An hour and a half of hectic night driving. 30 minutes navigating Greenwich Village streets attempting to shave a few bucks off the $21 that parking eventually cost me. Waiting in line to get into a 9:30 p.m. prescreening at a cheesy theater of a film that was to premier in Princeton the very next morning. A young lady (with many piercings) to my right who asked to share my popcorn and didn't wait for my response to begin her small feast. A loud and unhygienic man to my left screaming "that f*!#ing guy" and slapping the back of my seat violently at random and poorly chosen intervals throughout the film.
Given all this, it is probably a credit for my readers, as much as it was a burden for me, that "Shaun of the Dead" was not a film in need of deep critical analysis.
The film is set in British suburbia and populated by a crew of singularly dull and lifeless characters. After a brief introduction to this trite cast and their jejune lives, people in the town start getting sick, then dying, then coming back to life as man-eating zombies. After much bloodshed, violence, witless humor, emotionless drama and other simultaneously vulgar and soporific nonsense, we are left with virtually the entire company dead and the two heroes going on with their trite and meaningless existence together.
The film first goes wrong in its choice of subjects. Zombie movies are so dull and dead that their curt reply to this lifeless satire is certainly that they do a fine enough job satirizing themselves, thank you very much. Furthermore, the film's unaccomplished writer-director Edgar Wright thinks himself too quirky and clever by half. Throw in a weak and wasted attempt at emotional conflict and character development, and the script is headed for infamy. But "Shaun of the Dead" is not willing to stop there.
Next it cast a group of second-rate British television actors, including Kate Ashfield and Simon Pegg, to bungle even the few mildly funny patches in the script. With violence, silly uses of the soundtrack, revolting and gratuitous shots of gore, mediocre production values and an exceptionally ugly set to tee, the film rounds out its mediocrity. In the end, I don't know whether it was the circumstances surrounding the film or the film itself that ruined my evening, but I would advise my readers not to take the risk, regardless.
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