In the post-apocalyptic wake of their rapturously received zombie romp, Shaun of the Dead, one of Britain’s finest comedy ensembles disbanded, jetted off the Hollywood hills and situated themselves upon the sofa of the moviemaking elite with a cup of tea and a Cornetto. Simon Pegg found himself delivering top-secret intel to Tom Cruise in The Mission Impossible franchise and beaming various mega-stars up in the role of Star Trek’s Scotty. Director Edgar Wright began dating a silver-screen starlet and writing/directing multi-million dollar screenplays, and Nick Frost found himself battling the forces of evil alongside Kristen Stewart’s hugely successful Snow White. It may have seemed as though the trio’s trilogy of quintessentially English disaster and action flick parodies had been placed on the back-burner for good following 2007’s Hot Fuzz, but fortunately the boys are back in town, that town being Newton Haven, and they’ve brought some familiar faces with them. After never finishing their inaugural pub-crawl from ‘The First Post’ to ‘The World’s End’, the childhood friends, including Pegg, Frost, Paddy Considine and Martin Freeman, reunite with the goal of finally reaching their alcohol fuelled destination. Much like their real-life counterparts, not only have the group’s lives irreversibly changed but so has their sleepy hometown after being infiltrated by body-snatching invaders from outer-space, hell-bent on putting the kybosh on their plans for good. Careful pre-crawl planning can prepare you for many a situation; discovering you’re a man down; discovering you’ve been travelling in the wrong direction for the last hour; discovering you’re not actually in a pub but rather a spot lit car park with a warm can of lager; but ultimately it can’t prepare you for five guys, twelve pubs, fifty pints and a highly explosive and brain-meltingly funny alien invasion that looks give new meaning to ‘getting messy’.

With Superhero season smashing its way into cinemas this summer – clinging on to the The Man of Steel’s cape – Edgar Wright will surely be taking notes. Tasked by Marvel studios to kick off phase three of their cinematic universe, alongside writing partner and Attack the Block director Joe Cornish, the duo will unleash the lesser known yet wildly intriguing hero Ant Man upon audiences in the wake of Avengers 2. Wright’s much-loved adaptation of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World proved that the director’s comic book sensibilities were perfectly attuned to the hopes of fans; expect no less from this hotly anticipated project.

This piece was originally published in the July/August issues of MOVIE MAGIC & ONSCREEN magazines and can also be found here