Shaun (Simon Pegg) is your below average thirty something who it seems has no real goal in life. Lacking any real ambition. He drives his long suffering girlfriend Liz (Kate Ashfield) around the bend. He seems to pay more attention to his fellow loser pals and housemates Ed (Nick Frost)and Pete (Peter Serafinowicz). Other than his basic faults. Shaun is other wise a decent enough sort. But soon realises how much Liz means to him when with out warning. The undead begin to walk the earth (or to shorten it down, Crouch End in London). Now it's a race against time for Shaun to not only spring to the rescue of the girl he loves. But his dear sweet Mum as well. After watching this. You'll never look at 'Dawn of the Dead' the same way again. [TRAILER]

STEVEN SNYDER'S REVIEW

The ingeniously titled “Shaun of the Dead” is easily one of the most creative films of the year – part zombie horror film, part romantic comedy, part action epic.

A smash hit in Britain, this bizarre and quirky little treat will baffle as many as it

delights, but for this bored moviegoer who craves anything new amid a time of seasonal rehashes from the major studios, “Dead” is like a breath of fresh air.

It is, as some have said, one glorified joke stretched out over two hours. But that one joke is told with such variety and interrupted with such clever asides that it never becomes tiresome or boring, which is more than can be said for such recent comedies as “Napolean Dynamite” and “Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle.”

That one joke is this: Shaun (Simon Pegg) and Liz (Kate Ashfield) are an estranged couple. In fact, they’ve just broken up, Liz infuriated with Shaun’s lack of ambition and Shaun determined to win her back. His roommate and best friend is Ed (Nick Frost), a lazy oaf of a man but a friend who will stick with him until the bitter end.

And while their petty concerns and tribulations dominate the foreground of the film, the background slowly fills with a darker and more shocking tale of zombies and the apocalypse.

It starts subtly enough, with the distant sounds of explosions, sirens and news reports of attacks, and then works its way into Shaun’s day-to-day life, as car accidents, puddles of blood and even staggering zombies go unnoticed. This subplot then crashes into the main story, entangling Shaun and associates in this warped zombie attack, culminating in a standoff between Shaun and his friends, hold up in their favorite pub, and an ocean of zombies trying to break in.

What’s remarkable here is not that the film dares to do a bait and switch, presenting us with a romance only to blindside us with some horror. It is rather the deviousness of this premise; the sheer gall of writers Pegg and director Edgar Wright to create a complex comedy using these parallel stories.

So many other filmmakers would have played up one angle of this story while ignoring the other. In another, inferior version of this film, the romance would be the unbelievable aside or the zombies would be overblown and laughable.

But in “Dead,” each half of the equation is absolutely believable, and conveyed with absolute earnestness. The film starts with real heartbreak that becomes increasingly humorous as we see the dangerous situation that Shaun is incapable of seeing. And then, in the final bar sequence, there is real danger to be found. Characters die, zombies feed on human flesh, and the humor is punctuated with tension and gore.

This peculiar structure only speaks more to the ability of the actors. Known for their television work, Pegg and Frost are the perfect foils for each other, Shaun serving as both the dignified hero and the pathetically love-struck loser, and Frost as the vulgar and lazy Ed. Together, they are the most improbable of zombie movie heroes.

And particularly enjoyable are this horror/comedy’s asides about relationships, violence and society. Note how Shaun’s valiant acts are not born of inner strength but co-dependency, how violence is used as a tool not just to elicit laughs but, near film’s end, genuine disgust, and also how in “Shaun’s” opening segments everyday life has been compared to a world run by zombies.

I know, sounds preachy, right? But it’s not. This is a fun, silly little film that realizes you don’t need to be stupid to be funny. And in being creative, unique, and even intelligent, it’s more enjoyable than most zombie movies or romantic comedies are in their own rights.

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