WAITING FOR TOMMY: SHAUN OF THE DEAD REVIEW
By Richard Johnston

I saw a preview of Shaun Of The Dead last night. Today, the 2000AD with the Shaun of The Dead story by the star/co-writer Shaun Pegg, director/co-writer Edgar Wrightand Frazer Irving comes out. Okay, comic relevance over with.

Shaun Of The Dead is a British romantic comedy zombie movie. Which makes it pretty unique. Using the cast and talent of Spaced (as well as rounding up people from the best of the best British comedy shows, Black Books, The Office, League Of Gentlemen) it takes the modern state of urbia and suburbia as a place where zombies seem incredibly natural. Stuck in a dead end job, as the days, weeks, years past without anything changing, we're all zombies.

 

JOHN ROMITA JR'S GREY AREA #1 - SIGNED BY ARTIST JOHN ROMITA JR.

So when the zombies do start to rise, the central character Shaun wanders past them and tells them he doesn't have any change.

This is also not a film where the main characters save the day. That story belongs to another group of people. Shaun's story is only about how he tries to save his relationship. As an action hero, he's pretty bad and managed to "exacerbate" every situation he gets involved with. It would have been better if he'd left things alone. Waited for things to "blow over". But he's in love. And people in love do funny, silly, often terribly, terribly selfish things.

Shaun of The Dead is a very funny movie. Anyone who's seen the TV show Spaced will feel very comfortable in this world. It's a world where in-jokes are there for everyone to see. Where multiple things happen simultaneously and the director relies on the audience understanding what's happening before the cast do, as opposed to that happening by accident. Like Spaced, it uses direction to tell jokes, something rarely used. Unlike a Richard Curtis film, you believe these places exist -- this is a London you can believe in and a zombie population that feel too, too real. They're your neighbours after all. Which is why it's also a moving film, and despite its comedy base, the film does not shy away from the realities of death, or indeed living death,

My wife hates zombie films. She's not an aficionado of Romero, and couldn't give a stuff about the Living Dead. She loved, loved, loved this film. Possibly not as much as me, but you know, that was never going to happen. Shaun Of The Dead is released in the UK, nationwide, this Thursday. The US should get it.one day.

Oh, and Spaced fans? Simon Pegg is meeting with Jessica Stevenson this weekend to talk about stuff. Spaced 3 will be part of that discussion.

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The Waiting For Tommy Archive

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