You probably already know if you'll like this film based on how much you enjoyed the other two flavors in the Cornetto Trilogy, Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. Personally, I thought it was more action-oriented and emotionally darker in tone. Like the other two films, the theme here is friendship and about outgrowing one's childhood.Everybody knows that one friend, usually in middle or high school, that could convince you to do the stupidest things and yet, somehow, you were the only one who ever got caught. Now, you would recognize that as sociopathy but then, you just couldn't help falling for their personal charisma. Gary King (Simon Pegg) is that friend. On their graduation from high school, Gary convinces teenaged Oliver (Martin Freeman), Andy (Nick Frost), Steven (Paddy Considine) and Peter (Eddie Marsan) to go on an epic pub crawl called the Golden Mile: twelve pints in twelve bars in one night. They never completed the crawl, only making it to nine. The friends move away from their hometown, starting their lives and generally moving on, until Gary shows up twenty years later with one request. Finish the Golden Mile. Torn between pity and curiosity for him, as he's clearly not changed in personality or even in taste in clothes, the four agree. They soon find, however, that their hometown of Newton Haven has changed as well, with sinister doppelgangers impersonating townsfolk, Stepford Wives-style. They'll have to survive blue goo-filled automatons as well as alcohol poisoning.
There are few things more piteous than seeing someone who peaked too early try and reclaim their glory days. The only thing worse than witnessing that is wondering whether you have peaked as well and just didn't realize it. Edgar Wright balances this fairly deftly with the four friends, while Simon Pegg plays his most unlikeable character to date. Rosamund Pike and Pierce Brosnan support.
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