Fun but forgettable

Rating: Null/10 (11 April 2004)

Great to see Pegg gets to do a Zombie film, I remember reading a while back that 'Dawn of the Dead' was one of his favourites.
It has enough to please British audiences and fans of 'Spaced' will enjoy seeing a rehash of the Tim and Mike friendship. The film's essential cynical premise seems to be that living in Britain is like living amongst Zombies anyway. It starts very promisingly and has some great key scenes like fighting off a pair of Zombies using a record collection, critically sorting and choosing which records.
Once all the characters get together though, the film starts to sag. The humour thins out and the plot seems to give up going anywhere. Good intelligent dialogue that 'Spaced' fans might be expecting is replaced by characters yelling and swearing. The film's budget is understandably tight but I would have hoped that Wright and Pegg could have had more fun with the genre. Other than Shaun and Ed, the rest of the characters have little opportunity for development, with Moran's character - David being set up for predictable dispatch near the end.
A great first film perhaps.