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Shaun of the Dead
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As the first half hour of the movie rolls along, it's shown how Shaun lives his everyday. What he does in the morning, who he deals with, your average deal. When him and his roommate Ed stumble upon two Zombies in their backyard, they make up a plan. They have to get Shaun's mother and then his girlfriend, Liz. Then they'll head off to some where safe. A safe place being a pub that Shaun and Ed hang out at all the time. Nothing goes as planned. Shaun's mother drags her second husband along, even though he's been bitten by a zombie. Then Liz's parents come along for the ride.
When the second husband transforms into a zombie, their transportation gets ditched and they are stuck walking to the pub. Battling some zombies on their way there, they discover the pub is crawling with zombies. They manage to get in and rest for awhile. Though the zombies eventually make their way inside and the group has to fight them off.
Universal took another stab at a zombie movie. Thankfully it's not a remake of some crap an old fart put together decades ago. In the same sense, it's no way original. Zombies are attacking people, the only way to kill them... destroying their brains. Then, everyone gets trapped in one place that's surrounded by zombies and they have to figure a way to get out. Not unoriginal enough for you? The two main characters are a guy and his ex-girlfriend and he's trying his best to get her back.
Even though this movie has everything every other zombie flick has, it turned out to be very entertaining. It had a lot of comedy thrown into it which was actually funny. There was enough blood through out it all and one really nice gore scene. One of the guys gets his intestines ripped out, his legs ripped off, then his head ripped from this body. Very graphic, very sweet looking. No one did a horrid job of acting, which surprised me when I found out Universal picked it up. Good acting seems to be something they push away from. Can't wait for the dvd release on this one.
Final Conclusion: 7/10
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Review by MvMMDI
Added: November 11, 2004
Shaun (writer Simon Pegg) is headed nowhere in life, and fast. He lives with his obnoxious, slacker of a friend Ed (Nick Frost) and an asshole of a fellow by the name of Pete (Peter Serafinowicz). He gets no respect at work, and his step-father Phillip (Bill Nighy) is breaking his balls due to him forgetting to bring flowers to his mum Barbara (Penelope Wilton) for mothers day. To add to the stress level, his girlfriend Liz (Kate Ashfield) is griping about Shaun never taking her out to any place besides the Winchester, a sleazy little pub. Shaun runs himself ragged trying to appease his parents wishes for him to spend some time with mum, his girlfriends request to have a nice, quiet evening out, and attempting to keep the peace between Pete and Ed, who are at each others throats. When Liz breaks up with Shaun, he's heart-broken and does everything in his power to get her back... in fact, he focuses so much on her and the other things going on in his life, that he's completely oblivious to the fact that the dead have risen and are making meals of the UK population. When a zombie lady shows up in Shaun's backyard, however, the surrounding events start to catch up to Shaun and Ed, so they plan to get their family members and hole up in the safest place around... the Winchester pub. The first people on the pick-up list are Shaun's mother and step-father, even though the step-father has been bitten... and I'm sure that we all know what happens when someone is bitten by a zombie. Next on the list is Liz, even though she was a cold-hearted bitch in dumping Shaun. Her friends David (Dylan Moran) and Dianne (Lucy Davis) tag along, even though they despise poor Shaun. Of course, as is typical in Shaun's life, things never work out quite the way he planned...
A horror film that mixes in romance and comedy, but still pays respect to the zombie genre? While it has been done before (see: "Dead Alive"), this isn't the type of movie that one would expect to work out, especially a grizzled old zombie fan such as myself. Work it does, however, with director Edgar Wright getting that perfect mix of horror that's sure to cause a few jumps, comedy that is guaranteed to bring about roars of laughter, and romance that'll require at least one box of tissues. OK, maybe I exaggerated a bit on the romance, but the movie does click together extremely well with the bizarre mix of genres and styles. It only helps matters that there's a number of references to the classics in the zombie films, such as Foree Electronics where Shaun works, and the "We're coming to get you, Barbara" line. Little touches, but they're sure to make the Romero fan-boys (such as myself) squeal with delight.
The storyline and setup are great on their own, but the thing that really makes this movie is Shaun and Ed, the two stars of the show. I'm sure that we all know or have known someone like Ed; an obnoxious, farting, embarrassment of a man. Though the role is as hilarious as anything one could compare it to, it also comes off as being realistic; I knew someone who was exactly like this, and Ed responded to the surrounding events just as I'd expect said person to act. Shaun, however, is beyond great in his role of Shaun. Once again, Shaun is a character that most everyone could identify with... how many times have you, the reader, had more than a few things on your plate with everyone expecting top priority in the queue of events? Again, it's the realism here that makes everything work out so smoothly. Upon discovering the zombie plague ("Don't use the Z word!"), Shaun doesn't immediately turn into a shotgun-wielding bad ass; no sir, he's still prone to the same bouts of extremely bad events following him, and more than once manages to escape death by sheer luck alone. It's quite easy to compare Shaun to Ash of "Evil Dead" fame, as they both manage to be complete imbeciles throughout the movie, but still wind up as the hero just before the credits roll. If the rumored sequel ("From Dusk 'Til Shaun") does happen, I wouldn't be surprised to see Shaun creep up on Ash as the king of horror heroes. He's just that damned good.
Though I would think that my opinion of this movie has been adequately covered in the above review, I'll sum it up for you. If you're one of the few who didn't catch this in the theater, be sure to pick it up when the DVD arrives in stores. It's well worth it for both horror and comedy fans alike. 10/10.
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![Shaun of the Dead [UMD for PSP]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51FW1R403FL._SL75_.jpg "Shaun of the Dead [UMD for PSP]")
![Shaun of the Dead [HD DVD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51-RArAAPQL._SL75_.jpg "Shaun of the Dead [HD DVD]")
