Films to see #5 The World's End

The final part of Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright’s Cornetto trilogy is a fun adventure as five friends reunite all grown up and try and complete a bar crawl they failed twenty years before.  The usual quick editing of Wright is still an effective comedic tool and a consistent motif in the trilogy. While Pegg effortlessly sells the one whose life never took off still riding the same car and wearing the same coat. It is powerful point made on how life is meant to take off and the feeling of nostalgia for those whose lives never get off the ground. There is also surprisingly message on commercialization, or ‘starbucking’ as one character puts it as all the pubs become chains and lacking as much individualism as the robots.It does lack the richness of characters that it’s predecessors boasted and doesn’t quite equal the thrill and fun of a zombie picture or a cop actioneer.

The ending remains frustratingly vague and sums up one of the main gripes; the robot alien plotline is never fleshed out or explained. The robot element is introduced so late in the story and it is only then you feel the film kick in. The first 30 minutes are lack any laughs or real jokes and center on developing pretty stock character types such as the teetotaller, the enthusiastic one etc.

The Cornetto gang take on the big ideas of sci-fi as opposed to the chase of zombie films and the big action of action films which is why there isn’t as much action but more discussing in this instalment though it picks up pace in the carnage as they foolishly attempt to complete the bar crawl regardless of the fact the town and potentially the world is slowly being infested by replicants with evil beaming out of their eyes and blue toothpaste shooting out of their joints. Though you could argue there is less humour and more serious emotional moments in the trilogy as it goes on the films are guaranteed entertainment and it will be shame that the trilogy’s three stars won’t be collaborating again or anytime soon.

****

Classic Horror 1#

The Hitcher

An cult horror/actioneer in which the happy go lucky teen Jim Halsey gives the icy John Ryder a hitch but what begins as a boogeyman myth of the murderous hitchhiker turns into a non-stop chase across the empty desert highways of the mid-west.  What is surprising is the levels of carnage that occur in which Halsey becomes a fugitive from the law, cops are taken out like ducks on a firing range and even a police helicopter is not safe from the destructive game that Halsey and Ryder are in entangled in. Much of the horror is Halsey’s treatment by the police, who at times are more frightening than the elusive presence of Rutger Hauer’s quiet drifter. There is an almost supernatural air to this tale of relentless murder along an empty stretch of highway of diners and gas stations as Halsey is pursued relentlessly by Ryder whose presence is constantly felt and frequently is ahead of Halsey. An unstoppable spirit who can plant a severed finger in your chips without ever being seen while what makes The Hitcher stand out as classic is C. Thomas Howells’ masterful performance as Halsey; Howell’s transformation from cowering kid to coldly, calculative adult who regularly points guns at cops is the real brilliance at the heart of this film. While Huger effortlessly hands in a defining portrait of motiveless menace it’s Howell’s character arc that makes this beyond an entertaining thriller.