Shaun of the Dead (9 April 2004)
directed by Edgar Wright
starring Simon Pegg, Kate Ashfield, Nick Frost, Lucy Davis, Dylan Moran, Bill Nighy, Nicola Cunningham
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MPAA rating: Studio: Big Talk Productions, Studio Canal, WT2 Productions, Working Title Films Script: Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright Music: Dan Mudford, Pete Woodhead Running time: 99 minutes Award: 2004 Bram Stoker Award for Screenplay Tags: Comedy; Horror; pubs; rifles; Romance; zombies Tactical strength: [8/10]
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for zombie violence/gore and language
Shaun (Simon Pegg) works at the same electronics store job he got as a teenager and goes with his girlfriend, Liz (Kate Ashfield), to the same pub every night. The movie opens with Liz ranting about doing something different, going to new places, seeing new things -- anything other than the Winchester pub. When Shaun fails to make reservations at a restaurant for a night of "something different," Liz dumps him, and Shaun goes to the Winchester with his childhood friend and roommate Ed. At this point, we have seen several zombies in the background and heard various news reports about the dead coming to life. Since Shaun leads such a boring life, it takes him a while to notice that all around him zombies walk the streets. Even when he slips in a pool of blood in the corner market, Shaun doesn't notice anything out of the ordinary. Not until confronted directly by a zombie in the garden do Shaun and Ed notice the looming problem or take any action. Once Shaun and Ed realize that zombies roam the neighborhood, they formulate a plan: save Shaun's mom, kill Shaun's stepfather (bitten by a Zombie), rescue Liz, and hide out -- where else -- at the Winchester pub. The plan doesn't go entirely as expected. In addition to Liz, Shaun must also take along Liz's roommates Dianne and David, but the group does end up at the pub, where the characters barricade themselves in and make a last stand against the hoards of zombies that want nothing more than to partake of live human flesh.
If you like British comedy, than you should find Shaun of the Dead riotously funny, and the humor comes from the characters' interactions and not just from bashing zombies with a cricket bat or trying to decapitate zombies with flying vinyl LPs -- and we get some of that too, but not overly much. Pegg and Wright have created a comedy movie that takes place among the living dead, but the living dead just create a crisis point around which the characters rally. Yes, we get to see zombies rip open one or two unsympathetic characters, but the zombies also infect several people close to Shaun, which creates a few honest tender moments.
The DVD has several interesting features, such as Pegg and Wright showing the original flip chart version of the movie and comic-book animated stories that fill in several plot holes, like what happened to Dianne after she fought through the crowd of zombies with a severed leg.
