Absolutely hilarious

Rating: 7/10 (30 May 2007)

I had never seen this movie until two days ago and if YOU haven't I suggest you do. "Shaun of the Dead" tells about a man named Shaun who works in an electronic goods shop. He spends his days with his unemployed friend Ed either playing video games at home or drinking in a local pub "Winchester". Shaun is pretty much what you could describe as a "loser". He has a girlfriend, Liz, who suddenly after 3 years of being together has had enough of Shaun's attitude towards things, never having an adventure or basically anything different. This of course leads to a break-up. Suddenly almost the whole London catches sort of an epidemic and everyone starts to turn as the living dead, zombies. Shaun figures out that he has his life's biggest opportunity to prove his ex-girlfriend that he is not a loser. Things lead to another and well, it's done in a way that won't give you time to stop laughing.
One thing that surprised me a lot is how well the whole movie was made. I mean, it's a comedy after all and it's not every day you see a comedy where they've really put some time and effort to make it. The whole world and the zombies are done like in any other serious movie, so believably and so realistically. This already gives the movie something that keeps you interested throughout besides the story, which in its parodied way is also surprisingly well written. Although the zombie -thing working as the main story in the movie, you could imagine the movie as a romantic comedy as well. The movie takes a while before the zombies even kick into the plot and the best thing is that the things before that moment is not even irrelevant in any kind of way. It kinda evolves the story, builds up the characters and the whole main theme, letting the viewer inside the actual story. Brilliant in a way I'd say.
The one thing where the movie has its definite highlight is the humour, which is absolutely hilarious. To me as a fan of the British accent (although to be exact I especially love the cockney accent) the movie's jokes were top notch. You just can't say some things in another accent than the British one and to be honest when I had my Finnish subtitles on I really didn't even pay attention to them as some of the jokes are just so poorly translated they loose their purpose and meaning completely. Although the movie being a total laugh packed ride, the jokes sadly start to repeat themselves and it does get a bit repetitive. When you think about that it's a really hard thing to prevent really. When it comes to parodies they usually stumble in that way towards the end, so it's a very common problem. Despite it this movie doesn't do it so much you could imagine, so it's a real achievement. The film also includes so called "long jokes" which aren't so funny at the first time but when repeated they eventually get funny and when they're done in places where you wouldn't expect them at all they have their moment and it's magnificent.
Although the movie being a parody all the way through I was also surprised how good the acting was in it. It does have drama in it too, yet done in a satiric way. The brilliant Simon Pegg as Shaun, Nick Frost as Ed, the always hilarious Bill Nighy as Philip the stepfather, Kate Ashfield as Liz and Dylan Moran as David, the whole cast is carefully and very successfully chosen. When it comes to comedies like this one the acting is usually done over the top to make it funnier. Well, the acting in this movie also goes over the top, but it's done so unbelievably well by amazing actors/actresses and in a way I've never seen before. Usually when the acting is meant to be over the top, it's usually funny at the first time but you get bored of it very quickly and it gets so unfunny and (I can't believe I'm saying this) unrealistic. Though it is actually meant to be unrealistic, "Shaun of the Dead" does the unrealistic so realistically and the unbelievable so believably. Now that's what I call a huge achievement, very nice indeed.
"Shaun of the Dead" is all in all a great comedy. It has a surprisingly good storyline which keeps you interested throughout, including humour which just makes you laugh so hard, even giggle after the actual movie has ended. It's silly, but it's silly in a good way. They don't make comedies like this so much and when they do it's a great achievement. It's always a real gem for the comedy film industry and you just have to give your two thumbs up. The movie sadly suffers from already mentioned slight repetitiveness, but when it comes to the end it really doesn't matter so much, but that's what also lowers my final rating of the movie. If you want to laugh, seriously, "Shaun of the Dead" is a movie for you. Great.