Shaun of the Dead (R)
N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z
Great Britain suffers from the biggest binge-drinking epidemic in Europe, and it doesn't help matters that most pubs shut down at 11:00 p.m. Indeed, the early closing time may only add a sense of heightened urgency to a given evening's proceedings. The curfew also results, inevitably, in a mass disgorging of slack-jawed malcontents into the nation's streets, moaning and muttering and staggering about--a ghastly scene that replays itself more subtly the next morning, when hungover wraiths embark upon their walks of shame. You might imagine the dead had risen--which is precisely the ingenious premise of this "zom-rom-com," wherein sad pub regular Shaun (Simon Pegg) and his undermotivated pals are forgivably slow to comprehend that London has been overrun by deadly zombies. The creatures bear remarkable resemblance to your average rumpled, depressive jobsworth, you see--until they try to eat your brain. Wright and Pegg previously collaborated on the British TV comedy Spaced (imagine a low-income Friends on Xanax--yes, it was that good!), and here scale the same droll heights, peaking when the army of the living dither over which of their prized '80s-era vinyl can be sacrificed to decapitate the undead. (Jessica Winter)
Review by Jessica Winter
.
