The World's End (Pegg, Frost, Wright)

[Mister Six]

]And also it makes it a bit similar to that shit-looking American film with Richard Ayaode in it:  http://www.youtube.com/v/ns_4ialpodI

Ha! No idea where that video came from. I must have missed off a letter or something. This one should work (not really worth your time though): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYERNojq5AM

[chocky909]

Edgar Wright heavily involved in a film about aliens! Never seen that before in the last three years. Bloody hell.

Eh? Apart from producing Attack The Block I don't think he's done anything about aliens or even science fictionny although Scott Pilgrim is a bit I suppose.

Yer right about the rest. It's all a bit safe on paper but I bet it'll be pretty spectacular if not very funny. I don't expect much from Pegg and Frost but will be excited purely for it as a Edgar Wright film.

[notjosh]

Reece Shearsmith plays a sneery cynical role with a bitter face! Never seen that before! They're going to the pub! Never seen that before! Edgar Wright heavily involved in a film about aliens! Never seen that before in the last three years. Bloody hell.

Character actor, recurring thematic concern and genre director. What's the problem?

What, Fred dancing with Ginger again in the midst of comic misunderstandings? Edward Everett Horton doing another double take? More bloody Irving Berlin songs? Never seen that before.

[alan nagsworth]

Eh? Apart from producing Attack The Block I don't think he's done anything about aliens or even science fictionny although Scott Pilgrim is a bit I suppose.

Oh my bad, I assumed he was behind Paul as well. As you were.

Character actor, recurring thematic concern and genre director. What's the problem?

Because it's not as easily comparable as that. Just because you can think of examples where those formulas work, doesn't mean they work for everyone, and in this case it looks to be quite tedious. Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers and Reece Shearsmith are hardly good comparisons in this example.

[The Duck Man]

Some folk may be interested that Edgar Wright is going to be posting daily blogs detailing each days production on Shaun of the Dead, ten years to the date of it occurring. The first post is a bit dry, couple of stills from the film plus what was shot, but that's announce to sate a lot of people I imagine.

Here's day one: 11 May 2003.

[notjosh]

Because it's not as easily comparable as that. Just because you can think of examples where those formulas work, doesn't mean they work for everyone, and in this case it looks to be quite tedious. Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers and Reece Shearsmith are hardly good comparisons in this example.

I didn't say it should please everyone, I just didn't think it was fair to attack it on the basis of a few elements being familiar. I'd be quite happy to see a film which reworked parts of Shaun while bringing in new material and doing things a bit differently. I don't expect every film they make to be a genre-defying change of direction. I'm also cautious about reading too much from the trailer as they are bound to emphasise its similarity to their previous efforts. The fence gags, for example, always feature prominently, but are essentially throwaway. Similarly, I don't think the Paul trailers did it much justice whatever you think of the film.

Edward Everett Horton was the Shearsmith comparison. Admittedly it's a stretch, but my general point was that some actors are so good at doing one particular thing that they might as well do it as much as possible. Of course Reece Shearsmith is not one of those people, which I suppose makes that particular criticism fair enough.

[tomasrojo]

The idea of these middle-aged blokes trying to do their pub crawl against a backdrop of unstoppable armageddon has a pleasing level of pathos to it, and works as a metaphor for reaching middle-age and realising that you're closer to death than you are to your youth.

Is this last bit actually true?  Simon Pegg is 43.  He is as close to 18 as he is to 68.  I assume he has a very reasonable chance of getting to 68.

[Harpo Speaks]

Mmm, I was thinking that just the other day. Never loved it, but after a couple of recent watches it does contain a lot of stuff that appeals- small town life, little petty power struggles and of course action film parodic stuff.

Same, I loved SOTD, and while I enjoyed Hot Fuzz to a certain degree, I always felt there was something quite disappointing about it. I was idly flicking through the channels recently though and saw that Hot Fuzz was on (about halfway through), and felt myself getting pulled into it. I really should revisit it in full when I get chance, but there's so little time for rewatches. MUST CONSUME NEW THINGS.

