Shaun's walking dead

OK time for another review, and this is not a blagged one, this is new one (honestly!).  So I've opted for a comedy this time, a British one to precise, and one of the most successful ones in recent years, as its Shaun of the Dead, starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, who pay homage to the zombie movies and in doing so add in their mix of humour and horror.  And with that let's get the plot summary over with...

Right well the story begins with Shaun (Pegg) a TV salesman, who's life is going nowhere, as his relationship with his girlfriend, Liz (Kate Ashfield) is on the rocks, he has a tense time with his flatmate Pete (Peter Serafinowicz) because of his best friend Ed (Frost), who is boorish and deal drugs, and slouches around their flat.  Liz is very dispondent in their relationship as they always spend time going to the same place, the Winchester, which Shaun and Ed's favourite local pub.  After a miserable day at work, Shaun forgets to book a table at a restaurant for Liz, and they end up arguing at her flat, where she dumps him.  Later on that night, Shaun goes back to the Winchester and drowns his sorrows with Ed, and at the end of the night they go home and play electro records loudly, which angers Pete, who comes downstairs and tells them to shut it off, and for Shaun to sort his life out.  Shaun and Ed also notice that Peter has had his hand bandaged, as he says that he was attacked by some crackheads, one of whom bit him. 

The next morning, Shaun wakes up with a blinding hangover, and he goes to the local store an en-route we notice the local area is deserted and as Shaun goes into the local corner shop, there is blood on the floor, and as he walks out there are a couple of zombies hanging around.  When Sean gets home Ed tells him there is a girl in the garden, who soon turns out to be a zombie who attacks Sean, who fights her off.  Shaun and Ed then see another zombie in the garden, so they go into the garden shed and find some tools and bash their brains in.  The two of them go back into the house and watch the TV where its revealed there has been a serious zombie outbreak, and Shaun goes upstairs into the bathroom where he soon finds Pete, naked and now transformed into a zombie.  Shaun and Ed flee the house, taking Pete's car, as they drive over to Shaun's mum' house.  Shaun's mother, Barbara (Penelope Wilton) tells Shaun that his stepfather, Phillip (Billy Nighy) has been bitten by a zombie, and they leave together, taking Philip's Jaguar.  Shaun heads over to Liz's flat and persuades her to go with him, along with her two friends, David (Dylan Moran) and Dianne (Lucy Davis).  And quite soon Philip turns into a zombie aswell, and they escape the car.  They head back to the Winchester, but en-route have to evade the zombies, and Shaun leads the zombies away from the pub to let others enter safely. 

After several hours, Shaun returns to the pub, telling them he managed to give the zombies the sli, but its not long before they make their return.  And to make matters worse its soon revealed that Barbara was bitten by one of the zombies as well, and she eventually turns into one as well, where Shaun is forced to shoot her.  The zombies break their way in and they grab David, who is torn apart by the undead, and in the ensuing chaos Shaun and Liz try to make their escape as the zombie hoards infest the pub, and Ed is bitten by Pete (who comes back in with the other zombies).  Shaun and Liz head down underneath the pub into the cellar, where they are faced with having to go outside and face the zombies one more time, but will they survive???????

Shaun of the dead was a natural progression for Pegg and Frost, and for the director, Edgar Wright, to make their way into films.  Spaced, the critically acclaimed Channel 4 comedy (which Wright directed and starred Pegg and Frost) of course made several references to Resident Evil in one of the episodes of the series, so there was no doubt at some point they had make good on one of the themes in the TV show.  And in Shaun of the Dead we get a great blend of humour and horror, and what's so surprising about the film is it actually succeeds in being both a comedy and a suspenseful horror film, as it get's increasingly intense towards the end, especially in the big showdown in the Winchester when the zombies break in. 

And Shaun of the dead certainly has plenty of funny moments in it, one of which stands out is the scene in the garden, where Shaun is attacked by a zombie checkout girl, where Shaun at first think's she is drunk and trying to get off with her, and Ed quickly goes off and takes a picture with his camera!  There are also several nice touches throughout the film and it makes quite a few references to other films, one of which being Sam Raimi's Army of Darkness, where the zombie Pete reaches out his arm and points at him, and Shaun nervously says "maybe you could.... join us!".  There is also another neat reference to An American Werewolf in London, where Shaun is in the bathroom and he closes the cabinet door, which is left ajar and we see Pete standing behind him.  Another amusing moment is where after Shaun's stepdad has turned into a zombie, he says to Barbara "there is nothing, absolutely nothing left of the man you knew in there!", and the zombie Philip, turns off the loud music in the car (as Philip hated loud music earlier in the film).  And another memorable moment in the film is in the stand-off scene against the zombies at the Winchester, Shaun and the others batter the zombie turned pub owner with pool cues along to the sounds of Queen's "Don't stop me now" playing ont he dukebox.  And a final fav I will mention in this paragraph is when Shaun and Ed drunkenly leave the pub singing "White lines", and a zombie nearby trudges slowly, groaning, and they two men stop and sing a bit of the song, and the zombie groans in time with them! 

