Thursday, February 12, 2009

Movie Mini Review: Shaun of the Dead

Title: Shaun of the Dead

Cast: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Kate Ashfield, Lucy Davis, Bill Nighy

Plot summary:
Quintessential loser Shaun decides to finally get his life together. Step one is to get his girlfriend back after she dumps him for being a layabout. Unfortunately, he picks a bad day to make a fresh start. It's hard to get your life together when your roommate's trying to eat you.

My thoughts:
I'm not going mince words here. I freakin' loved this movie. Every time I watch it I'm reminded that the first 20 minutes of Sean of the Dead is sheer cinematic genius.

Director Edgar Wright did a masterful job of cleverly and simultaneously introducing the main characters and the primary plot points. Seeing Shaun (Simon Pegg -- he plays "Scotty" in the upcoming Star Trek prequel) going about his morning completely oblivious to the zombie apocalypse happening around him was both hilarious comedy and insightful commentary on modern society.

When Shaun and his best friend Ed (Nick Frost) finally realize they are under attack by zombies -- killing the first one by frisbeeing vinyl records at it -- Shaun quickly formulates a plan: Take the car, pick up his mum and rekill his zombified step dad, go get his girlfriend, then hide out at the local pub until it all blows over.

The situations and dialogue along the way are witty and clever. I always laugh out loud at the way the characters handle all the weirdness with straight-faced matter-of-factness.

One could argue that the movie is formulaic. It does follow the standard "boy meets zombie, boy bashes zombie over head with cricket bat, boy saves girl" template. But Shaun of the Dead shows that, despite the suckage of 90% of the dreck shuffled out of Hollywood for the past 20 years or so, a talented director with a talented cast can successfully take a fresh approach to an old idea.

My final rating:
Five out of five zombie bites

Favorite quote:
"Take car. Go to Mum's. Kill Phil - "Sorry." - grab Liz, go to the Winchester, have a nice cold pint, and wait for all of this to blow over. How's that for a slice of fried gold?"


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8 comments:

  1. this film also has the best disembowlment scene ever.

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  2. I loved Hot Fuzz too, but some people don't like them as much. This movie is great.

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  3. I actually fell out of my seat at the theater I was laughing so hard. Loved this movie!

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  4. not sure if you can Netflix it, but quite a few of this cast were originally in a BBC sitcom called Spaced. Equally funny/worth your time.

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  5. Oh I love this movie sooooooo much. I will never stop loving it.

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  6. Thanks for the review. It's on the rent list.

    Cheers.

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  7. That move kicked much ass.

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  8. A month ago I was exactly feeling how you are feeling now, in pain, crying, heart broken, and then I found this site saveabreakup.com and I followed their instructions, I had my girlfriend come back to me in no time so fast !! I was so so happy and I'm still very happy, don't give up! I suggest you view the free videos that tell you what to do on saveabreakup.com

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