{"id":6625,"date":"2024-10-25T12:08:40","date_gmt":"2024-10-25T16:08:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=6625"},"modified":"2024-10-25T12:08:40","modified_gmt":"2024-10-25T16:08:40","slug":"shaun-of-the-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/10\/25\/shaun-of-the-dead\/","title":{"rendered":"Shaun of the Dead"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Shaun of the Dead<\/strong> (2004)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rogue Pictures\/Horror-Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 99 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (zombie violence and gore, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Edgar Wright\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Pete Woodhead and Daniel Mudford\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: David M. Dunlap\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: September 24, 2004 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Kate Ashfield, Lucy Davis, Dylan Moran, Penelope Wilton, Bill Nighy, Peter Serafinowicz, Rafe Spall, Martin Freeman, Reece Shearsmith, Tamsin Grieg, Julia Deakin, Matt Lucas.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $13.4M (US)\/$30M (World)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ****<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019m the first to admit that the whole zombie thing has been done to death (or undeath) as of late with movies like 28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later, Zombieland (which I actually like), Pontypool, Warm Bodies and World War Z. Then there\u2019s the TV show-turned-phenomenon The Walking Dead (which I\u2019ve never watched). Me, I\u2019m a fan of George A. Romero\u2019s original Dead trilogy (the newer trilogy is okay) and Dan O\u2019Bannon\u2019s gory spoof The Return of the Living Dead. I\u2019m also a big fan of Shaun of the Dead<\/strong>, a British send-up of the zombie genre. This movie is a riot! Only the Brits would react to a zombie outbreak with an \u201coh, bother!\u201d attitude.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Directed by Edgar Wright (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World), Shaun of the Dead<\/strong> stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as a couple of layabouts who wake up one day to find the world a very different place. They don\u2019t notice right away. It takes them a bit of time, but they eventually realize they\u2019re in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. Before I get to that, perhaps I ought to talk about their characters a bit.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Pegg (better known as Scotty of the rebooted Star Trek movies) plays the titular character Shaun, a slacker with no direction in life other than the one that leads to his favorite pub The Winchester every night. He works at an electronics store where his younger co-workers mock him. He lives with his best friend Ed (Frost, Attack the Block), a crude sort who sits on his ass all day playing video games and calls everybody a certain c-word (it means something different in the UK). Shaun\u2019s girlfriend Liz (Ashfield, The War Zone) has had it with Shaun and his constant bad choices. When he flubs their anniversary dinner, she ends the relationship. That\u2019s where he finds himself when the zombies rise up.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Shaun, with no real help from Ed, comes up with a plan to rescue Liz and his mum Barbara (Wilton, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel) and stepdad Philip (Nighy, Love Actually) and take them to a safe place to wait out the apocalypse. By no coincidence, the safe place happens to be The Winchester. Along with Liz\u2019 friends\/flatmates David (Moran, Run Fatboy Run) and Dianne (Davis, Some Guy Who Kills People), the group slowly makes their way to the pub, all the while trying to avoid the zombies. One bite is all it takes to become one of the horde.<\/p>\n

\u00a0What\u2019s really funny about Shaun of the Dead<\/strong> is that it doesn\u2019t focus so much on the zombies as it does the bickering between the characters. Liz is still angry at Shaun and nothing will change that, not even a zombie situation. There\u2019s always been tension between Shaun and his stepfather. There\u2019s a mutual dislike between Shaun and Liz\u2019 two friends, \u201ca failed actress and a twat\u201d as he calls them. It\u2019s kind of like a Brit-com where the character interplay is periodically interrupted by zombies. Whatever it is, it\u2019s brilliant.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Wright, who co-wrote the script with Pegg, imbues his characters with comic depth. Take Shaun\u2019s mum and stepdad. They personify the bourgeois values of the British middle class. Mom doesn\u2019t want to cause any inconvenience by telling anybody she\u2019s been bitten. She sits on that information until she can\u2019t hide it anymore. Even then, she\u2019s apologetic. Shaun is clueless to the n-th degree. The morning after the outbreak, he walks to and from the local convenience store without noticing the groaning, shuffling, flesh-eating beings all around him. He\u2019s too hung-over to see he\u2019s in imminent danger of being eaten.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It\u2019s little touches like this that separate Shaun of the Dead<\/strong> from American-made horror spoofs like the Scary Movie series (five so far). I also got a kick out of Shaun and Ed protecting themselves with the former\u2019s record collection, but only with the ones he doesn\u2019t like anymore- e.g. the Batman soundtrack. Sade can go too because it belongs to Liz.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Shaun of the Dead<\/strong> isn\u2019t as gory as you might expect, but it still has a fair amount of violence and splatter. The special effects are quite good. I like that Wright sticks with traditional walking zombies as opposed to the kind that run with unbelievable CGI-speed. It also has a pretty cool soundtrack with tunes like \u201cWhite Lines\u201d (Melle Mel) and \u201cDon\u2019t Stop Me Now\u201d (Queen) used to great comic effect. There are also many great lines of dialogue, but my favorite has to be when Ed assures Shaun\u2019s mother of being rescued by saying, \u201cWe\u2019re coming to get you, Barbara!\u201d It\u2019s a goof on a line familiar to those familiar with Night of the Living Dead. I love that it\u2019s treated like a throwaway line.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I don\u2019t find many comedies funny nowadays but Shaun of the Dead<\/strong> had me in a near-constant state of laughter. It goes to show how a different cultural perspective can make something tired feel fresh. It\u2019s easily one of the best comedies of the century.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shaun of the Dead (2004)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rogue Pictures\/Horror-Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 99 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (zombie violence and gore, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Edgar Wright\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Pete Woodhead and Daniel Mudford\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: David M. Dunlap\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: September 24, 2004 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Kate Ashfield, Lucy Davis, Dylan Moran, Penelope Wilton, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7417,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies","category-horror"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Shaun-of-the-Dead-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6625"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7419,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6625\/revisions\/7419"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}