’s style of the genre with homages to films like Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Day the Earth Stood Still.  The conclusion is one of the funnier parts of the film. The very end of the film came out of nowhere and is a pleasant surprise. Throughout the film though there are fight scenes, which I was not totally on board with.  They are meant to embody classic wrestling moves.  There was no reason these characters should be so good at fighting or any real reason why they should do this in the situations.  This hurt the film a bit, being a little too silly.

     This film is not perfect, but I would give another point to Wright.  He’s got four amazing movies and will probably have many more to come.  The World’s End is a must see for any sci-fi, comedy or Edgar Wright fan.

90. THE GENERAL

 

PLAINS, TRAINS AND BUSTER KEATON

By Darin Skaggs

     Physical comedy is one of the hardest things to master and no one has done better at it than Buster Keaton.  The silent movie star has made some of the greatest comedies with the best stunts in all of film.  The General is largely considered his greatest and one of the best movies ever made.

     The story goes as so, Keaton plays a train engineer who is going to join the war so his girlfriend could be proud of him.  When he gets there however he is told he is not qualified and is denied into the war.  He comes back ashamed.  He then, heads off in his train carrying several people including his girl.  While she is on the train by herself she is kidnapped.  Keaton freaks out losing the two most important things to him, his girl and his train.

      He runs after it doing everything in his power to get them back.  These are where several amazing stunts come in.  There are no special effects just two real trains, going at very real speeds chasing each other.  Keaton is constantly running to the back of the train, sometimes to the front and goes off and on the train too.  At times it is amazing to watch, most times it is nerve racking.  It is also constantly hilarious. 

The stunts he does in this movie and all of his movies are amazing to watch.  You will sit there hours after the film wondering how he did a stunt or if you could muster up the courage to do any of them yourself.  Keaton is the master at physical comedy and making us feel nervous for his characters safety.

91. ANNIE HALL

LIFE, LOVE AND PURSUIT OF COMEDY

By Darin Skaggs

     Life is full of ups and downs.  You will fall in love, you will feel regret, you will feel full of hope, you will feel hopeless and hopefully will spend it laughing. Woody Allen’s 1977 film Annie Hall explores all of these themes while also making one of the greatest comedies of all time.

     This film is about a man named Alvy Singer, played by Allen himself, who goes through life pessimistic and worried.  He meets the title character during a tennis match.  In this meet up he finds out that she is awkward, a crazy driver and dresses the way she wants.  This encounter gets Singer’s attention and he pursues a relationship.  This leads to many complications and some fun moments all provoking life and love.

     A few moments of the film has Alvy narrating telling us about what has gone on in his life. These moments include him growing up by a roller coaster, him having an interest in girls at a very young age and his ups and downs with Annie Hall.  It captures moments of life so perfectly. At one point Singer considers Hall his best friend, so when they are trying to cook lobster for the first time and they continue to drop them and loose them behind appliances they cannot help but laugh together.   The scene is later parodied with a lady that Alvy hardly knows, she is bored and apathetic to even making the food.  At one point while they are broken up Annie calls Alvy to come kill a spider in her apartment.  Alvy comes over as quickly as he can to save the day.  Throughout the film he does not care about anyone this much, he almost treats some people, mostly women, like they are nothing.  However Annie Hall changes him and makes him want to take care of her and make sure she is always ok. 

     Now most of Allen’s earlier work before this was pure comedy and starting with this film he matured greatly and continued to do so throughout his career.  This film still has amazingly funny comedy and absurd jokes.  There are jokes like Annie and Alvy standing in line of a movie and a man behind them is loudly giving a bad opinion about a filmmaker, well bad opinion according to Alvy.  Alvy eventually takes the man and says he is wrong then brings out the bashed upon filmmaker to give a rebuttal to the loud man’s opinions. Alvy then turns to the camera and proclaims “I wish real life was like this.”  He includes a scene where they get to know each other and subtitles are used to show what they really think.  The movie is filled with this type of humor.   Other jokes come from Allen’s dialogue complaining Curb Your Enthusiasm style about what people do and what he thinks about how life works.

     It is the first mature effort from Allen and definitely one of his best.  It is super funny and insightful about what love does to a person and how it can change their outlook.  It has stood the test of time and will for decades to come.