What A Pleasant Surprise!

Rating: Null/10 (29 September 2004)

I spotted "Shaun..." in the upcoming releases of IMDb and dismissed it for several weeks because of its lackluster (ok! I get it) title. Only after curiosity compelled me to click on some film critic reviews was I wowed by the response. Any zombie flick that results in so much positive feedback has to be worth a look.
And after looking, the good news is: that in spite of an (almost) slow beginning; and a laughless 15 minutes toward the end (but not THE END; which, in retrospect, could not (and) should not end ANY other way...it is FUU-UN-NY and Fitting); this has more belly laughs than any movie I've seen in years. It's sharp, clever and still manages to respectfully retain the horror element (if not so much the scary element). At no time during the movie did I slap my knees while cursing under my breath for the on screen characters to "run faster" or "get out of there quicker"; instead I was reduced to a glob of jello with laughter BECAUSE the characters weren't "running faster" or "getting out of there quicker" (especially in the slow buildup scene that displays the dangers of 'child resistance car locks'). Not without flaws; there seemed to be too many times when flocks of zombies just stood there waiting (for what??) before the director gave the go-ahead to jump start their lunge toward their victims. But for comedy's sake, sometimes you don't mind.
Romero's original "DEAD" trilogy is THE thrilling fun and THE creme-de-la-creme in zombie horror. Why? oh why? did it take so long for another zombie movie, that's mostly a comedy, to FINALLY get it right, with characters that ARE right, for this genre
And Shaun and Ed make a wonderful comedy team with great on screen chemistry. That alone was worth the price of admission.
Now, the faster "Shaun of the Dead" dies a quick death in America (no pun intended), the faster it can rise from the undead and into the realm of DVD. Sorry if it sounds selfish...but 'what the hell', I've already made room for it in my DVD library. So let's release it already! After all... the Brits got it. And there's still too many great movies made in Queenland that don't receive their due recognition in the states (so what else is new?).
As tempting as it is, no way, NO WAY am I spoiling anything of what happens. Too many reviews already gave away some very choice moments. For some reason, even knowing some of them did not ruin the belly laughs. I laughed just as hard anyway.