Geek on Film: Shaun of the Dead
From the nation that taught us that the French are jerks (kidding, of course), that anyone who owns pigs is better left alone, and that Hugh Grant can't dance, comes Shaun of the Dead. A romantic comedy. With zombies.
It must be said before I go any further, that I am not an aficionado of the zombie movie. I haven't seen Dawn of the Dead (either of them) or Day of the Dead or Night of the Living Dead. I've pretty much shied away from anything with "of the Dead" in the title. As such, there are probably quite a lot of zombie jokes that were lost on me. (A priest, a rabbi and a zombie are out golfing one day...)
Having clarified my experience with the genre, I feel I can go on to say that despite having missed all the "of the Dead"'s, I still adored this movie. I'm sure a veteran of the genre would have even more to enjoy, but despite my inexperience I never felt as though there were anything I was missing. Funny is funny, zombies or not.
And the movie is terribly funny. There's an especially good scene (you can see bits of it in the trailer) involving Shaun, Ed, a zombie, and Shaun's record collection. There are also some really excellent scenes of Shaun walking down to the corner store to get breakfast; once pre-zombies and once mid-zombies. Terribly, terribly funny stuff.
It's because the movie is so funny that it comes as something of a shock that it has such a strong emotional core. It's a zombie movie, so you're well aware right off that not everyone is going to make it out alive, you're prepared for that. I wasn't prepared, however, for the heart-felt monologues that managed to be touching, even as zombie silhouettes flopped menacingly against windows in the background. I wasn't prepared for the friendships and the sacrifices that I could really believe, and honestly relate to. (Not that I've ever been attacked by zombies, but I have felt the urge to hit people with a cricket bat, so there you go.) The movie really is about people, and their decision to survive. Not just survive the zombie attack, but survive life, overcome complacency, do something.
But this next part is very important. I think that every zombie movie review should have a gore-o-meter, just so you know whether or not to avoid eating before hand. Shaun of the Dead is, for the most part, not all that shocking. A few gaping neck wounds, some zombie love-bites, nothing to worry about. There is precisely one point in the movie that made me feel like heaving into my popcorn bag. Luckily, you should be able to see it coming. So unless you're a fan of entrail-scooping, you'll likely only find yourself feeling ill a grand total of once in an hour and a half. (If you are a fan of entrail-scooping, you'll probably feel a little ripped off. I apologize.)
So there you have it, Shaun of the Dead. An A+ for fans of British romantic-comedies, zombie movies, and a minimum of entrail-scooping! If you're even the least bit curious about it, go and see it, it's worth your $10.95.
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Fill-in-the-Blank Action Hero
(Don't mind the title, I just couldn't think of anything cheesier. :))
In the spirit of zombie movies, here is your first ever Fill-in-the-Blank Action Hero question.
In the event of a zombie attack, who would you want to come to your rescue, and why?
So, this can be any movie character, or if you've got a really good reason for Harrison Ford to get off the big pile of money I'm sure he sleeps on to come rescue you, go to. Bonus points will be awarded for creative narratives.
Good choices probably include Bruce Campbell, Simon Pegg, or Milla Jovovich. Bad choices probably include... you know... those extras, who always end up getting eaten. Ahem.
It must be said before I go any further, that I am not an aficionado of the zombie movie. I haven't seen Dawn of the Dead (either of them) or Day of the Dead or Night of the Living Dead. I've pretty much shied away from anything with "of the Dead" in the title. As such, there are probably quite a lot of zombie jokes that were lost on me. (A priest, a rabbi and a zombie are out golfing one day...)
Having clarified my experience with the genre, I feel I can go on to say that despite having missed all the "of the Dead"'s, I still adored this movie. I'm sure a veteran of the genre would have even more to enjoy, but despite my inexperience I never felt as though there were anything I was missing. Funny is funny, zombies or not.
And the movie is terribly funny. There's an especially good scene (you can see bits of it in the trailer) involving Shaun, Ed, a zombie, and Shaun's record collection. There are also some really excellent scenes of Shaun walking down to the corner store to get breakfast; once pre-zombies and once mid-zombies. Terribly, terribly funny stuff.
It's because the movie is so funny that it comes as something of a shock that it has such a strong emotional core. It's a zombie movie, so you're well aware right off that not everyone is going to make it out alive, you're prepared for that. I wasn't prepared, however, for the heart-felt monologues that managed to be touching, even as zombie silhouettes flopped menacingly against windows in the background. I wasn't prepared for the friendships and the sacrifices that I could really believe, and honestly relate to. (Not that I've ever been attacked by zombies, but I have felt the urge to hit people with a cricket bat, so there you go.) The movie really is about people, and their decision to survive. Not just survive the zombie attack, but survive life, overcome complacency, do something.
