The Cornetto Trilogy - "Shaun of the Dead" (2004), "Hot Fuzz" (2007), and "The World's End" (2013)

We have arrived at my favorite part of our entire collection - The Cornetto Trilogy! Sorry guys, only downhill from here.

The Cornetto Trilogy (originally known as the Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy) was conceived by Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright early on in their careers. The idea was to take three very well known sub-genres in horror/Sci-Fi and have fun with them. The results are pure comedy platinum (better than gold). These three movies all land firmly in my top favorite 15 movies of all time, with "Hot Fuzz" leading the entire pack as my absolute favorite.

Several people apart from Simon and Nick make appearances in all three movies. The ones I know for sure are Martin Freeman, Bill Nighy, and Rafe Spall. Many make appearances in two of the three - like Mary the first zombie (who is the girl sitting next to Pegg at the start of "The World's End" when he's at the meeting), David Bradley, and Paddy Considine.

Flavored Strawberry (Red) for the blood and gore

Are you a fan of the Romantic Horror Comedy sub-genre? It is kind of a niche thing, huh? Well if you are, "Shaun of the Dead" is the movie for you! Shaun (Simon Pegg) is a loser living with his buddies Pete and Ed (Nick Frost) in a flat in London. His girlfriend Liz (Kate Ashfield) just broke up with him because he has no interest in doing anything with his life. And worst yet, there's an outbreak of a zombie virus plaguing the city! Shaun and Ed put together The Plan: Shaun must save his mother and kill his step-father (Penelope Wilton and Bill Bighy), then rescue Liz who lives with her friends David and Diana (Dylan Moran and Lucy Davis). From the start things go wrong, but Shaun and Ed are too dim-witted to realize it and change their plans. 

Many homages to infamous zombie movies are included in this movie, most of them in reference to "Evil Dead". For instance, Shaun's boss is named Ash, the scenes where Shaun is preparing for things is a direct reference to "Evil Dead 2", and heading into the basement looks almost identical to the movies. There are many other references involved in the movie, but there are so many it would take me an entire blog post to compile them all. 

"Shaun of the Dead" is a tremendous movie. It is able to tell a tremendous story of Shaun's growth as a person, while being a great zombie flick and being outright hilarious. The comedic timing is impeccable, the script is great, and the execution by the thespians is near-perfect. It's not just when these characters are trying to be funny that end up being hilarious, either. The incredibly tense situations that rise up end up being some of the funniest bits. One of my favorite parts of the movie is near the beginning when Shaun and Ed are listening to Electro, and Pete busts into the room and starts yelling at them. This is one guy losing his shit towards his two roommates, and it's hilarious!

The best part of the movie? I'm glad you asked:

Flavored Vanilla (Blue) for the Police Service

Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg) is a constable for the London Police Department who is punished for being too good at his job. He is sent to the small village of Sandford and promoted to Sergeant. Transitioning from the bustle of London to the slow pace of Sandford isn't easy, and his partner Danny Butterman (Nick Frost) doesn't make things any easier on him. Any time something happens, his new Inspector Frank Butterman (Jim Broadbent) brushes it away as an accident, or charges are not pressed. At the center of every one of these accidents seems to be evidence pointing to the owner of the local grocery store Simon Skinner (Timothy Dalton). Angel can never seem to gather enough evidence to pin him, though. Things escalate while everyone in town tries to convince him its a coincidence, until Angel witnesses a murder first-hand. 

As I mentioned, "Hot Fuzz" is my favorite movie. It takes the beautifully-crafted script of "Shaun of the Dead" and expands upon it using a deeply-crafted plot. It's hard for me to explain why I love this movie so much. "Shaun of the Dead" is by far funnier, so that tends to get the nomination as the best of the series, but "Hot Fuzz" is just so beautifully constructed. Nearly every word that is spoken in the movie is repeated at least once more during the course of the movie (much like "Shaun of the Dead"). The movie is engaging and tells a great story of growing with changes in your life, while sticking to your own morals. 

The research that went into "Hot Fuzz" is tremendous. Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright traveled around the world to hear stories from police officers and make sure their characters were realistic in their story. Many of the lines came directly from some officers. I think that's what I love about this movie: Pegg and Wright actually care about the film they are crafting, and put due diligence into making sure the product is something they will be proud of. And really, how many people are proud of a buddy cop movie? 

Flavored Mint (Green) for Sci-Fi

Gary King (Simon Pegg) was on top of the world in high school. To relive the glory days, he gets the old band back together - as well as his old friends - to hit the Golden Mile - a pub crawl - in the town they grew up in. After convincing Andy Knightley (Nick Frost), Steven Prince (Paddy Considine), Oliver Chamberlain (Martin Freeman), and Peter Page (Eddie Marsan) to head back to Newton Haven, they start the Golden Mile right away: The First Post, The Old Familiar, The Famous Cock, The Cross Hands, The Good Companions, The Trusty Servant, The Two Headed Dog, The Mermaid, The Beehive, The King's Head, The Hole in the Wall, and finishing off at The World's End. They quickly notice that things are not as they seem. In fact, some of their old friends haven't aged a day. When they learn what's going on, they try their best to ignore and just continue the crawl. When they learn what's really going on, they are forced to fight for their lives!

I have not seen it nearly as many times as the other two, but "The World's End" isn't quite as strong in comparison. It is not a bad movie - I already mentioned it lands squarely in my top favorites list. It is a fantastic movie with much of the wit and charm of the first two, it just had huge shoes to fill. There was a lot of hype and expectations when it came to "The World's End". To be able to mostly live up to those expectations is no small feat.

Like the previous two, the sequence of events is given to us at the beginning of the movie. Instead of trying to sneak it in like the last, Wright and Pegg know we're looking for it and just give it to us as the opening scene, explaining exactly what happened 20 years ago during the boys' pub crawl, and knowing the audience will be looking for to see if the events repeat themselves. That was a better plan on funnier than if they had tried to hide it. Much of the early comedy also comes from not being funny: Gary tries to crack childish jokes constantly, only to be met with silence from his friends who have grown up over the last 23 or so years.

One thing that isn't too well-known is that before filming a movie entirely about drinking, Simon Pegg had actually quite drinking. And having Pegg be the total screw-up and Frost be straight-laced is a nice twist on this little factoid.

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I obviously recommend all three of these movies. The attention to detail is amazing, the scripts are perfect, and the execution is near-perfect. Most people enjoy anything that certain filmmakers put out. For instance if you were an outcast in the 90's and 2000's then you are in love with all the crap Tim Burton puts out. I prefer a filmmaker that is actually good, and that filmmaker is Edgar Wright. Followed closely by Guillermo del Toro and Neil Marshall. Expect to see another Edgar Wright movie WAY later in this blog (we're talking maybe upwards of 8 months) when we cover my second favorite movie: "Scott Pilgrim vs The World". 

Now I leave you with the one thing everyone expects in their Cornetto Trilogy: fence jumping.