The World’s End (August 2013)

Official Australian release date: 1/8/13. Viewed: 28/8/13.

Director: Edgar Wright
Actors: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Martin Freeman, Paddy Considine, Rosamund Pike
Genre: Comedy / Action
Rating: MA15+.

I find it very odd that identical film concepts always seem to appear within a few months of each other, even if they were conceived totally in isolation – ‘Olympus Has Fallen’/‘White House Down’, ‘Deep Impact’/‘Armageddon’, ‘This Is The End’/‘The World’s End’. In this case, although I liked ‘This Is The End’ (and IMDb gives both of these movies an identical ranking of 7.8/10), I enjoyed ‘The World’s End’ much more. It is faster paced, has more laugh-out-loud moments, a better soundtrack and a more satisfying conclusion.

Yes, it’s the end of the “Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy”, but hopefully only the middle of Wright/Frost/Pegg’s working career together, since ‘Spaced’, ‘Shaun of the Dead’ & ‘Hot Fuzz’ have all been great. This film takes plenty of time to establish the characters and give them each a backstory. Once they eventually discover the “blanks”, they’re a quarter of the way through the pub crawl – “The Golden Mile”. Best quote – Pegg to Frost: “A man of your legendary prowess drinking rain! It's like a lion eating humus!”

From there on, it’s a battle – literally, with the Pierce Brosnan-led “blanks” – and verbally between the “five musketeers”, as Pegg tries to get them to all twelve pubs, despite their dire circumstances. There are plenty of throwbacks to ‘Shaun of the Dead’ and ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’, and the action really ramps up in the last 30min. The best bit is probably Bill Nighy at the end, with Pegg & Frost arguing with him and using the refrain of “Because I'm free, to do what I want, to be what I want, any old time. And I'm free, to be who I choose, to get my booze, any old time” which has been recurring since the start of the film (from the Soup Dragons’ 1990 cover, not the Rolling Stones’ 1965 original).

Overall: Fun, witty, enjoyable comedy that works well as a sci-fi film too!

Gav's Rating: 4 stars.

The Wolverine (August 2013)

Official Australian release date: 25/7/13. Viewed: 5/8/13.
Director: James Mangold
Actors: High Jackman, Tao Okamoto, Rila Fukushima, Hiroyuki Sanada
Genre: Action / Adventure
Rating: M.

Stays mostly true to the comics and is a decent backstory on Wolverine/Logan, and so much better than 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine'! It's basically set after X-Men 3 and sees Wolverine head to Japan to find peace/reconcile his past.

There's a few deviations from the comics - the Silver Samurai & Viper aren't quite done right, but are decent villains - but it's nice to see Mariko & Yukio, and have a less frantic pace for some of the film. The final third is good, but nothing too extraordinary. The whole thing with Wolverine's claws did annoy me a little, though!

I'm hoping this links in nicely with 'X-Men: Days of Future Past', where we get to see both sets of X-men!

Overall: Good character development, but nothing too spectacular.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars.