Reviews of Shaun of the Dead

Great Movie

Posted : 3 months, 2 weeks ago on 22 September 2009 03:09 (A review of Shaun of the Dead)

Its hilarious, i loved it, it was a little better than Hot Fuzz i have to admit
and the part that Alexander quoted was indeed pretty funny. Ed basically moved his arms like a zombie but was squinting his eyes and making a retarded noise and Shaun said "Ed what was that" and Ed said "Shaun its the King of the Zombies" and that's when Shaun said " Who died and made you fucking King of the Zombies"
that wasn't the best part thought. The best part ws when Ed came in the car and said "wassup niggers"(i apoligize to whoever may find that offensive, i truly do). It was a great movie. The perfect zombie movie spoof.

0 comments, Reply to this entry

Cornetto Corner...

Posted : 1 year ago on 17 December 2008 08:15 (A review of Shaun of the Dead)

Shaun: Do you want anything from the shop?
Ed: Cornetto.

A man decides to turn his moribund life around by winning back his ex-girlfriend, reconciling his relationship with his mother, and dealing with an entire community that has returned from the dead to eat the living.

Simon Pegg: Shaun

''Who died and made you fucking king of the zombies?''

The great British sit-com has undergone something of a revival in recent years. Galvanized by the new wave of smart, sassy imports from the US, the Brits have girded their loins and produced a spate of quality comedies that have banished memories of the bland, identity dross of the late eighties and early nineties.
Shaun of the Dead is the continuation of what went before; of a similar format yet in a completely new setting, with new characters, plus new cast members and for the first time a feature-length run time for the big screen. So how does it play out? Even with such a departure from the original setting, the history of TV to cinema adaptations is a dodgy one to say the least. Fortunately for those of us who already fans or (more likely) if you've never seen the series before, prepare to be impressed.

The style is all it's own. With inventive direction and editing making the visual impact which fans will instantly recognise, to the writing which importantly is firstly genuinely funny, interspersed with references to popular culture of the past two decades, always with a self-knowing grin, a wink to the viewer rather than a pretentious nod. And of course several self-references and in-jokes of the TV series all fill in the gaps between the tastefully presented killings. There is blood, after all this is a "rom-zom-com" or "romantic zombie comedy" - a self-proclaimed new genre and rightly so. This is as about as original as it gets. They actually manage to pull off humour, violence, decapitations, action, romance, suspense, sadness and joy all within the space of 90 minutes.
Spaced, a wholly original and delightfully quirky comic bagatelle which has built up a small but dedicated following in the UK. Now writer/actor Simon Pegg and director Edgar Wright have teamed up once again to give us Shaun of the Dead which is, in a nutshell, a feature-length episode of Spaced (with added zombies). Happily timed to coincide with the Hollywood remake of the 1978 classic shocker Dawn of the Dead, Shaun is the perfect antidote: Irreverent, warm and very funny.

''Ed, this is serious!''

Shaun is your stereotypical sit-com loser: An ineffectual slob in a dead-end job, he is terminally afraid of commitment and spends all his time with his flat-mate Ed (Nick Frost, also from Spaced) who is an even bigger loser. After his girlfriend dumps him, Shaun and Ed seek solace in their local pub the Winchester - a good old-fashioned English hostelry with warm beer and pork scratchings which is infamous for its lock-ins. They stagger home in a state of advanced refreshment, unaware that the dead are now walking the earth. Indeed, it takes Shaun a little while to work it out the following morning despite interacting with a few of them (one of the recurring themes is that most of us go through the drudgery of our daily routines in a trance close to inertia).

When the penny drops, Shaun resolves to rescue his mother and his (ex) girlfriend and generally stand up for himself for the first time in his life. There is not much more of a plot than that. The film, like Spaced relies on a flawless script, observational humour and the theatre of the absurd. Pegg has perfected this in his writing but he is also a surprisingly good actor. It helps that he has surrounded himself with the pick of the British comedy fraternity who seem to have been lining up (literally in one scene) for a cameo. The stars of similarly acclaimed series' such as Black Books, The Office and Little Britain are all on show here as well as Jessica Stevenson, Pegg's Spaced co-writer, who plays a jolly-hockey-sticks human vigilante with a stiff-upper lip and can-do attitude ready to give those nasty zombie's what-for.
Veteran support comes from Penelope Wilton (a sit-com stalwart from a bygone age) as Shaun's curtain-twitching mother and Bill Nighy as her fearsome second husband who performs one of the most dignified and poignant descents into zombieness ever caught on camera.

Despite all the high praise, it must be acknowledged that Shaun of the Dead is still a spoof - a comic tool that you could argue is as low a form of wit as sarcasm. But where it scores highly is in its respect for the original material. Most spoofs (the Scary Movie franchise, for example) are vicious lampoons that unmercifully mock the films they are taking off. Shaun of the Dead gently pokes fun but doesn't lose sight of the fact that if something is worth parodying, it must have some merit. Pegg is also careful to ensure that his film can stand up on its own - there is barely a minute goes by without a very good joke and despite the light-heartedness, there are some satisfyingly scary moments and ample gore.

What is most encouraging is that us Brits have started playing to our strengths. It took a long time for comedy writers to realise that making an English version of Friends is doomed to failure (in the same way that The Office will not work with an American make-over). We should celebrate the Britishness of this film, laugh knowingly at the in gags, and be proud that it doesn't take a huge budget or movie stars to entertain people at the cinema.

Ed: There's a girl in the garden.
Shaun: What?
Ed: In the garden, there is a girl.

0 comments, Reply to this entry

heart

Posted : 1 year ago on 13 December 2008 12:37 (A review of Shaun of the Dead)

Everything I had hoped from Wright, Pegg and Frost. They clearly LOVE horror movies, but with this they took the zombies into our lives. Theres so much truth in this movie... get to the pub. Simple. True. FUNNY!

0 comments, Reply to this entry

Great Movie but cannot beat Hot Fuzz

Posted : 1 year, 10 months ago on 2 March 2008 02:39 (A review of Shaun of the Dead)

Shaun of the Dead was a funny movie but it cannot beat Hot Fuzz. If Resident Evil was like this then that would be awesome.
The whole plot of the story is Shaun played by Simon Pegg and his best friend Ed played by Nick Frost. Shawn girlfriend Liz has dumped him. Now Shawn and Ed find zombies in there back garden at there home and now it's up to a group of people to save themselves and get away from the zombies.
The movie is worth checking out as Simon Pegg and Nick Frost together they offer a good amount of laughs in the movie.

0 comments, Reply to this entry

Cornetto?

Posted : 2 years ago on 29 December 2007 03:11 (A review of Shaun of the Dead)

This movie has the greatest re-watch rate of any film I have ever known. At University, my friend and I watched it 5 times in one day (different commentaries on and fun facts too!) and still laughed and marvelled at this great British movie.

Shaun lives a humdrum life, not going anywhere and his love life is on the rocks. It is not until some Zombies show up out of the blue that his existence starts to have proper meaning.

Ed was also a fantastic character. His blatant ignorance and child-like innocence are perfectly portrayed by Nick Frost.

If you like the Dawn of the Dead movies or films littered with intertextuality, this is for you!

0 comments, Reply to this entry

Shaun of the Dead review

Posted : 2 years, 1 month ago on 26 November 2007 02:40 (A review of Shaun of the Dead)

'A romantic comedy ..with Zombies'

That says it all, obviously the romance part of it doesn't completely take over the film, but this could be classified with basically any genre. Comedy is obviously the stand out, but hey you could fit in romance, horror or even drama into it. It's kind of funny in that way, hopefully it should satisfy everyone.

It is a brilliant take-off of 'Dawn of the Dead', which by the way I have never actually seen myself. It still has the blood and zombies, but maybe it manages to fit in some other great stuff that probably was nothing like 'Dawn of the Dead'. Just the little stuff makes you laugh the most, stuff maybe not everyone notices but it's still hilarious. I watched this after 'Hot Fuzz', it's not as if the two come together but there are small things I noticed that were similar. I liked this a lot, don't get me wrong, but I enjoyed 'Hot Fuzz' more than this.

Simon Pegg was brilliant and just like in 'Hot Fuzz', him and Nick Frost worked perfectly together. They kept the laughs going from start to finish, but apart from that I can't really say the acting was anything above average. Kate Ashfield kind of annoyed me.. I don't know why.

This is a great watch for everyone. Like I said, this could be basically any genre so just because you hate horror movies doesn't mean you shouldn't see this. Sure, it has a fair bit of zombies and blood etc. but really this is a comedy movie. And heck, If you've seen 'Hot Fuzz' then you really should see this one!

0 comments, Reply to this entry

Shaun of the Dead

Posted : 2 years, 8 months ago on 30 April 2007 05:56 (A review of Shaun of the Dead)

I sat down and watched this movie for a second time this past weekend, and I could watch this movie over and over again. It is a great take-off on George A. Romero's "Dawn of the Dead", with a great story that is both hilarious and a bit digusting at times.

I was quite pleased with this movie overall---it is a rare movie these days that can grab...and hold...my complete attention for more than a few minutes at a time.

This one will be added to my favourites list for sure.

0 comments, Reply to this entry

Enjoyable

Posted : 2 years, 8 months ago on 29 April 2007 08:00 (A review of Shaun of the Dead)

Ok, so I'll admit this was not a movie I would've chosen to watch on my own, my boyfriend kept insisting we watch it and so finally I caved, and guess what, I liked it. Guess I should listen to him more often.

It was funny and the love story (yeah, a love story, I didn't believe my boyfriend when he said that either. I thought he was just trying to play into the whole "girls will watch anything with a romantic storyline" stereotype), was sweet. Plus, its british, how can you go wrong with british humour and zombies?

1 comments, Reply to this entry