Friday 21 November 2014

Review: Shaun of the Dead (2004)

The other night, me and my other half had a much needed film night in. Pizza was ordered, the freezer was stocked with ice-cream, and we just needed to decide what to watch. Then he just happened to casually mention that he'd never seen Shaun of the Dead before. What! Well, that was one dilemma solved! When will you pair learn to hide your shameful non-movie watchingness, you just get shouted at from all angles!!

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Shaun of the Dead is the first of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost's Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, and also fits into the extremely niche zombie rom-com genre! A Zom-com if you will! Shaun (Simon Pegg) isn't having a great time. His girlfriend Liz (Kate Ashfield) has just dumped him; she's tired of spending every night at the Winchester pub with Shaun and his best friend Ed (Nick Frost). To drown his woes, Ed takes Shaun to the Winchester pub to cheer him up. Ed's speech is actually foreshadowing the rest of the film if you listen carefully!
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So, Shaun and Ed get horrifically drunk, completely p*ss off their housemate Pete by playing electric music in the middle of the night, and wake up the next morning to find out that everyone around them has turned into a zombie. Despite the warnings of the news reporter on TV, Shaun and Ed set out to rescue his Mother (but not Philip, sorry) and Liz.  Just reminds me how much I love the scene when they are deciding on the plan:

"We take Pete's car, we drive over to Mum's, we go in, take care of Philip - "I'm so sorry, Philip" - then we grab Mum, we go over to Liz's place, hole up, have a cup of tea and wait for this whole thing to blow over. "

I don't watch horror films and the only other zombie film I've seen is Zombieland, so I can't really discuss the parody characteristics of Shaun of the Dead, but as a comedy, I absolutely love it. From terrible throwing skills to Ed's driving skills, this film makes me laugh just as much every time I watch it. I don't remember when I first saw it, but I know it was with my Dad, and we still talk about it and quote it all the time. We were on a caravan holiday and it just happened to be on TV one evening, and so we sat and watched it on a TV smaller than most tablet screens!

I too am not a horror fan but I am a zom-com fan (i'm not entirely sure if I came up with this or its a common thing to call them zom-com's but for the purpose of this post, I am staking claim!).  This was a great start to what turned out to be an awesome trilogy, I still love the scene where Shaun and Ed are throwing records at the zombie lady but don't want to throw the 'good ones'.  I laughed out loud nearly all the way through this film, its typical British humour paired with a zombie apocalypse - what more could you ask for?!

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Don't be fooled though, because nestled in this loud-out-loud comedy are some serious moments that really grab you. I'm sure everyone must have seen this but spoiler alert anyway: the part where Shaun has to shoot his Mother brought a genuine tear to my eye.  I'm pretty sure the first time I saw this I cried, she was so lovely about it all as well!

I recently got a copy of Shaun of the Dead on DVD as I'm pretty sure the last copy is my Dad's, and there are a crazy amount of extras to go through. I've already watched the gag reel which is great, and there's a little section for the plot holes too. I'll make sure I get through all of it at some point! We need to have a movie night solely dedicated to the Cornetto Trilogy and its extras!!!

Now, I don't like giving out full scores because I tend to think that nothing can be perfect, but if any film deserves it from me, it's Shaun of the Dead.  Ooooh this is interesting, have you given a 10 before?  I don't remember seeing one!! I think Gone Girl is my only other 10 so far!

I did love this film, I can't give it a 10 because it's not up there with my other 10's but it's pretty close.

16 comments:

  1. Out of the all three films in the Cornetto Trilogy, I would say Hot Fuzz was probably the best, but they're all great in their own way.

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    1. I do really love Hot Fuzz too. I'd rather not rate the Trilogy because they're all great in their own way, but Hot Fuzz would be my number 2 if I had to :)
      - Allie

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  2. This is always one i never liked

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    1. Wow really? What do you think of the rest of the Cornetto Trilogy?
      - Allie

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    2. Hot Fuzz has never appealed to me, and will be getting around to the other one. i don't really like Simon Pegg as a lead actor i can only deal with so much of his humour

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  3. For me, this is easily the best of the three. It's completely fabulous in every way. Great work, ladies.

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    1. Thanks Dell! I really couldn't shout about how much I love this film more than I already have :D
      - Allie

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  4. The best of Cornetto trilogy in my opinion... Funny and original!

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    1. I hate rating them because I love them all but this definitely is my favourite of the three :)
      - Allie

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  5. I love this film, I haven't seen Hot Fuzz, but I definitely preferred this one to World's End. Great review!

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    1. Oh my goodness! You really need to see Hot Fuzz. I'd say it's not as good as Shaun of the Dead but probably better than World's End :)
      - Allie

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  6. Nice review. I was actually pretty late to this particular one myself, but it didn't disappoint when I finally got around to it. Another classic in this awesome series of flicks. :)

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    1. I think I was still pretty late to the party with this one, in fact I'm usually the last to arrive! :D
      - Allie

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  7. Great read, awesome review. Shaun of the Dead is one of my fave horror-comedy movie, the other on my list is Tucker and Dale vs Evil and Zombieland.
    I have always been a zombie horror movie fan. I love the feeling of adrenaline rushing through my body when I watch zombie flicks. But I never thought that a zombie movie cum comedy would be effective as effective as this movie.
    I think this movie, if I am not mistaken, started the frenzy of zombie-comedy and the zombie-romance movie such as Warm Bodies. I will always recommend this to anyone who wants to be scared and laugh at the same time.

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    1. Thanks for stopping by! I love Zombieland, and I really enjoyed Warm Bodies too. I've never heard of Tucker and Dale vs Evil, but the comedy element is the only way I can cope with horror movies so I'm going to have to watch that soon :)
      - Allie

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