Overall Rating
 Awesome: 52.69%
Worth A Look: 27.42%
Average: 7.53%
Pretty Bad: 4.3%
Total Crap: 8.06%
13 reviews, 108 user ratings
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| Shaun of the Dead |
by Dr Nick
"A British zombie film? And it's not even that bad!"
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I must say I was left quite disappointed by this. After laughing myself silly at the trailers, as well as loving every episode of Spaced ever made, I thought that Simon Pegg and the rest of the gang could do no wrong with this one. It is, however, not every day you get a British rom-zom-com (Romantic zombie comedy), so even if the film is not a complete success, at least it’s something different.I’m not sure why I didn’t love this film. I expected this to be a life-changing experience. The genius of Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Jessica Stevenson, directed by Edgar Wright, on the big screen. How could I not love this? I’m still annoyed at myself for not loving this film. I didn’t hate it. Not at all. It’s a very funny film, the dialogue and acting are spot on (apart from some characters that just annoyed the hell out of me) and there are some good gory special effects. So, what went wrong?
Ok, we’ll start with a synopsis. Shaun is a lazy, young man in his late 20’s, who likes nothing more than hanging out with his best friend Ed down at the local pub, The Winchester. In fact, he likes it so much that he spends most of his free times in there, blissfully unaware that he is neglecting his girlfriend Liz (played perfectly by Kate Ashfield). Liz has bigger plans for her life than wasting it away in a smoky London pub, so one day she dumps Ed. Before Ed can even start to think about getting his girlfriend back, he realises that everyone around him has turned into zombies. Him and Ed decide to rescue Shaun’s mum, Liz and her flatmates and take them to the safest place they can think of, The Winchester Pub. It’s a long and gory fight against life and death, and when the reach the pub, it’s far from over.
Ok, so this was promoted as the first rom-zom-com (Romantic Zombie Comedy), and it delivers on all three accounts. It’s got romance, it’s got loads of zombies and there are many funny moments. Like with Spaced, there are endless references to the films that influenced the filmmakers. Shaun’s mother is called Barbara, which naturally paves the way for the famous line from Night of The Living Dead - “We’re coming to get you Barbara”, when Shaun and Ed decides to rescue her. And the references work. Just like in Spaced, they feel part of the film and makes the whole thing more interesting.
One thing that annoyed me was Shaun’s mother, Barbara (Penelope Wilton). Completely oblivious to anything bad in the world, nothing shocks her and she spends the majority of the film, asking innocent questions and just slowing everything down. And I think that’s the main problem with this film, the pace. Spaced was so frantic, there was so much going on all the time and you never had the chance to get bored. Here, the pacing is much more traditional, and I felt that it could all have been cut down to a much shorter running time (and at 99 minutes, it’s not really that long at all). All the visual trademarks from the TV series are there; the imaginative transitions, the imagined scenarios etc, and they work great on the big screen. It’s just that they're not used as much as they could have been, and as a result the film drags a bit.
Another disappointment is that Jessica Stevenson (Pegg’s sidekick from Spaced) is not that heavily involved in this. She appears for a couple of minutes, as an old friend Shaun bumps into before and after the zombie killing spree, but it’s nowhere near enough. She was never one of my favorite characters in Spaced, but I missed her in this film. Her bubbly and spontaneous personality could have added a lot to the film.
I was also hoping to see a lot more gore. Maybe I’ve been completely desensitised to gore and violence after watching too many Troma films, but I felt that most of the effects here were pretty lame and quite shoddily made. There are some really good ones, but again, not enough of them.
I don’t want to come off too bad on this film, cause I really did enjoy it. It’s funny, sweet and well acted and directed. I blame friends and other reviews for making me expect something I wasn’t going to get. I am more than willing to give Shaun of the dead another shot, though. Maybe it will grow on me.For something as unusual as a British zombie film, Shaun of the dead is pretty good. It's just a shame that they didn't keep up the manic pace of the brilliant TV series Spaced.
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link directly to this review at http://efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=9265&reviewer=345
originally posted: 05/21/04 00:13:58
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USA
24-Sep-2004 (R)
DVD: 21-Dec-2004
UK
N/A
Australia
07-Oct-2004
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