Worse than lame...

Rating: 2/10 (4 April 2007)

I would briefly like to say that I am amazed by the fact that this movie has a rating of 8.2. This is a sad indictement of something: not sure what, probably the parochial nature of the English with regard to their cultural products(not that we Kiwi's are any better!)
Shaun of the Dead was a fantastic movie: absolutely loved it, probably my favourite movie of the year that it came out, so I'm not a hater of British comedy or this particularly duo. Based on Shaun I was really looking forward to more of the same wit and chemistry but I was sadly disappointed for the following reasons:
Unlikeable characters: Lame, not sure if that was meant to be a joke humour: Lack of chemistry between characters: A mish mash of styles that just did not work for me at all: A failure to make the audience care about the village in which the film was set or any of its inhabitants: A long list of lame stereotypes that were not really explored and played with but just stuck out there: Extreme length: Poor script: A sense of cringe-making entitlement: Unfunny, unnecessary gore
Late in the film we discover that people whom the Council of village elders dislike are constantly being murdered in order to preserve the village's pristine image, yet we do not get a sense of dread or incongruity from the villagers, despite the fact that their neighbours and children (in some cases) are just disappearing: the village seems boring, not creepy.... if this was supposed to be a satire of small town hypocrisy then the unhappiness of the residents, even if only privately expressed, would have added to a sense of unease... As it is, the sudden revelation that cartoonish crimes have been happening on a regular basis is not a shock but is just blah: you don't care because you never felt any pain or grief re: the murders/disappearances - my response was: oh, so that's the twist eh... ho hum....
Peter Jackson did the small town people turned crazed zombie killers thing well in Brain Dead- in this film when the old man with the rain coat pulls out his shot gun at the end, i was like... hmmm that was ..wacky... sigh.
Basically I hated this movie much more that a typical Bad Boys II type movie because it has the potential to be so much more: sadly it was lame, watered down and crappy....