johnlinkmovies

Thanks to TWILIGHT and TRUE BLOOD, we are on a vampire cycle in media right now. But just a few short years ago, we had a re-introduction of zombie (and zombie-like) films. 28 DAYS LATER, the DAWN OF THE DEAD remake, another couple Romero films. There, to skewer them all, was the little British film SHAUN OF THE DEAD.

I watched SHAUN OF THE DEAD (2004) at movie night on 9.17.09. It was my first viewing of the film.

NOTE: THIS RANKING UTILIZES THIS SITE’S ORIGINAL SYSTEMIC ARTICLE WRITING METHOD. THE METHOD BY WHICH THE RANKINGS WERE ARRIVED AT, HOWEVER, REMAIN THE SAME.

FILM

The first act of this thing is filled with none-too-subtle references to normal humans as zombies. Some of them are creative (the people on the bus) some of them are not (when Shaun wakes up). More subtle was a single line on a newsfeed which mentions that a meteor has crashed into south London. A nice touch, with the zombies origin never explained otherwise.

There are many great indie moments in this film. I love the dual tracking shots of Shaun going to the store. The first with the world being normal, the second with the world zombiefied, only he is too hungover to notice. I was not a big fan of some sequences which should have seen the cutting room floor, like the tedious three-plans series. The movie did effectively skewer the films it was out to skewer, while also being one itself. The climax, especially, became less about poking fun at zombie movies and more about making one. SCORE: 5

MOVIE

Both the beginning and the end left more to be desired. I felt like the opening was not as funny as it wanted to be, and the end was too heavy handed. But the second act was high entertainment. From the first time Shaun and Ed see a zombie in the backyard, until the moment when Shaun gets back to the bar is almost all effective. SCORE: 7

ACTING

Middle of the road. Shaun (Simon Pegg)  and Ed (Nick Frost) have some chemistry, and we can see they are friends in real life. But some of the stuff (i.e. the fart jokes) are not exactly Oscar-worthy. Better are Shaun’s parents. Really though, I was just happy to see Lucy Davis in something besides the British OFFICE. I love her. SCORE: 4

WRITING

Could have used some editing. A lot more thought seemed to go into the second act than the first and third. The first act gets by, but the third really didn’t do it for me. There was certainly a lot of funny in the script, and there absolutely were some well executed riffs on the zombie genre. I guess this was just one that was hyped so much that, by the time I saw it, I was a little underwhelmed. SCORE: 4

BONUS

Everything about the music selection, both the score and the soundtrack, were timely and effective. Loved the 60s sounding score set against some 80s pop, some metal, some techno… everything really. The choices enhanced the film. SCORE: 1

FINAL TALLY

FILM: 5; MOVIE: 7; ACTING: 4; WRITING: 4; BONUS: 1

5+7+4+4+1= 21

FINAL SCORE: 5.25

~ by johnlink00 on September 18, 2009.

Posted in ~ S ~, ~~~ 2004 ~~~
Tags: comedy, horror