|
Excellent movie, highly recommended, and you can relate to the characters very well. Definitely worth the price of admission. 4.5/5
|
| # ? Sep 20, 2004 00:23 |
|
|
|
| # ? May 25, 2013 18:49 |
|
|
Shaun of the Dead, whose title is a clear spoof the of 1978 classic "Dawn of the Dead", bodly goes where few Zombie films have gone before. While most Zombie films dwell on human emotions such as fear, frustration and anger, Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg add both comic relief and even a hint of realism into their screen play in order to create one of the best Zombie films to date. For starters the film begins with about 30 minutes of screen time where the audience is able to view Shaun's everyday, boring, dull and calamity prone life. This time allows the viewer to gain a distinct sense of empathy for the protagonist. Often in Zombie films the plague of the undead hits so early in the movie the only connection the audience has with the characters is either a distinct hatred (so we want them to be eaten/die) or are instead rooting for their ultimate survival. With this connection being made to all of the primary characters, the audience becomes more involved with the film and are more intwined with the events that transgress. The writting team made another bold move by combining the anticipated spoof element to the film, with the typical spectrum of emotion shown in the genre. Meaning that while you watch the two dimwitted protagonists stumble about the choatic ruins of their town, the audience not only spends a great deal of time laughing, but also may or may not find themselves shedding a few tears. The acting on the part of Simon Pegg is brilliant, this may be in part due to the fact that he not only co-wrote the film, but also co-directed. Simon's counterpart, Nick Frost who plays the loveable sidekick, Ed, was also superb. He however had a much more difficult job considering his role was to play the idiot drunken friend who patronises almost everyone else in the movie. The two had animmediate on screen connection and believable created the charm of a long term friendship, this task was easy for the two actors since they have been working together on the British sitcom "Spaced" since the early '90s. Well I dont want to spoil anything for you, but must say if you can grab a bag of popcorn and a seat ast whever this movie is playing near you, you wont regret it. And remember when being attacked by Zombies, always Aim for the Head
|
| # ? Sep 22, 2004 06:51 |
|
|
five out of five, I don't think we're going to see horror/comedy of this calibre for quite a while after this, but at least this is a doozy. I can't say I dug each and every one of the more personal moments but the truth is they weren't in there for someone like me, and even considering that I was touched by a lot of them. Everything else was great, editing, pacing, shooting, dialogue, rhythm. Very well done in a genre that's hard to do. Now we have to survive the inevitable wash of video/film students who wished they had thought of it first so now for some reason they're going to do it afterwards, poorly.
|
| # ? Sep 23, 2004 07:21 |
|
|
3.5. Entertaining, nice way to make a parody, and okay British humor... But really, there is much better humor from from that country in a lot of other movies and/or tv shows. The moral in the end was a little too cliché for me. Ooh well, go watch it, you'll have fun.
|
| # ? Sep 23, 2004 17:27 |
|
|
Brilliant. If you're a fan of zombie films, you need to see this as soon as humanly possible. For everyone else I'm sure it'll be amusing but I doubt it'll be quite as enjoyable. For me, this is a 5.5/5 all the way. Best movie I've seen this year.
|
| # ? Sep 25, 2004 05:07 |
|
|
I just saw this last night, very entertaining movie. A friend had told me that I must see it because of the humor, so I was surprised at how much gore and whatnot were put into the movie. While I couldn't tell you if all the british humor found in the movie translated over well, as an American I still found it to be enormously funny and well done. The deus ex machina ending was not appreciated, but it certainly didn't ruin the movie. Bravo, 4.5/5
|
| # ? Sep 25, 2004 21:39 |
|
|
Friggin brilliant film. One of very few films that has had me both rolling in the floor and feeling so sorry for the characters. Absolutely superb.
|
| # ? Sep 26, 2004 00:35 |
|
|
Excellent film, made me laugh insanely hard. The emotional escenes were also a nice tough and never went too over the top. I love zombie movies, and this one pretty much nodded to them all. Definitely one of the funniest of the year. 5.5/5
|
| # ? Sep 26, 2004 02:10 |
|
|
Great movie, really hilarious. 4.5/5 edit: cricket bat was excellent. snowman fucked around with this message at Sep 26, 2004 around 03:19 |
| # ? Sep 26, 2004 02:46 |
|
|
quote:snowman came out of the closet to say: Yeah, I was disappointed when they left it in the Jag. Excellent film. The first twenty minutes are the best with the world falling apart as the main characters go about their boring predictable lives. I'm not much for British humor, but I think this translates very well to American audiences. Watching it over again, I'm amazed how many of the extras show up later as zombies later on.
