“Shaun of the Dead” (Rogue Pictures)
“Shaun of the Dead” is a spoof of George Romero’s “Dawn of the Dead,” which means it is a spoof of a film not many people took seriously anyway. This is an English film and that means the accents cause the dialogue to be difficult to follow. Plus some of the humor gets lost in translation. The film is at times clever, but rarely is less than annoying.
The main character in the film is Shaun. He is played by Simon Pegg who also co-wrote the movie’s script. Shaun is a man who is stuck in the mediocrity of life. He has a girlfriend, Liz (Kate Ashfield), who is tired of his slacker ways, and a best friend Ed (Nick Frost) who is a slouch and a fool. Ed lives in Shaun’s apartment and everyone is always telling him to kick him out.
One day the people in Shaun’s town start turning into zombies. It takes him a while to realize it because he is so preoccupied with the mundane occurrences of his life. However once he is aware of this phenomenon he puts a plan into action. He determines he will rescue his mother (Penelope Wilton) and Kate. He will if necessary also bring his stepfather Phillip (Bill Nighy) along.
And this is the movie. Shaun and his friends try to outrun and outsmart the zombies with very little success. There is a lot of blood and guts played with a comedic touch and a few quips here and there that some could construe as funny.
Nighy, who appeared as the over the hill singer in “Love Actually,” is the only recognizable face in the film. The rest of the cast is passable but not terribly fun or fascinating. All of the characters just seem to be doing enough to get by and then spend the rest of their lives carping about what someone else didn’t do.
The movie is rated R for profanity and violence.
There are enough laughs in “Shaun of the Dead” to perk up the audience every fifteen minutes or so, but that isn’t enough to make it worth the price of admission. If ever there was a film that said “wait for the video” then this is it.
I scored “Shaun of the Dead” a trancelike 4 out of 10.
