Shaun of the Dead (2004)

Idea: Shaun (Simon Pegg) finally wakes up from his intense self-involvement to realize that he's lost his girlfriend, Liz (Kate Ashfield), has no relationship with his step father, Philip (Bill Nighy), or his mother, Barbara (Penelope Wilton), and lives with the biggest slacker known to man, Ed (Nick Frost). Of course, the day he realizes this is also the day he realizes his community is being attacked by flesh eating zombies, so he's got some other stuff to deal with as well.

Oh, man. I wanted to see this movie when it came out, but I'm not very good with gore. Zombie movies always have gore, even if they are terrific comedies with stellar ensemble casts, so I shyed away.

Don't make the same mistake! Gory and gross - yes. Hilarious - also yes. Good times were had by all.

Sure, Simon Pegg (yes, Shaun was the co-writer, which explains his fantastic character) and Edgar Wright's (writer and director - fancy that) set up was a year and a half long, but it was well worth it to see how completely oblivious Shaun could be to zombies. Honestly, you'd think that they all move so slowly that you couldn't miss them, but Shaun sure could. Endless comedy right there.

I was disappointed in myself, though, that I didn't recognize anyone but Nighy and Wilton. The cast was good and worked so well with each other and off each other that I know I've been missing out.

There's very little to comment on besides how funny it is. Of course, I don't think it was meant to be anything more than funny, and Wright carries it all off with a wonderful sense of "I don't care what you think."

I'm wondering how important that is in a director. You need that feeling to a certain extent but not too much, or you will alienate your audience. Now, I can think of some directors who might not care if the audience doesn't understand their "work", but it's their job to make something at least partially palatable, so they should just suck it up.

Which is what this is, despite watching bodies get ripped apart. Immensely palatable. B+