|
| # ? Sep 26, 2004 14:49 |
|
|
Great stuff, my date and I were the only ones to laugh at the Bertrand Russel gag. 4.5/5
|
| # ? Sep 26, 2004 20:03 |
|
|
Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. British comedy + zombies = pure gold. No complaints about this movie at all. It's one of the funniest comedies in a long time and everyone should see it. 5/5
|
| # ? Sep 27, 2004 01:45 |
|
|
Again I'm let down by an SA recommendation. Maybe I need to stop reading this forum until after the movie. I saw all the great reviews. The great reviews in the trailer. Ebert's glowing review. But the movie was pretty much meh. At least it was short. Didn't laugh out loud even once. Ebert had said he's already seen all the ways zombies can get beat up. But that's all that was in this movie. Beating up zombies, sitting around, and relationship problems. It was like a crappy romcom with zombies as a backdrop. There was also some really bad editing IMHO. It seems like the last 15+ minutes was Shaun crying. That's not funny. At least not to me. The only things new about it were really the 5 minutes he doesn't notice the zombiedom. And the last 3 minutes where they show what they did with them. Other than that, I didn't see anything incredibly new and certainly nothing funny. Take out that 8 minutes and it's pretty similar to 28 days IMHO. 2.5 average
|
| # ? Sep 27, 2004 02:33 |
|
|
A very good comedy, and as like others said, the emotional parts aren't too over the top. But I found a couple places where somebody had a different shirt on or small poo poo like that. 4.0/5
|
| # ? Sep 27, 2004 23:27 |
|
|
This is a really cool movie. First of all, as someone else stated already, it's not a parody, which is what I was expecting. It's a zombie movie all its own. No obvious references to any other zombie movies (at least that I recognized). This alone puts it ahead of the game. Making a parody is easy. Just look at the Scary Movie series. These guys did a really good job at making an original, and very funny, zombie film. Next, I've never seen a comedy aspect in a zombie movie quite like this before, at least not to this extent. Another bonus. You go from "HOLY poo poo" to "hahaha" and back and forth over and over again. It gets serious in parts, but it never gets too serious, which is wonderful. The acting is actually good. And I mean by everyone. No Oscar nominees, but I've come to expect very little in the way of acting in zombie films, and these people all did a fine job. The script is good too. I like the way the zombie outbreak slowly builds, and we only see it in the background in the news and on the radio. Then when all hell breaks loose, things are paced very well. I love the way they used the old-school, super-slow-and-super-dumb-and-will-not-actually-attack-you-until-they're-within-arm's-reach-and-sometimes-maybe-not-even-then zombies. They made great use of that in several scenes where zombies are slowly closing in on them, so slowly in fact that they have plenty of time to bicker amongst each other in classic British comedy fashion. The scene where Ed and Shaun are flipping through the record collection and arguing about which ones are OK to use as weapons made me laugh really hard, and the fact that they threw 6 or so records and only actually hit with one of them, and it didn't even do any real damage made it even funnier. That's another thing I liked too. I liked the fact that nobody in the movie became an instant sniper or killing machine instantly. Shaun missed a lot with the rifle, and they couldn't even really hit much when they were throwing stuff at the zombies either. Nobody became unreasonably good at anything, which happens in far too many films these days (COLLATERAL). Next, the camera work was terrific. The long shots of Shaun going through his gate, across the road to the store and back again were done very well every time. I liked the use of fast cuts too, but I'm glad to see they weren't overused. The few things I didn't like were the decisions that David and Dianna made near the end. It was cool of David to come around and realize that they needed to kill Shaun's mom, but then after that all went down he just kinda threw his life away, and Dianna just followed along for no apparent reason. Very dumb. I didn't really like the ending either. I've seen far worse endings for movies like this, so it really wasn't all that bad compared with similar movies, but it was just too contrived. And the very last scene was just retarded, but it's still one hell of a cool movie. Oh yeah, and my favorite part was when Shaun's group ran into Yvonne's group on the way to the Winchester, and their groups were composed of almost identical people. Then they said "hi" to each other as they passed by just in case it wasn't obvious from the opposing group shots. That was just too funny. 4/5 Chief Rebel Angel fucked around with this message at Sep 28, 2004 around 05:38 |
| # ? Sep 28, 2004 05:35 |
|
|
This movie had alot of ups, which greatly overshadowed the downs of the movie. The random beating of the zombies and the occasional zombie jumping out and shawn and the gang made for a good laugh. Oi! Prick! and the queen scene were up there as the 2 best things in the movie 4/5
|
| # ? Sep 29, 2004 00:22 |
|
|
Nonstop comedy and a few of scenes that just made me want to jump up and yell "Oh that was just awesome! Did you see that?! That was awesome in it's purest form!". I simply enjoyed this more than I ever thought I would. 5/5
|
| # ? Sep 29, 2004 11:14 |
|
|
It's a fun movie. The plot hangs together from loose ends quite a bit, but it does deliver the goods: zombies and English humour. Too bad the middle of the film drags a bit and the climax is a bit disappointing. However, the girl in the backyard, the Don't stop me now-scene and the montage at the end are quite priceless. 4/5.
