The World's End

2013, 15, Directed by Edgar Wright

Starring: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Paddy Considine, Eddie Marsan, Martin Freeman, Rosamund Pike

Teased for what feels like an age, the final slice of Edgar Wright's genre-juggling 'Three Flavours: Cornetto' trilogy (kick-started with the near-decade old Shaun of the Dead, followed four years later by the somehow superior Hot Fuzz) arrived this summer amongst a wave of superhero sequels and animated minions. All it takes is a few short scenes to settle into the company of Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and the remainder of the ensemble before realising the territory is identical to those previous yarns, allowing the viewer to approach the entire thing as comfortably as a catch-up down the local with your pals. The World's End is almost identical in tone to the films that have launched the careers of all three to heights they'd have never expected sat on that Spaced apartment circa '99: both zombie horror of the 60s and buddy cop actioners of the 70s have come before, with attention now fixed upon 80's sci-fi. The plot sees Gary King (a never better Pegg, on dickhead form) beg his former teenage beer-guzzlers to reunite in their old sleepy town of Newton Haven. Why? Well, to neck a pint in each of the 11 pubs that make up 'the golden mile,' beginning with 'The First Post' and culminating at 'The World's End'. The more boozed up the gang get, the more awry things becomes - largely thanks to the strange beings that seem to have occupied the sleepy town's residents.

The screenplay, as you'd imagine, is filled with dialogue placed to destroy you with laughter, and each amassed cast member (Paddy Considine, Eddie Marsan, Martin Freeman) ensures their character could stagger about on their own two legs in their personal sitcom.  But this is Pegg's moment. In an at-first alienating switcheroo with the former catalogue of Frost, everybody knows a Gary King (read: annoying 'mate' you'd like to punch in the jaw but can't help but greet with laughter.) The quickfire montages - long since a trademark that sets these comedies apart - take tongue-in-cheek form here, becoming neat visual gags (4 pints and a tap water), repeated but never repetitive, wittily-choreographed sequences that would've made Chaplin chortle, the aesthetically-pleasing 90s soundtrack: these are five ordinary guys doing something ordinary, but it's the talent, not the budget around them, that makes the whole thing extraordinary. 

Between this and Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa, the magic of British comedy shines oh-so brightly.

 4/5

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Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa

2013, 15, Directed by Declan Lowney 
Starring: Steve Coogan, Colm Meaney, Felicity Montagu, Sean Pertwee 

Many would say that Alan Partridge, the disc jockey from Norwich, has long been overdue a feature film - many being thirty-something aficionados, or even twenty-something’s with a taste for British comedy. It was 21 years ago when the character (co-created by The Thick of It's Armando Iannuci) first lent his voice to Radio 4's On the Hour, sparking off a rib-tickling list of credits ever since. It was decided that now was the time - in a blockbuster-riddled age - for the multiplex invasion, and what we've been handed is Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa, a charming British comedy spin-off more Inbetweeners Movie than League of Gentleman's Apocalypse. 

Partridge is more than just a character, channelling his purveyor Steve Coogan far more than the other way around. Every thought, line of dialogue and character tick is layered with precision - this is Coogan's baby. And he'd be damned if this film wasn't any good. Breathe your sighs and wallow in the news that Alpha Papa is Funny... with a capital F. Stocked with quotes up there with the best of 'em, this spin-off (which began its film shoot in Norwich only this past January) is a love-letter, if an ever so slightly scribbled one. Like most comedies, there’s the odd misfired joke fit with obligatory chuckle, and the lines of realism are blurred to say the least; quite tough to swallow when Partridge’s entire existence balances on being the everyman who lives down the road.

In terms of plot, we have Colm Meaney's Irish graveyard shift DJ Pat Farrell turn gun-crazed hostage-taker during the office party at North Norfolk Digital when company Shape are placed in charge and fire him (with no help from Alan's friendly suggestion to 'Just sack Pat'.) A hostage situation at his feet, the only person Farrell will converse with is Alan, who views the opportunity for evolution as he acts as a go-between for the police and the hostages.

The rest should be left for you to discover; prep yourselves for several laughs a minute. Coogan’s dialogue, quite evidently largely improvved, aims to push this character even further than you could have imagined (Partridge equipped with a rifle!), but all involved prove here fresh ideas are still at their feet. There’s not an Aha in sight.

4/5  

  

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