Movie Review - The World's End

The World's End

Starring: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Martin Freeman, Paddy Considine, Eddie Marsan, Rosamund Pike, Pierce Brosnan, David Bradley, and more.

Directed by: Edgar Wright Written by: Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright Cinematography by: Bill Pope Original Music by: Steven Price

Premise: Gary King wants to recapture his glory days from High School. Lying, cheating, and scraping, he convinces his old friends to agree to relive (and this time hopefully complete) the Golden Mile - a drinking marathon through the twelve pubs in their home town ending at The World's End. Yet as they begin the crawl, and all his friends want nothing more than to go home, an unexpected obstacle comes their way - androids. (Rated R)

Review:

1) Acting - Total Thumbs Up: Simon Pegg was funny and pitiable in his role as Gary King. Nick Frost did great work showing his disgust for all that had been lost and later fighting for it. Martin Freeman was adorable as Oliver, the realtor. It was awesome seeing Pierce Brosnan again.

2) Special Effects - Total Thumbs Up: The special effects might not be up to the standards of big productions, but what they had was definitely well done. The androids looked great, especially the walking behemoths. The work with Oliver's head was fantastic. A real nice job on the final view of the town, too.

3) Plot/Story - Thumbs Up: Though filled with definite humor, the story of the film has several serious themes running through it - longing for times past, regrets, unrequited love, the guilt of mistakes. Until the androids show up, the story had turned rather somber - perhaps too much so. There are a few repeated jokes that were quite amusing - especially the one about Gary's Mom.

For a bit of unexpected depth, several of the characters have secrets. These get slowly peeled back, one at a time, and are revealed through the long night.

For those who've enjoyed other Simon Pegg and Nick Frost films, there's the added treat of several in-jokes tying back to their previous films.

4) Stunts - Total Thumbs Up: I heartily applaud the great choreography on the fight scenes - especially the one in the bathroom. Probably the best and smoothest fights I've seen all summer - and I've seen a lot of them. Android Fu for the win!

5) Locations/Cinematography - Total Thumbs Up: There's a super nice shot of the town as the guys drive to their destination - makes a nice contrast for when we see the same view towards the end. The look and feel of several of the pubs were great. They even had fun with the locations which added to the humor.

Conclusion: "The World's End" is a quirky, slightly depressing, yet also amusing film. Definitely one to see with your buddies.

Rating: 3.75 out of 5 (Hubby's Rating: Better for Matinee)

Mind Sieve 5/21/12

Greetings! Let's see what I have for you this week!

This side of the Pond has decided to do like the BBC and make a modern Sherlock Holmes rendition. CBS is backing it and has called it Elementary. I'm a Sherlock sucker so I will definitely check it out. Besides with Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu, it should be a blast~! 

From Dreamworks - Rise of the Guardians. Looks funky!

Science Fiction and Fantasy Icons Look Downright Dashing In 19th Century Russian Regalia from io9. (Yes, yes they do!)

A Fantastic Fear of Everything with Simon Pegg. Looks trippy!

For all those who've only recently discovered Josh Hutchenson, he's got a new movie coming. This must be the week for trippy trailers - Detention. 

A cute/sad stop motion music video - Delta Heavy - Get By. 

Designing From Bones - Stories Hewn From Rock: Tombs and Temples from Gene Lempp. 

Everything You Wanted To Know About Twitter Chats from Mark W Schaefer.

From Kaye Publicity - Can't Afford To Be Aloof. Why we must do social media and more.

3 Tips - Double Posting On Social Networks Is Missing Opportunity from Bindle Post. I thought this article was about one thing when I click and it ended up being something else entirely, but still pegged me! Doh!

From Rachelle Gardner - What If My Agent Doesn't Like My Next Book?

Villains vs Antagonists from DIYMFA. Some nice definitions!

Does Every Scene Need a Goal? From Jami Gold.

Have an awesome week! And see you next time!

Movie Review - Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

Starring: Tom Cruise, Paula Patton, Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner, Michael Nyqist, Vladimir Mashkov, Samuli Edelman, Josh Holloway, Lea Seydoux, and more.

Directed by: Brad Bird Written by: Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec Based on the Mission Impossible TV Series by: Bruce Geller Original Music by: Michael Giacchino

Premise: Ethan Hunt and his team are framed for an explosion at the Kremlin. Without support, the team follows the only clue they have to try to find the real culprit and stop him from carrying out his plans. (PG-13)

Review: This film was a lot of fun! Everything you'd expect and more.

The stunts and CGI were top notch, as were the hand to hand combat scenes. Tom Cruise makes all his jumps, leaps, slides seem smooth and easy as if he'd been born for action work. This smoothness is something which I'd noticed before in his last film "Knight and Day". Yet there are also plenty of normal people action and mishaps, with consequences for bad aiming or timing. I cringed for them a couple of times.

All the heavy serious mission tension is eased here and there by beautiful comedic moments. Even better were the flares of temper or impatience, making the team members people and not just cinematic machines.

The cinematography was gorgeous. A spanning view from the Dubai hotel to the horizon with a blooming sandstorm was incredible. Each city got wonderful spanning views and added a lot of foreign flavor.

My only complaint was a couple of items either never explained or done so quickly viewers could easily miss them. There are subtle hints but nothing is ever vocalized. This is mostly in relation to faulty equipment and the bad guy seeming to have some of the IMFs technology. But it doesn't detract too badly from the overall film.

One touch that I loved, and totally humanized some of the members, was some of the agents's reticence to actually do certain aspects of the job. Normally on these type of films the agents never hesitate to do things common people would be scrambling not to do. It was nice seeing them hesitate or actually having to work themselves up to do them. Very humanizing.

Over all, it was a great film. Definitely worth watching!

Rating: 4.25 out of 5 (Hubby's Rating: Would Pay Full Price to See It Again!)