Thanks, Larry, that’s exactly what I was thinking of. I knew it was from one of those two movies. I’ve only seen each one like 20 times, so I should’ve known better. Oops… :o
Damn British movies are weird. Saw it 3 days ago with my friends, was a little confused how it could make the transition from being funny, to sad, to dramatic to scary…etc. Well, it seems the writer realized that any funny movie is funny for about 1 hour then it gets boring and Tries to be funny, so they took a more creative way out. I think i’ll see it again soon.
Although…
(I especially like Coldplay supporting Zomb-aid.)
(And how they used the zombies still around for entertainment purposes)
My husband was watching the trailer online and I heard him laughing from two rooms away. So he really wants to see it.
I just looked up the local movie listings and it’s playing at Crossgates Mall in Albany, so I imagine we’ll be seeing it. I’m surprised it’s playing at the mall. They usually don’t have anything other than shitty blockbusters and romantic comedies starring people like Kate Hudson or Brittany Murphy. :rolleyes:
Apparently George Romero liked it so much that he’s cast Simon Pegg as a zombie in Land of the Dead. I wonder if he’ll have some red on him.
Saw this at the Troc in London when I was stood up on Easter Sunday – and turns out now that I’ve just got back from another trip home, it’s playing here in Delaware right around the corner from where my mum lives 
I think Simon Pegg and all them were just at Forbidden Planet in Shaftsbury last week, if I’m not mistaken, for an autograph session.
Eh, I’m surprised this film is getting so much praise.
In trying to be funny I feel it hurt the drama and suspense. In trying to be dramatic and suspenseful I felt it hurt the comedy. I thought it should have taken one or two elements and ran with them. Definitely less than the sum of its parts in my opinion.
There was also another Romero tip early in the film during Shawn’s first trip to the market. You can hear the audio to a radio or t.v. mentioning the two-day early return of a U.S. spacecraft that burns up, along with it’s biological samples.
I seem to recall that being one of the “possible” causes in the Romero universe.
I’m not. I saw it Saturday night and I thought it was easily one of the most thoroughly entertaining and completely satisfying films I’ve seen this year.
Can you elaborate with specific examples of what entertained you? I’m not saying it was a bad movie - it certainly had its moments - but overall it just didn’t entertain me.
Mostly I just felt “meh” about it but one part did bother me. After hearing Ghost Town coming into the movie, I was smiling and ready for something really cool. Then we cut to a scene of 5 people in a restaurant talking in short sentences and phrases about nothing particularly interesting or funny, and cutting everytime someone said something. There were so many cuts in that scene that at first I thought it was a joke, then I started to get nauseous, then I just sort of fell into a funk that apparently lasted the entire movie.
I think I only laughed twice: once when Shaun tried to jump the fence and it collapsed, and once that apparently wasn’t funny enough for me to remember.
It’s not everybody’s cup of tea, to be sure. It all depends on the viewer I guess. It’s been a couple weeks since I saw it, but I still remember a number of gags that made me laugh out loud.
(Spoilers within, be warned)
When Shaun’s stepfather dies in the car and they abandon it, and Shaun’s mom doesn’t want to leave him… Shaun says something to the effect of “There’s nothing left of the man you married!” and through the window of the car we see the zombie-dad reach out, groan, and turn off the loud music blaring from the stereo in the background.
The scene in the backyard with the records, trying to decide which albums weren’t worth saving their lives to be used as weapons.
The entire sequence of Shaun going to the convenience store to get a drink, in such a stupor that he doesn’t notice that the world had been overrun by zombies. “Sorry, no change today…”
The fact that neither Shaun or Ed have any clue as to what is going on for the first half of the movie.
The mental montages they go through, several times, of rescuing Shaun’s mom, killing the stepdad, rescuing the girlfriend, and then returning to a safe place to wait out the event with a cup of hot tea or a cold pint.
The reality TV shows that were spawned by the zombie event like “Fun-Dead.”
Those are just off the top of my head. The only thing I can really remember being disappointed in was the Deux-Ex ending with the military showing up to save the day. But other than that, I thought SotD was very well written and directed, with the cleverness and commentary that made me like Romero’s zombie flicks so much.
It’s worth buying on DVD IMHO!
EZ
I wanted to see “Shaun of the Dead” because my pastor recommended it. Seriously, he’s a major horror aficionado.
I saw “Shaun” last Sunday at the Alamo Drafthouse, which is part of a Texas mini-chain of theaters. And apparently, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright had been here in Austin recently, as they’d recorded a brief, funny intro just for the Alamo Drafthouse (it was obviously shot in the Drafthouse lobby).
I hadn’t seen a movie at a theater in months (since my son was bortn last November, I’ve rarely gotten out of the house, and haven’t been able to see any movies my wife wasn’t willing to see with me). But Sunday, she and her cousin took my son to the park for a few hours, so I actually got a chance to see a movie only I wanted to see.
