Shaun of the Dead (2004, Edgar Wright)

September 15th, 2009 · No Comments

So, people told me Shaun of the Dead was good, but they kept describing it as something akin to Hot Fuzz and whatnot. It's not a spoof of a zombie movie though. It's a zombie movie with a couple losers discovering their skill sets make them good at surviving a zombie holocaust, if not excelling at it.

Actually, it'd be kind of easy to describe Shaun of the Dead as Clerks with zombies. Maybe too easy? I'm not sure. Wright's a far better director than Kevin Smith, creating this intense atmosphere the audience can feel while the characters are a little too dull to figure out what's going on. Where the film hits gold is making Simon Pegg both a bit of a twit and also a character for the audience to identify with. He's actually the only male character in the film who doesn't have a serious defect (Nick Frost is a drunken loser, Peter Serafinowicz is a yuppie jerk, Dylan Moran is an ass, Bill Nighy is a jerk) and so it's not really surprising how Lucy Davis occasionally gives him the bedroom eyes. It's not mentioned (Kate Ashfield plays Pegg's love interest to far less effect, but it might be because Ashfield's character is just written as the annoyed girlfriend... much like, you know, Clerks).

The film's hilarious from the start and keeps a nice air of unpredictably about it. Zombie films feature this ragtag cast of characters, thrown together, but not Shaun. It's far more... realistic.

3.5/4

CREDITS

Directed by Edgar Wright; written by Simon Pegg and Wright; director of photography, David M. Dunlap; edited by Chris Dickens; music by Dan Mudford and Pete Woodhead; production designer, Marcus Rowland; produced by Nina Park; released by Focus Features.

Starring Simon Pegg (Shaun), Kate Ashfield (Liz), Nick Frost (Ed), Lucy Davis (Dianne), Dylan Moran (David), Peter Serafinowicz (Pete), Bill Nighy (Philip), Jessica Hynes (Yvonne) and Penelope Wilton (Barbara).

Tagged: Bill Nighy· Edgar Wright· Focus Features· Simon Pegg· ★★★½

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