Shaun of the Dead Movie Review:


Now here's an ingenious concept, very nicely executed, as it were, by the team behind the British comedy series Spaced. Actor-cowriter Pegg calls this Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Undead, referring to Tom Stoppard's brilliant comedy set around the edges of Hamlet. Well, now he and Wright have done the same thing with the zombie genre! And the result is horrifically good fun!

Shaun (Pegg) is happy with his life, but he's about to discover its complete and utter pointlessness. His job in an electronics shop is going nowhere, his girlfriend Liz (Ashfield) is about to break up with him, and his best friend/flatmate Ed (Frost) is a first-class loser. In his newfound misery, it takes him a while to notice that people around him are turning into flesh-eating zombies. Eventually he and Ed devise a plan to rescue Liz, along with Liz's flatmate and her annoying boyfriend (Davis and Moran), as well as Shaun's mother and stepdad (Wilton and Nighy), and hole up in the local pub. But it doesn't go very smoothly.

It's in the set-up that this film wins us over. Pegg and Wright brilliantly send up both the zombie genre and British society by showing how mindless everyday life is--there are zombies all around us! Then as the undead start appearing around the edge of the film, it takes on a goofiness that's absolutely sublime. The film is full of inventive touches, from witty red herrings to the lethal use of household objects. The filmmakers even avoid the obvious pitfalls, keeping the script smart and playing on the stereotypes like the lovable lout, obnoxious nerd, airhead mum and reluctant hero. All are better written and played than we expect; there are even moments of honest drama that catch us off guard.

The film is also very cleverly shot and edited, with snappy musical choices that build to an hysterical zombie attack accidentally choreographed to a blaring jukebox. This is one of those memorable films that generates hours of post-viewing arguments about which bit was the funniest. So it's a slight pity that the final act becomes a by-the-books horror movie. But with the razor-sharp attitude that went before, we can forgive the filmmakers for losing their bite.

Rich Cline

Shaun (Pegg) is having the worst weekend of his life. His girlfriend Liz (Ashfield) has just dumped him for spending all his time with his flatmate Ed (Frost) at the Winchester pub, he is getting absolutely no respect at work and he has to visit his mother (Wilton) and his stepfather (Nighy), who he hates. To top it all, the world is ending and the dead are rising from the grave.

A story about a man trying to change his life so he can win his disgruntled girlfriend back might sound like the premise to many a romantic comedy but throw in a horde of zombies and you have the makings of a cult classic on your hands.

Simon Pegg, the writer of TVs Spaced takes a short Resident Evil sketch from the show and makes it into one of the best comedy horror movies to come out in a very long time. As Dog Soldiers did in 2002, the film takes a stalwart of the genre and gives it a very British twist. By combining the lad-ish behaviour of the average late 20s early 30s year-old, like excessive drinking, spending most of your time with your mates down the pub and not knowing what women want, with a Zombie outbreak is just pure genius. As you laugh at all the puerile fart gags and the way Shaun and Ed live their lives (probably even recognising some if not most aspects), the world is falling into hell and the two of them are completely oblivious.

Comedic and dramatic performances combine as some of the best British talent come together to confront the undead masses. Nick Frost, a Spaced veteran is hysterical as the uncaring, selfish and monstrously untidy Ed. He would be everyone’s complete nightmare as a flatmate but would be the life and soul of any party. Lucy Davis (from TVs The Office) and Dylan Moran (from Black Books) are great as boring couple Diane and David. This is quite a restrained performance from Moran, as he plays the whinger of the group but he comes into his own during the pub scenes. Kate Ashfield is good as the object of Shaun’s affections Liz. You can totally understand what she is saying about Shaun’s life as most of us (who are that age) are like that. Bill Nighy and Penelope Wilton shine as Shaun’s stepfather and mother as both of them are suitably dizzy and very middleclass.

This is Simon Pegg’s chance to shine however. Anyone who has watched Spaced will know that he is a comedic talent but he also shows a gift for the more dramatic, especially during the more emotional scenes in the pub. He plays the average, disillusioned late twenties guy extremely well. The character and his situation is a metaphor for the film’s undead throng, as we trudge through the mundane tasks of everyday life half dead, running on the most basic of impulses as we try and get through the day.

Shaun of the Dead is a cult classic in the making. Filled with genuine laugh-out-loud moments mixed with scares and a few scenes of real sentiment, this is another example of British inventiveness that has produced a cocktail of horror and comedy that everyone will love.

A flesh eating horror flick mixed with all the facets of the British romantic comedy, cinema’s first Zom-Com.

Star Rating = * * * *

Jamie Kelwick

Have you ever felt like an urban zombie?

You wake up give a giant yawn, scratch yourself, and stumble into the kitchen seeking your first cup of java. Then even more like a zombie you drop into you regular Monday to Friday routine.

Well this has happened to Shaun (Simon Pegg), a TV salesman who seems to watch life walk by. When Shaun isn’t trying to keep his roommates from fighting, he is trying to spend time with his girlfriend Liz (Kate Ashfield).

Liz is starting to get sick of Shaun’s stalled take on life and dumps him. Shaun is in shock and at that moment it seems his world around him begins to crumble as well. Not figuratively but literally.

It seems that Shaun and Liz will have to put their feelings aside as their world is turned upside down when the undead rise from the grave. It comes down to a matter of survival for this disjointed couple.

The film’s beginning is a lot like a British version of “Office Space” mixed some what with a sitcom about roommates. The beginning scenes where the characters go about their business and the audience knows the world is falling apart but they don’t are utterly priceless. The long pan shots that follow Shaun to his favorite convenience store so speak to film’s premise of the zombification of the urban male.

When the film’s characters finally uncover what is really going on it becomes your typical zombie film right down to the humans making their last stand. When the comedy eventually evolves into gore and panic, I felt it really never lived up to the magic of the film’s first half.

I wanted to see a new take on the zombie film. In a lot of ways, the film did that but in others it just seems to hit the same pitfalls as your typical zombie film. I really loved the film’s opening and the performance of Simon Pegg.

I guess I got disappointed when the jokes ran out and it was substituted by an onslaught of mindless gore.

(3 out of 5)

So Says the Soothsayer.

Dean Kish

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