Last month I was going on about sequels and how they better do a good job on Trainspotting and not do a Highlander 2 on it! (They did do a bloody good job by the way. I’m still smiling about it.)
Anyway it got me to thinking about something I like to call ‘third film syndrome’ and how the third film is usually the weakest.
There’s bound to be some exceptions but I can’t think of any off the top of my head (except for Toy Story 3 which was superb and maybe Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade).
Just look at Godfather Part 3, Alien 3 and Terminator 3 - Rise of the Machines. All of those films followed two fantastic movies and were the weakest of the bunch.
I would even bunch Return of the King into this list just for the never-ending ending that just went on and on and on until you just wanted to physically shove Frodo onto that bloody boat just to get rid of the little emo Middle Earth self-harmer (and they didn’t even have the razing of The Shire which would have been a far better and more fitting ending to the trilogy!)
And here’s where I despair as this even happened to the final film in the Cornetto trilogy.
It all started so promisingly with Shaun of the Dead, which subverted the American zombie film to a British setting brilliantly.
And then you had Hot Fuzz which transplanted Bad Boys to rural Somerset and just about made the whole country smile as one as Nick Frost, Simon Pegg and director Edgar Wright worked their magic.
But it was all ruined by World’s End.
It had such promise as a few mates reunited for a nostalgic crawl of a hometown’s pubs for one final time.
The first act was great as we were introduced to the characters. It had a sparkling and very funny script that made you feel nostalgic for recaptured youth and lost dreams.
And then it all went wrong.
Seriously wrong.
The basic premise of the film is sound with their pub crawl interrupted by the end of the world but with the main character insisting that they finish the crawl despite this but like the fourth outing of the Indiana Jones it was ruined by introducing aliens making the final act of the film a complete mess which left you scratching your head as you still tried to find the funny.
If Edgar Wright, Nick Frost and Simon Pegg had kept to their basic premise but made the world’s end a simple and more believable environmental disaster it would have worked so much better.
Instead they chose aliens and the rest is bargain bin history.
I blame studio interference as all three actors had been catapulted to Hollywood stature by the previous two films so their schedules were busier and the movie was more of a cash-in than the previous two.
But it was a missed opportunity and left the Cornetto Trilogy ending on a bit of a duff note.