Simon Pegg's Zombie Comedy with Blood Guts & Gore.

Rating: 7/10 (21 March 2010)

Having been derided by my mates down the pub for not having seen this one, I decided it was time to bite the bullet. Now, I have seen some of Simon Pegg's more recent works, Hot Fuzz (2007) was pretty good, as was Run Fatboy Run (also 2007) and How to Lose Friends & Alienate People (2008). He's now making the big bucks in America, but I was quite interested to see how one of his earlier works turned out.
Shaun lives with two flatmates, Ed and Pete, in London. Ed is always taking Shaun down the local pub, The Winchester, to the disgust of Shaun's girlfriend, Liz. She, and her friends, Dianne and David, want Shaun to break away from Ed and straighten himself out. Unfortunately, Shaun is very attached to Ed; they've known each other since they went to school together. This comes to a head when Liz dumps Shaun and he ends up going out and getting drunk with Ed. As we see them going about their lives we get an inkling that something is not right, people are starting to behave strangely. The morning after, it becomes apparent that something is seriously wrong. News reports confirm that Zombies are loose on the streets and it's not safe out there! Shaun decides to go and rescue his mum, Barbara, and his step-dad, Philip. Then go and get Liz and then go to the pub. So, they have a plan, but there's a lot of Zombies out there! There are a lot of pretty funny bits in this film, I particularly liked the LP scene and the 'Queen' fight scene in the bar. If you've seen the film you'll know the ones I mean. Decent performances from all of the main cast, Simon Pegg as Shaun, Kate Ashfield as Liz, Nick Frost as Ed, Lucy Davis as Dianne and Dylan Moran as David. Honourable mentions also go to Peter Serafinowicz as Pete, Bill Nighy as Philip and Penelope Wilton as Barbara.
So now we come to the nitty gritty, did I enjoy it? Well, it had parts that made me laugh, but as a whole it didn't really bite me on the neck. I found the character of Ed really annoying, he's stupid and very selfish. Yes, he does have a couple of good one-liners, but that doesn't make up for him being an idiot. So over all, it's a pretty dumb comedy, something to watch when you've come back from the pub. I don't think I'll be going out of my way to watch it again, but if I'm late back from the pub one night & it's on TV who knows? My score: 6.5/10