And I loved it!
I think Austinites can relate to this movie because we all know dozens of guys just like Shaun. As the biggest college town in the USA, Austin has thousands of intelligent young guys living in squalor with three or four roommates, guys who spend their days smoking weed, drinking beer, playing video games, listening to heavy metal, working on their tans, and deferring adulthood as long as possible. And a large percentage of these guys are STILL living that same lifestyle ten years after graduation! So, Shaun would be a perfect Austinite- the only difference is that, in Austin, he and Ed would be members of a third-rate rock band that they still hoped would one day hit it big (even though, for now, they’re working menial jobs in the daytime and playing bad music in front of tiny, apathetic crowds at tiny, dingy bars at night).
And even though the accents were different, I loved Shaun’s Mum (she’s a lot like my Mom- the type who’d cheerily ignore a zombie bite because she didn’t want to cause any fuss). And I was actually touched by Bill Nighy’s death scene, partly because I myself have a stepfather I never got along with, but who (I now see) always tried to do right by me.
So, all in all, I enjoyed “Shaun” immensely. Will it be hugely successful here? No, but the problem isn’t the American/British cultural divide. Almost all the jokes work just fine on this side of the Atlantic. The problem is that even a BRILLIANT gory zombie film has only a limited target audience here. Women won’t want to see it at all, and teenagers (the most desired audience) won’t be allowed to see it, for the most part. It will find its audience, and will make more money that Simon PEgg ever dared hope for when he first started writing the screenplay… but the subject matter will make it only a decent sized cult hit, rather than a blockbuster.
Oh, one more trivial tidbit: the restaurant Liz wants to go to is “Fulci’s,” named in honor of Italian goremaster Lucio Fulci, who directed “Zombi” and “City of the Walking Dead.”
What ceritficate has it got over there (it was a 15 here I think)?
It’s got an R-rating here.
I think we all know guys like Shaun, if we aren’t ourselves. Pretty much everyone gets the feeling of being stuck in dead-end jobs, relationships that might not be panning out, and trying to cling on to the last shreds of socially sanctioned irresponsibility. Nick Frost had the slacker roommate shtick down, and I thought there was a really effective dynamic worked out between the three roommates and their various work ethics. I was also very impressed with Simon Pegg’s range as an actor, particularly in the scenes with his mum at the Winchester.
As far as the audience goes, there was a rather even breakdown of male and female members in our theater, as well as a mother and her two young kids–I mean probably between 10 and 12 years old–who strolled in for the last thirty or forty minutes. I kept stealing glances at them and they seemed very into it. I definitely think the movie will gain in cult status, and probably get more widespread acclaim and viewership when it makes critics’ best-of-the-year lists in the following months. As astorian says, it’s not going to be a blockbuster by any means, but I think it’s only going to grow in popularity when it’s released on DVD.
I take it you’re not a big fan of Shakespeare then.
Seriously, most storytellers will use humor to kind of give the audience a breather (nonstop drama, angst, and sadness numbs you, but interspersed lighter moments refresh you and allow deeper feelings later). Horror stories often blend in humor, or at least a “cat scare” or two to relieve tension and set up the audience for a greater scare. Likewise dramatic elements are used to drive the plot of even the lightest comedy.
One thing I found hilarious, but no one else in the theater seemed to get, is that everyone already functions pretty much as a zombie, right from the beginning of the movie. It fits with Shaun’s obliviousness later, and also supports the greater story element that we spend too much of our lives in mindless repetition and unexamined habit.
I love Shakespeare. And believe it or not, he’s widely considered to be a better writer than Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright.
Well, Shaun of the Dead actually made it to the theatre in my small Canadian city! I saw it last night, and absolutely loved it! I got tired of waiting for my DVD to get here from Amazon.co.uk (it must be held up in Canada Customs limbo).
It was interesting to see Dylan Moran cleaned up. I’d only seen him before as scruffy old Bernard Black. Also, I was tremendously impressed by Simon Pegg’s acting skills - I’d seen hints of it during Spaced, but he really showed off his range in this movie. I laughed so hard at times, my sides hurt.
It was great to see so many of my favourite British actors, even in small parts - Jessica Stevenson, Reece Shearsmith, Matt Lucas, Martin Freeman, etc.
There weren’t too many people in the theatre, but those that were there seemed to really enjoy it. Some of the jokes went over North American heads, though (eg. We had our jabs, we went to the Isle of Wight).
Just got in from seeing the film here in Delaware 
Made me homesick 
And on the way out of the cinema, 9.30pmish, in a well lit, surburby sort of cinemaplex, was stoned by a group of rather well groomed, nice looking high school students – yes, as in, they threw rocks at me.
