Just Seen: Shaun Of The Dead

[blufive]

[IMDB, Official (horrible flash-only) site]

Shaun, a thirty-something loser, gets dumped by his girlfriend and resolves to sort his life out. Then London gets taken over by zombies.

Having seen about zero zombie movies ever, I was a little worried about whether I'd find this film funny, given Simon Pegg's tendencies towards homage-laden gags. I needn't have worried, though I suspect anyone with a suitable history of zombie-movie-appreciation will find it even funnier.

SOTD genre-hops wildly between comedy, drama and horror. There's a good deal of all three, wrapped up into a well-balanced package that doesn't outstay its welcome.

Great fun.

[Later edit, thanks to a reminder by numbat:]
SOTD is also a very British (maybe, even more specifically, English) film. I've seen people comment that it's London-centric, but I disagree - while it's set there, it feels like "generic middle-class suburb of large British city" to me. No huge signposts, it's just the whole feel of it - the dialogue, the locations, the characters, the general atmosphere.

In a cultural landscape awash with US-ian references and influences, it's a refreshing change to see something like this on the big screen. I have no idea how well it will translate abroad, but given the number of jokes that are pure slapstick, or timing of lines, or visual (or all the zombie movie references I missed by definition) I think many people will enjoy it anyway. On the drama and horror angles, it should stand up almost anywhere.

Comments

[numbat.livejournal.com]

Somebody else on LJ, green_amber perhaps, wrote that it's a movie that bases a lot of its humour on English sensibilities so if you understand those it's a funny movie.

[blufive.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure. I meant to say something on that front, but forgot first time around (now added as a postscript)

It's certainly very British (maybe specifically English) in atmosphere. Some of the comedy is undoubtedly based in British sensibilities, but a lot isn't.