MikePadgett.com

Shaun of the Dead

— Genre parodies based on the smalltown nature of little England. It's becoming a whole subgenre unto itself.”

• Director: Edgar Wright
• United Kingdom, 2004
• 

Perhaps it’s because British comedies are more enjoyable on the small screen – when you can have a curry and a few tins of lager and not concentrate too much on their frequent flaws – that I got on with Shaun of the Dead much better than its successor Hot Fuzz.

Working as a home electrical store sales manager, Shaun (Simon Pegg) is the epitome of late 20s / early 30s UK mediocrity, riddled with ennui and incapable of growing up. He needs some life-changing event to boot him up the arse. Like a pandemic of zombification.

There are less holes in Swiss cheese, but the DVD experience hides the implausibility of such elements as Shaun’s relationship (his girlfriend is much too smart and sexy to be going out with him) and the limited number of extras (the vanquished undead are still undead when they fill out later scenes). Like old bananas: a little overripe but still entertaining.