Shaun of the Dead

Movie Title--  Shaun of the Dead

Release Year--  2004

Running Time--  1 Hour and 35 Minutes

Director--  Edgar Wright

Cast--  Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Kate Ashfield, Lucy Davis, Dylan Moran, Bill Nighy, Penelope Wilton, Jessica Stevenson, Peter Serafinowicz

A man decides to take charge of his humdrum life as the dead begin to rise.

Shaun (Simon Pegg) has no direction in his life.  He works in an electronics shop where none of his younger co-workers show him any respect, he has a tense relationship with his flatmate Pete (Peter Serafinowicz) because of Shaun's freeloading friend Ed (Nick Frost) and he has a very strained relationship with his stepfather Phillip (Billy Nighy) which causes him to not see his mother Barbara (Penelope Wilton) very often.  To top it all off, Shaun's girlfriend Liz (Kate Ashfield) is getting tired of their social life because all they ever do is go to the Winchester Pub and they are never alone because Shaun brings Ed with him and therefore Liz brings her flatmates David (Dylan Moran) and Dianne (Lucy Davis) with her.  When Liz tells him that she wants a change, Shaun promises to take her to a nice restaurant the next evening.

After a particularly bad day at work, Shaun runs into an old school friend Yvonne (Jessica Hynes) and she asks how his relationship with Liz is and it reminds Shaun that he didn't book a table for their dinner, so when he finally admits that he forgot to book the table and suggests that they go to the Winchester, Liz decides that she has had enough and breaks up with him.  Shaun tells Ed that Liz has broken up with him and Ed suggests that they drown Shaun's sorrows at the Winchester.  At closing time they stumble out into the street and go home.  Once they are home, they begin spinning electro records when they wake up Pete, who is super irritable because he is feeling ill with a headache and having to work in 4 hours because all of his co-workers are sick.  Ed notices that Pete has a bandage on his hand and Pete says he was attacked by what he thought was crackheads and they bit him.  As Pete is walking away, Ed calls him a prick and Pete comes back to attack Ed but Shaun stands up for Ed and then Pete verbally attacks Shaun, telling him he needs to get his life together.

The next morning, Shaun wanders to the store hungover and does not notice that overnight zombies have overtaken the town.  He leaves some money on the counter and wanders back home before getting caught by the oncoming zombies.  Not long after he arrives home, Ed notices a girl in the garden.  They go out to investigate but realize that something is wrong with her.  When they decide to go back in the house, a fat man is also standing there.  Shaun and Ed make a run for it and once inside they see a news anchor reporting about the living dead and he says "the only way to kill them is to cut off the head or remove the brain.".  Shaun then gets a call from his mother saying they were attacked and his stepfather Phillip has been bitten.  Shaun then devises a plan to rescue his mother, kill Phillip, check on and save Liz, then head to the Winchester to have a pint and wait for the whole thing to blow over.

So, I put up a lot of resistance when it came to this film but now that I have actually sat down and watched it, I enjoyed it.  Shaun is easy to relate to; he is working a dead end job, he has a strained relationship with his parents AND girlfriend and he has that friend that everyone else tends to hate (just like most people do) which causes his relationship with is roommate to be tense.  Anyone that has had to deal with any or all of these factors knows how it feels to walk in Shaun's shoes.  It is all of these factors that help Shaun realize that it is time that his life take a different path and he becomes a different person when the zombie apocalypse happens.  When the end strikes, Shaun realizes that he needs to change his life and lucky for him, it actually works out (somewhat) for him.

This film is amusing and I really liked it.  I do think that this film is not going to be everyone's cup of tea but I think that if you are a fan of zombies and you like British humor, this film is probably for you.  No matter what you decide, Don't Forget the Popcorn!