Genre Guesstimation – Shaun of the Dead (2004)

The idea behind this feature (Genre Guesstimation) is for me to watch a bunch of new movies (or ones that I haven’t seen many times) from the chosen monthly GG genre in order to expand my knowledge of movies within that particular genre.

This month’s Genre was chosen by Reut of Sweet Archive and she chose Dark Comedies as the Genre for July.  If you want to still submit a movie, the deadline is 25 July. Just send it to me at darkcom@movierob.net

Let’s see if I felt that this movie would be worthy of being in the company of my others favorite movies in the genre of dark comedies…

“Don’t forget to kill Philip! ” – Ed

Number of Times Seen – 2 (19 Feb 2010 and 20 Jul 2015)

Brief Synopsis – A group of friends need to find a way to get to safety when a Zombie apocalypse happens in England.

My Take on it – When I first watched this a few years back, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the genre of Zombie movies, so I couldn’t fully appreciate the ingenious way this movie was filmed.

They were able to take a very funny look at what could possible happen if a Zombie apocalypse were to happen in England and how the population would respond.

Despite seeming completely different from one another, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are a great team and know how to work off one another so well.

This movie does a wonderful job of parodying the genre and making us laugh at the both the silliness of the story and at the references from some of the most influential films of the genre.

Director Edgar Wright includes numerous scenes and even just moments in the film that are so cleverly filmed that we never quite know what to expect.

Loved the scene where they make fun of the typical character stereotypes of the genre and even-though it’s a quick scene, it’s very funny.

Far from perfect, but still quite enjoyable.

Bottom Line – Very funny look at a world infested with Zombies.  Pegg and Frost are hilarious and the way they parody other movies of the genre is truly genius.  Some shots are done so cleverly that you are never quite sure what you are about to see.  The storyline is a bit silly, but since it’s fun, it’s still worthwhile to watch. Not perfect, but very entertaining especially for those familiar with the genre. Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – George A. Romero, creator of the films that this movie pays homage to and lampoons, was so impressed with Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright’s work that he asked them to appear in Land of the Dead (2005), the fourth part of his Dead series, in cameos as zombies. (From IMDB)

Genre Grandeur Worthy? – Very close, but still not perfect

Rating – Globe Worthy

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