The World's End Silly, Smart

The World's End completes Edgar Wright's comic trilogy that began with Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. Once again, Simon Pegg and Co. are battling a big threat in a small town. This time, a legion of robots are getting in the way of a 12-bar pub crawl. Critics are loving it:

• The film "stands on its own as one of the sharpest, saddest, and wisest comedies of the year," writes Dana Stevens at Slate. "The five actors constitute a superb ensemble, creating a group dynamic that’s as toxic as it is hilarious," and the film's "compact dramatic structure and steady flow of good jokes puts most mainstream American comedies ... to shame."

• "This is a tighter, smarter film than either Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz," featuring "a heartfelt meditation on the perils and pleasures of nostalgia," notes Tom Huddleston at Time Out London. Sure, "some of the goofier gags fall flat, and too many of the characters remain undefined ... but the film is carried through on sheer, giddy energy."
• Wright "has saved the best for last," observes Peter Bradshaw in the Guardian. It's "a double-whammy of funny and clever: a good-natured sci-fi comedy of male mid-life discontent."
• The movie is "childish fun with adult language and grown-up costumes, and (Wright) executes it with energy and precision," writes AO Scott in the New York Times. Its robots represent "the threat of uniformity, dullness and predictability, the clean and responsible approach to life, and to movies, that The World’s End protests with every atom of its being."

(More Simon Pegg stories.)