Great concept, subtle twists, a bit drawn out at times, but a classic, for sure

Rating: 7/10 (15 September 2014)

Shaun of the Dead (2004)
Clearly ridiculous, and clearly funny. For some it doesn't get much more comic and hilarious, both exaggerated and subtle (actually). By luck (good or bad) I have seen several British movies with the same comic team (the same actors, namely Simon Pegg, but also some background people like director Edgar Wright) and there are more similarities in the plots and funny moments than you might expect. Which means fewer "original" laughs.
The main culprit is "The World's End," which is also a good time, but there is the pub at the center of things, and the zombie/androids in both, and a feeling of friends helping friends fight the evils. It's funny once, but be careful twice. (Or, I'm sure, if you think one movie is stellar, you'll possibly love the other.) These two, and another called "Hot Fuzz" which I haven't seen, are officially a "trilogy" and so are naturally overlapping. Such is success.
This is the classic, and the first, and has its own reputation that goes beyond just another zombie movie. (See also "Zombieland" from 2009 which I liked even more, also a spoof.) The funniest aspect of "Shaun" is the sense of not noticing the zombies, then the kind of normal approach to having a zombie in your yard, or in your house or car. Or finding that your best friend, or mum, is a zombie. Etc. It brings it away from the horror film genre almost completely. Even when there is chaos and near annihilation, there is also a feeling of hilarity. There is always a ray of hope. And there is love, sort of, that constant rescuer in films of all flavors.
The zombies are terrific—they stay to what I think of as the necessary Romero styled zombie style, with the rules of walking and acting a certain way (unlike "World War Z" which was hyped up in that sense). If you worry about zombies entering your world, and want to know what to do, see this one and see of course the very original from the current era, the archetypal "Night of the Living Dead," which as some quality of perfection that can't be ignored. Here of course it makes fun but it does so in a way that says it's all for real, too.
See it!