|
| # ? Sep 29, 2004 20:40 |
|
|
Absolutely loving brilliant. This movie has everything I've ever wanted in a movie. I came in expecting stupid slapstick humor with zombies and came out with the biggest grin on my face I've had in a long time. The funny parts of the movie are hilarious, the serious parts are well-played, and the romantic parts are thrown in the middle so they don't piss you off. I'm definitely going to see it again and see if I can get it shipped over from the UK. This movie is the best thing Britain has done in a long, long time. 5/5
|
| # ? Oct 2, 2004 02:01 |
|
|
I had very high expectations for this movie after seeing the previews. I was very excited to go see it, I've been trying to since it was released last week. And I must say, it lived up to my expectations. Very funny, good plot and a lot of gore. (though I think that huge amounts of blood like in tarrentino movies and evil dead are hilarious, but it was still good none the less) Overall a great movie, I give it a 5 because it's going on my top ten list.
|
| # ? Oct 2, 2004 03:35 |
|
|
so this cause i was bored tonight and one of my favorite movies of the year! 5/5.5
|
| # ? Oct 2, 2004 04:20 |
|
|
Pretty drat funny. I'm not sure what makes British comedy so funny, but it Shaun of the Dead specifically I can narrow it down to a) the writers caring about their characters more than about a gag, and b) worn-out, nonchalant, semi-sarcastic delivery--like Brits when they're talking down to overenthusiastic Americans. It was a bit too "zombie movie" towards the end, but overall I was impressed. Four.
|
| # ? Oct 2, 2004 05:53 |
|
|
3/5 stars for me. Recently saw Dawn of the Dead 2004 and had high expectations for "Shaun". Some funny original moments, throwing records at zombies, but I always felt like I was waiting for something to happen. I don't see british actors doing british schtick with zombies in the background as something new and exciting. The Rom/Com/Zom combo was sorta a bomb IMHO. Dawn of the Dead is a far superior movie for those looking for **BRAINS**. Also, do Ed's farts pass as original English humor nowadays?
|
| # ? Oct 2, 2004 17:08 |
|
|
Definately the funniest movie i've seen all year. I'm gonna have to find out what this whole "spaced" thing is. 5/5
|
| # ? Oct 3, 2004 01:32 |
|
|
The only movie I've seen this year that had me laughing out loud and a great zombie movie as well. The only complaint I have is that the emotional scene seemed out of place with the rest of the movie, but I guess that glossing it over would have had the same effect. Other than that, great movie, definitely my favorite of the year. 4.5/5
|
| # ? Oct 4, 2004 11:47 |
|
|
I wasn't sure how I'd feel about this. I loved Spaced, and knew that it would be funny, but I'm just not into the whole horror genre. I usually refuse to see anything I'd consider scary, I'm a wuss like that. That said, this movie kicked some serious rear end. It was hilarious, and just gory enough to prove that it actually *is* a zomibe movie, not a pardoy as others have implied. It was filled with in-jokes, but they were sly, those not "in" would still enjoy the movie without a ton of "huh? What was that all about". One of my favoritte moments was the homage to "A Clockwork Orange" set to Queen's "Mr. Farneheit", a classic comedy moment. (Yes, they manage to make an homage to "A Clockwork Orange" funny). I thought it was great fun and would reccomend it in a heartbeat.
|
| # ? Oct 5, 2004 04:31 |
|
|
I would give the first half 5 stars and the second half 1 star. I guess this results in 3.0 rating. This movie is the exact copy of Office Space pacing, where the first half is captivating, groundbreaking, can't-turn-away brilliant, and the second half drops all semblance of humor, replaces it with formulaic drama, and then switches gears into autopilot. The most recent movie that has given me this up-down ride was Man on Fire. Just another potential masterpiece, ruined.
|
| # ? Oct 5, 2004 07:47 |
|
|
Loved this movie. LOVED IT.
|
| # ? Oct 6, 2004 18:00 |
|
|
Such a great movie, especially for any zombie fans, this movie will not dissappoint. Subtile humor everywhere, great character development and script. 5/5
|
| # ? Oct 10, 2004 01:29 |
|
|
Hilarious movie. The scene in the bar set to 'Don't Stop Me Now' was brilliant, as were all the little nuances that pretty much everybody else has mentioned. I drat near cried when Shaun's mom died. She didn't want to be a bother!  , but I found it incredibly funny and it drat well lived up to my expectations.I'm definitely going to be seeing this again and purchasing the DVD when it comes out in America  5.5/5
|
| # ? Oct 10, 2004 05:15 |
|
|
This was like the pre-Madonna Guy Ritchie doing a zombie flick. Hilarious British comedy. 4.5/5.
