The World's End ****

Five friends from school days reunite to relive a night twenty years earlier, when they vowed to have a pint at every pub in town, and to finish this time at The World's End, a destination they failed to reach the first time. Organized and led by their chief ne'er do well and boozing brawler Gary King (co-writer Simon Pegg), the gang assembles from their workaday lives elsewhere and gets started.

Their trek begins well enough, if somewhat slowly, since Andy (Nick Frost) doesn't drink any more, and the first place is quite dead. But there's something different, something strange going on in the town, and the boys find themselves, in a bizarre coincidence, as the champions and defenders of the human race. It's an unexpected and very funny turn of events, and full of the surprises and violence you might expect from the creator of "Sean of the Dead" and "Hot Fuzz."

"The World's End" is a wry look at middle age and how people don't change, wrapped up in a fine apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic adventure straight from any number of recent movies. It's great fun.