Not impressed by the trailer for this, but I'm still hopeful that it might be decent.

[Urinal Cake]

Is this last bit actually true?  Simon Pegg is 43.  He is as close to 18 as he is to 68.  I assume he has a very reasonable chance of getting to 68.

Yes because aging only happens in one direction.

[Johnny Townmouse]

Same, I loved SOTD, and while I enjoyed Hot Fuzz to a certain degree, I always felt there was something quite disappointing about it.

Rewatch it. I remember feeling exactly the same as you, and came away with a sense of disappointment. I think Shaun is so small and deals with such knowable people, and then Hot Fuzz has this larger budget, and the characters are polar opposites. The idiot and the clean-cut, professional cop. Also, it is pregnant and tries to do too much.

However, after a re-watch I started to appreciate its sophistication. I can take or leave the third act, but Dalton is wonderful and there are some lovely scenes.

[Thursday]

It helps that Frost plays a much more endearing character, in fact most of the supporting characters in Shaun of the Dead don't do much for me whereas as Hot Fuzz has a whole village of fun characters. Coming off of Spaced, I really felt SOTD missed Jessica Hynes writing.

[popcorn]

I too miss Hynes in the post-Spaced Pegg World. She's a brilliant foil for the sniggering boy's club it otherwise tends to become. I wonder if we'll ever really know what happened there.

Oh my bad, I assumed he was behind Paul as well. As you were.

It really bothers me that Pegg and Frost made that movie and that it was marketed in the way it did for exactly this confusion it deliberately propagated. Having enjoyed Shaun and Hot Fuzz, it bothers me to think that the "brand" was damaged - deliberately! - by such a shit movie, and that people think less of Wright et al as a result.

Not that there's any reason people SHOULDN'T dislike Wright or whatever. It's just a shame it happens for no good reason in Paul's case.

[Thursday]

Paul was like all the things people criticize about Spaced, etc - that it's just lazy reference humor, but actually completely true.

[chocky909]

Lots of people assumed it was by the same team. I wonder how Wright felt about that.

It was a pretty decently made family action film but the jokes were woefully thin on the ground and crude when they did pop up. After a while I wondered if they were even trying to make us laugh.

[olliebean]

Is this last bit actually true?  Simon Pegg is 43.  He is as close to 18 as he is to 68.  I assume he has a very reasonable chance of getting to 68.

It's normally in your 40s you start to feel closer to death, no matter how many actual years you might have left. Partly because you're no longer as fit as you once were and never will be and it's around that age that you really start to feel it, partly because the years seem to be going by faster than they did in your youth. Probably also partly because the people you used to watch on telly when you were young start dying off at an accelerated rate.

[Rolf Lundgren]

However, after a re-watch I started to appreciate its sophistication. I can take or leave the third act, but Dalton is wonderful and there are some lovely scenes.

My thoughts exactly. I actually watched Hot Fuzz the other night for the first time since seeing it in the cinema and enjoyed it a lot more than I originally had. The third act I'm still not keen on, my mind switches off when they get all the guns and have the shoot-off in the town square, but there's definitely a lot there to like about it.

[The Duck Man]

Full trailer, which I just came across stumbling around a Buzzfeed sub-menu. Strange lack of press again.

No great hilarity in that, which is mildly concerning, but I'll still go see it (were the Shaun/HF trailers particularly funny?). Further impressions - a second falling through a fence gag (with a hedge), a "Whatchoo doing?" repeat and Darren Boyd's in it.

[phantom_power]

Just watched the trailer. HMMMMM. I wish simon pegg would do another pedestrian rom com. can't get enough of those.

He's only really done two hasn't he? Run Fatboy Run and How To Lose Friends and Alienate People, and arguably they aren't so much pedestrian as a bit shit

[popcorn]

if it weren't for the team behind the film I'd have no interest in seeing it based on that trailer. looks like a bland rehash. "jesus wrote the bible" feels like an old simpsons joke. I'm still cautiously optimistic though.

when are pegg and wright going to start putting some female characters in their films that aren't just (ex-)girlfriends?