|
| # ? Oct 10, 2004 20:26 |
|
|
refreshing and new. also, hilarious and just in time. 4.5/5
|
| # ? Oct 11, 2004 01:24 |
|
|
Very excellent, funny film. It starts out a bit slow and takes a while to build up steam. But when gets going, it's non-stop laughs. 4/5
|
| # ? Oct 11, 2004 06:00 |
|
|
i found the movie to be a great departure from the formulatic nature of most zombie movies. it's also got the best usages of the word "twat" i've ever heard. 5.0/5
|
| # ? Oct 11, 2004 15:41 |
|
|
Shaun of the Dead is no doubt one of the best films of the year. I got hooked from an early trailer, and manage to ride a little of the hype going in to see it. Since watching the film on a decent VHS rip, I have the DVD and saw it the day of release here in Australia. I've probably seen the film four times, two of those being commentary tracks. The sheer amount of detail put on screen is mind boggling. There are numerous references or homages to the masters of horror films (Carpenter, Romero, Raimi, Jackson etc), whether in character or place names, shot selections and dialogue. Much of the early dialogue foreshadows later events in the film, which should warrant a repeat viewing. The title sequence is a very important scene for setting up the plot. The colour scheme of the film serves as both a social commentary and a homage, with zombies wearing drab colours, and red being the accent. The characters are fully realised, and it appears a great effort was made to create characters that would interact in ways that were both hilarious and emotionally intense. Slight spoiler: Special attention should be made in rhyming character names with their eventual fate. It's important to recognise the change of tone through the film, as mirrored by Shaun's redemption, which is essentially what the film is about - the daily grind zombie getting off his arse and "sorting his life out". That's why there is a good deal of time getting to learn about Shaun and those around him, caught up in his problems while clearly a bigger problem is making itself apparent. There is less time when the poo poo hits the fan for loving around and joking, and most of the jokes would fall well short of the mark given the 'serious' tone SotD takes toward the end. Personally, I thought all aspects of the Zom-Rom-Com were pulled off with a very deft touch, not allowing one aspect to dominate (ie. a cheesy romance, characters being too light-hearted after all the death, references to other films & TV shows), so kudos to Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg for not getting carried away. A definite 5/5
|
| # ? Oct 11, 2004 16:12 |
|
|
I really didn't like this movie very much. I laughed maybe twice out of the entire movie. The stupid fart jokes and "Hey he kinda looks like a zombie when he yawns" things get old very fast. It's good for the two times it makes you laugh, but those two times are spaced a long way away from each other. 1.5/5
|
| # ? Oct 13, 2004 01:17 |
|
|
I thought it was good, but being British comedy I don't think the movie was for everyone. 3.5/5
|
| # ? Oct 13, 2004 07:31 |
|
|
I put off seeing this movie for some stupid reason, and I finally decided to sit down and watch it. I am kicking my rear end for not seeing this sooner. Apart from being one of the best zombie movies I have ever seen, it had that raw humor that seems so casual coming out of a Brits mouth. It didn't hurt the pacing or the feel of the movie at all. I didn't even mind the ending. 5/5
|
| # ? Oct 14, 2004 00:19 |
|
|
I'm sure I wouldn't get three words in without somebody already saying it in this thread, but this movie is by far one of the best movies I've ever seen in my life. It is about the only horror/comedy to ever work. This movie has everything you could ever want, and more. I really hope they end up doing a sequel. They were talking about making a sequel called Every Which Way But Dead(a knockoff of an older Clint Eastwood movie, which they reference in this film). I'm guessing what it would basically be about is Shaun and zombie Ed walking around and getting into mischief. Ed would be an ape like character, if they wanted to follow the story of Every Which Way but Loose. Back on track, this movie was amazing and I highly recommend it. 5/5 GabbyJay fucked around with this message at Apr 1, 2005 around 19:46 |
| # ? Oct 15, 2004 16:09 |
|
|
|
| # ? May 25, 2013 18:49 |
|
|
Instead of focusing on being a really good romance, comedy, or zombie action movie, it does each of these 3 rather blandly. There are a couple fairly funny parts, some rather emotional parts, and a few really good zombie scenes. It's a fun movie, but since it attempts to mix 3 types of movies, the end result is rather mediocre. 3/5.
|
| # ? Oct 16, 2004 04:46 |
|