Cast wise the film also has some very good performances, and Simon Pegg is particularly good in his main role of Shaun, as he goes from being a lazy salesman, who is directionless in life, to being a heroic stand-up guy who fights an army of zombies.  Pegg even proves very effective in the more dramatic moments of the film especially where he is faced with having to shoot his mother once she has turned into a zombie.  One of Pegg's funniest moments in the film also come when he says to the others to follow him, as they need to go through some house gardens to get to the Winchester, and he makes to jump over a fence, but instead it collapses and he falls into it.  Nick Frost is also quite good in his part of Ed, although he is arguably not as good as Pegg, as his character is pretty obnoxious, although there was a hilarious re-dubbed TV version of some of the scenes from the film on the DVD extras, where instead of saying "prick!" to Pete, he says "prink!".  One of his funniest moments comes in his first scene where he says to Shaun, Liz, David and Diane in the Winchester "Can I get any of you cunts a drink???".  Kate Ashfield is also good as Shaun's long suffering girlfriend who is fed up spending her life in a monotonous relationship, and her funniest moment is when Shaun asks her if she wants to go to the Winchester for the millionth and she replies angrily "NO I DON'T FUCKING WAN'T TO!!". 

In the supporting cast Bill Nighy, who is ever excellent here, also provides a few moments of amusement, especially in the scene where he makes his first appearance in the eletrical store where Shaun works, as he spins around to announce himself.  Penelope Wilton is also very good as Shaun's mother, Barbara, who is quite sympathetic, and she has one or two funny moments as well, especially when Shaun asks her on the phone if she and Philip are alright, and she says "well did run into some people, and they were a bit bitey!".  And finally Dylan Moran is also pretty good as the rather obnoxious David, who has always had a thing for Shaun's girlfriend, Liz, which pre-empts a funny line from Shaun when Liz says to him how he called her friends "a failed actress and a twat", and Shaun (who doesn't like David) replies "I never called Diane a failed actress!".  Moran of course most notably get's gruesomely torn to pieces by the zombies, which is done really well, and is also a pretty stomach churning moment in the film.  Lucy Davis is also fine in her small role as Diane, who at one point all gives them acting classes in how to be a zombie, so they can blend in as they try and get past the undead hoards on the street.  And finally Peter Serafinowicz is good as Pete, Shaun and Ed's flat mate, who has a great scene with them as he angrily tells them that "I have a splitting headache and your stupid hip-hop isn't helping, and the front door has been left open, AGAIN!!!".  This scene rather aptly reveals an unintentional prediction from Ed who says, "its not hip-hop, its electro, next time I see him, he's dead!".

Direction wise, Edgar Wright does a terrific job here, as he keeps the whole film moving along at a fast pace, and he employes some relentless quick cuts and zoom-ins, in the film too convey the frantic nature of the story.  And in doing so there are some really funny moments, especially with his extreme close ups of Shaun putting jam on his toast and opening the fridge!  Wright also employes just the right amount of comedy, horror and suspense as well as the film starts with unsettlingly, and its get more and more intense as it goes on.  And finally a bit on the soundtrack as there are some really good tracks in the film, most notably Blue Wrath's "I Monster", which is used really well at the start of the film as we see the zombies move trolleys in the supermarket.  Other tracks that are well used are of course The Specials "Ghost Town", The Smiths "Panic", Queen "Don't stop me now" and "White Lines (Don't do it) by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.  And the film's original music score by Pete Woodhead and Daniel Mudford is very good, and also quite intense as it conveys the tone of the film really well, and builds up the suspense. 

So that's it for my look at Shaun of the Dead, which rightly gathered much acclaim on its release, and the legendary zombie filmmaker, George A. Romero was so impressed by it, that he asked that Pegg and Frost appear in one of his films (as zombies of course!).  And if you haven't seen it then give it a go, as there is much to enjoy in there.

And that's it for now, until the next one, bye for now.