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Shaun of the Dead (2004, Dir. Edgar Wright)
The tag line reads "A Romantic Comedy. With Zombies." and this certainly gives you a good idea of what to expect. Parodying George A. Romero's 1978 classic zombie flick Dawn of the Dead, this British offering adds something to the zombie genre that seems to have been absent for too long...comedy and love!
The film comes from the same minds behind the classic, cult TV series Spaced. If your a fan of Simon Pegg then you should already know enough about Shaun of the Dead and stop wasting your time on this tedious review. If not however...
Simon Pegg, star of Spaced, penned the script along with director Edgar Wright and introduces several familiar British comedy stars into the movie. Pegg however is also our main protagonist Shaun, A lazy, loser who doesnt seem to be destined for anything greater than employee of the month at Dixons. The film more or less follows the same route as Dawn of the Dead but in a wonderfully more British way, which is where the appeal lies. Shaun is a part time sales assistant in Dixons (Electronic Shop) and not a fancy Tv Reporter. His friends are snobby failed actors, boring coffee swilling univeristy lecturers and big fat smelly slobs, not handy helicopter pilots and protecive security guards. And their eventual stronghold and protective post from the white eyed, granny paced Zombies is not a luscious Shopping Mall with everything a person/Zombie needs...but a Pub. The Winchester Arms to be exact. It is with these new surroundings and characters that the comedy and sly p!ss take of the Zombie genre can unfold. Wright and Pegg manage to faithfully parody Romero's original, even opening the film with the original soundtrack and showing his versions of "consumption" as we see the zombie-like inhabitants of Great Britain going about their daily business. (even the poster gives us a hint about this) The plot may be slightly different but this is necessary for Wright and Pegg to produce their own twist on the Zombie tale and avoid those feelings of Deja Voo Doo. The comedy of the film however lies in the "reality" of it. Why run away from Zombies that walk 0.25 miles an hour? Why use chainsaws to chop them into messy and unsightly pieces? Wont a salt shaker or old Dire Strates LP do the job? Sean proves that it does and the outcome is brilliant. With this humour of the reality of the Zombie infestation, we also have the emotions in the reality of it. Simon Pegg delivers some truly moving moments in the film, shocking the audience from laughter to real sadness in the most suprising of places. Its not all fun and games killing Zombies and amongst the humour, Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg, along with their brilliant characters and Peggs suprisingly touching acting, show us this.
Simon Pegg is outstanding as Shaun along with the rest of his cast who are no strangers to comedy roles. We see The Office's Lucy Davies(Dawn) act brilliantly as the bitchy flatmate, Bill Nighy as Seans moody Step Dad and a host of other cameos from the casts of such brilliant comedy offerings as Little Britain, Black Books, League of Gentlemen, Spaced and The Office.
Although some of the British humour in the film may be lost on a foreign audience and some of the jokes may lay unappreciated due to unfamiliarity of the actors unique style, any fans of Zombie movies or a good honest comedy will thoroughly enjoy this new Brit-flick-Rom-Zom. In some places the humour is confusingly mixed with true emotion and the jerky parody of Romero's cinematography can sometimes be dissorientating there really are not many bad words to say about Shaun of the Dead. Although i can think of five words that CAN be used... Laughs, Tears, Vomit and Romance...oh and Enjoy.
A gore-tastic, Zombie breakdancing
The tag line reads "A Romantic Comedy. With Zombies." and this certainly gives you a good idea of what to expect. Parodying George A. Romero's 1978 classic zombie flick Dawn of the Dead, this British offering adds something to the zombie genre that seems to have been absent for too long...comedy and love!
The film comes from the same minds behind the classic, cult TV series Spaced. If your a fan of Simon Pegg then you should already know enough about Shaun of the Dead and stop wasting your time on this tedious review. If not however...
Simon Pegg, star of Spaced, penned the script along with director Edgar Wright and introduces several familiar British comedy stars into the movie. Pegg however is also our main protagonist Shaun, A lazy, loser who doesnt seem to be destined for anything greater than employee of the month at Dixons. The film more or less follows the same route as Dawn of the Dead but in a wonderfully more British way, which is where the appeal lies. Shaun is a part time sales assistant in Dixons (Electronic Shop) and not a fancy Tv Reporter. His friends are snobby failed actors, boring coffee swilling univeristy lecturers and big fat smelly slobs, not handy helicopter pilots and protecive security guards. And their eventual stronghold and protective post from the white eyed, granny paced Zombies is not a luscious Shopping Mall with everything a person/Zombie needs...but a Pub. The Winchester Arms to be exact. It is with these new surroundings and characters that the comedy and sly p!ss take of the Zombie genre can unfold. Wright and Pegg manage to faithfully parody Romero's original, even opening the film with the original soundtrack and showing his versions of "consumption" as we see the zombie-like inhabitants of Great Britain going about their daily business. (even the poster gives us a hint about this) The plot may be slightly different but this is necessary for Wright and Pegg to produce their own twist on the Zombie tale and avoid those feelings of Deja Voo Doo. The comedy of the film however lies in the "reality" of it. Why run away from Zombies that walk 0.25 miles an hour? Why use chainsaws to chop them into messy and unsightly pieces? Wont a salt shaker or old Dire Strates LP do the job? Sean proves that it does and the outcome is brilliant. With this humour of the reality of the Zombie infestation, we also have the emotions in the reality of it. Simon Pegg delivers some truly moving moments in the film, shocking the audience from laughter to real sadness in the most suprising of places. Its not all fun and games killing Zombies and amongst the humour, Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg, along with their brilliant characters and Peggs suprisingly touching acting, show us this.
Simon Pegg is outstanding as Shaun along with the rest of his cast who are no strangers to comedy roles. We see The Office's Lucy Davies(Dawn) act brilliantly as the bitchy flatmate, Bill Nighy as Seans moody Step Dad and a host of other cameos from the casts of such brilliant comedy offerings as Little Britain, Black Books, League of Gentlemen, Spaced and The Office.
Although some of the British humour in the film may be lost on a foreign audience and some of the jokes may lay unappreciated due to unfamiliarity of the actors unique style, any fans of Zombie movies or a good honest comedy will thoroughly enjoy this new Brit-flick-Rom-Zom. In some places the humour is confusingly mixed with true emotion and the jerky parody of Romero's cinematography can sometimes be dissorientating there really are not many bad words to say about Shaun of the Dead. Although i can think of five words that CAN be used... Laughs, Tears, Vomit and Romance...oh and Enjoy.
A gore-tastic, Zombie breakdancing