But this next part is very important. I think that every zombie movie review should have a gore-o-meter, just so you know whether or not to avoid eating before hand. Shaun of the Dead is, for the most part, not all that shocking. A few gaping neck wounds, some zombie love-bites, nothing to worry about. There is precisely one point in the movie that made me feel like heaving into my popcorn bag. Luckily, you should be able to see it coming. So unless you're a fan of entrail-scooping, you'll likely only find yourself feeling ill a grand total of once in an hour and a half. (If you are a fan of entrail-scooping, you'll probably feel a little ripped off. I apologize.)
So there you have it, Shaun of the Dead. An A+ for fans of British romantic-comedies, zombie movies, and a minimum of entrail-scooping! If you're even the least bit curious about it, go and see it, it's worth your $10.95.
---------------
Fill-in-the-Blank Action Hero
(Don't mind the title, I just couldn't think of anything cheesier. :))
In the spirit of zombie movies, here is your first ever Fill-in-the-Blank Action Hero question.
In the event of a zombie attack, who would you want to come to your rescue, and why?
So, this can be any movie character, or if you've got a really good reason for Harrison Ford to get off the big pile of money I'm sure he sleeps on to come rescue you, go to. Bonus points will be awarded for creative narratives.
Good choices probably include Bruce Campbell, Simon Pegg, or Milla Jovovich. Bad choices probably include... you know... those extras, who always end up getting eaten. Ahem.
posted by some geek @ 2:56 p.m.
3 Comments:
At October 8, 2004 at 3:47 p.m.,
Thomas J. Brown said…
This guy whose blog I read had this to say about Shaun of the Dead:
"There is one thing that really makes me mad about XXX of the Dead movies, old and new.
WHEN SOMEONE GETS BITTEN BY A ZOMBIE,
THEY WILL BECOME A ZOMBIE.
It's really not that hard to remember. They say it, they test it, it happens. But when it's someone's friend, oh no, now it must be different. No not my friend (in a high girly voice). YES YOUR FRIEND MOTARD.
It happened in the new Hollywood release of Dawn of the Dead. Some guy was bitten and no one would acknowledge he would become a zombie, although that's a basic rule of zombies. You get bit, you die and become a zombie. Same with Shaun of the Dead. His mother and friend are bitten and he refuses to believe they will become zombies.
The other really stupid thing was some dude was standing with his back to a window that zombies (people that have already been bitten) were scratching at. WHY WHY WHY would you stand with your back to a window? That is the cheapest and saddest plot trick I have ever seen. It's aggravates the %#*& out of me and I want to scream at the movie. Not "get out of the way", but "WHY are you standing with your back to a zombie window?". It's so illogical."
SOURCE: www.yesicanusechopsticks.com
At October 8, 2004 at 4:16 p.m.,
some geek said…
Okay, the second point I give him. I may have popped a vein restraining myself from yelling "GET AWAY FROM THE BLOODY WINDOW". At the same time, he sort of deserved it. It's kind of nice to see annoying characters undone by their own stupidity (I still await the day a Ben Affleck character will accidentally step on a rake and slowly bleed out).
The first point, however, I can't agree with. If my mum were bitten by a zombie, I would refuse to believe she were going to become a zombie too. I would cling to the hope that maybe, somehow, someway, there would be a massive plothole, and my mum would be okay.
How many people d'you know who'd just resign themselves to their best friend's death five minutes after they found out about it. "Oh, well, I suppose he's had a good run of it. ...wonder if he'll leave me his CD collection."
At October 11, 2004 at 12:19 a.m.,
LFK said…
I still have yet to see Shaun of the Dead, but I do feel confident in my ability to make comments on zombie movies as a whole, though I am still not the Aristotle of the genre. The zombie movie suffered from the same entropy that all genres suffer from in one form or another, only it was particularly pronounced since you were dealing with a genre that specifically catered to the college kids who'd go to the late night double-feature at the drive-in hoping to get some play in the back seat before the second movie was over. That's a long-winded way of saying "most zombie movies suck as movies" which really is true. They need to be considered, generally, in a class of their own i.e. the right question is "is this a good zombie movie" not "is this worth my time and money." The exceptions to that rule would be Dawn of the Dead (the new one as I've yet to see the originals, though reports are that the original has not aged well thanks to it's progeny) 28 Days Later (not actually a zombie movie) and Evil Dead 2 (not actually a zombie movie). All of these movies follow a basic formula: zombies abound somehow, survivors cluster together, select survivors die, and then either survivors escape or everyone dies. 28 Days Later throws in some interesting twists on this formula through character development, Evil Dead 2 isn't a zombie movie but still basically falls in this plot structure, and Dawn of the Dead simply does what it does really well.
Returning to the idea of zombie movies sucking... most zombie movies are so formulaic and are produced on such small budgets that unless you're a real aficionado, you won't think there's any difference between one or the other. If you want proof, type "zombies" into the imdb search field.
I don't know if I've been of any help here. I'll try to make more sense some other time.
Zombies are cool.
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