Shaun of the Dead

Bomb Rating: 

This movie had been sitting around for two years with good reason, but along comes the remake of "Dawn of the Dead" and suddenly somebody somehow gets the message that what we now need is another zombie movie.

This movie had been sitting around for two years with good reason, but along comes the remake of "Dawn of the Dead" and suddenly somebody somehow gets the message that what we now need is another zombie movie. It's funny how that works. Something unique is created or something is rediscovered and the immediate reaction of the commercial entertainment weasels is to beat us over the head with it until the last thing we ever want to see again is a movie with a zombie in it.

This film is an unusual combination of romantic comedy and zombie film. Undoubtedly, we'll be seeing a mystery zombie film and then zombies in space and then a zombie musical until people are throwing themselves off buildings at the mere mention of the word zombie.

Having just watched the tenth anniversary edition of "Clerks," I can sum up this film as "Clerks" meets "Dawn of the Dead" except that it's British, meaning that about every fifth word is unintelligible, some mumbled slang that the one British guy in the audience seems to find funny and you just want to beat the crap out of him for it. Shaun (Simon Pegg) works in an electronics store and seems to be going nowhere fast. His best friend, Ed (Nick Frost), is even worse. He just sits around the house farting and playing video games.

Then the zombies come and like a motivating force straight from the Twelve Step God himself, Shaun has a purpose in life: Save his mother and get back together with his girlfriend, Liz (Kate Ashfield). Really, this isn't much different than watching one of those intolerably sappy romantic comedies where the guy is just screwing around until he finally realizes that he truly loves his girlfriend. This one just happens to have zombies in it.

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