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Visual Media
Oct. 4th, 2004 12:34 pmTwo film entries today, Zorro, The Gay Blade and Shaun of the Dead.
Pico reviews:
Zorro, The Gay Blade has a cute conceit and really wanted to work. Unfortunately, the execution was poor, mostly at the story level. Maybe if it had been produced by Mel Brooks, who understands this style of slapstick comedy meets the absurd much better. As it is, I have a great deal of sympathy for the audiences who had the misfortune to suffer through this on the big screen.
Which brings us to today's featured gushing of unabashed praise...
Shaun of the Dead is absolutely wonderful. Theatres are running horror previews in the block before the film, which is probably the only really bad thing (although this years horror crop seems long on comedy-horror). Anyway, Shaun has everything - the dude from Black's Books as the foil, a total loser roommate who's primal motivation is to play PS2 twitch games, an archetypal london accountancy prig, hordes of flesh eating zombies (the traditional, slow-moving, can be out-thought by a coffee maker kind), London being casually reduced to a post-apocalyptic state, a pub is the center of much of the action, a perky ex-girlfriend (this film is all about the ex-girlfriend), several decent lines, and bio-hazard teams showing up and mowing down a crowd of undead civilians. And it even has instruction for how the living can pretend to be zombies, for those times when you might need to shuffle your way out of a crowd of them without being identified by the sweet aroma of your spicy brains. Oh, and its really sweet, really delightful, and really funny. It's probably a good date flick - it's pretty twisted, and if they don't like this film, they won't like any of your friends anyway. If horror is not your bag, see it anyway - it's a little gory, but not really frightening - there are exactly zero actual surprises, unless you're really not paying any attention.
And it answers one of the really big questions brought about by modern British entertainment - What would reality shows be like if they could cast the undead as contestants?
Pico reviews:
- Zorro - It wanted to work
- Shaun of the Dead - See it with someone you want to love
Zorro, The Gay Blade has a cute conceit and really wanted to work. Unfortunately, the execution was poor, mostly at the story level. Maybe if it had been produced by Mel Brooks, who understands this style of slapstick comedy meets the absurd much better. As it is, I have a great deal of sympathy for the audiences who had the misfortune to suffer through this on the big screen.
Which brings us to today's featured gushing of unabashed praise...
Shaun of the Dead is absolutely wonderful. Theatres are running horror previews in the block before the film, which is probably the only really bad thing (although this years horror crop seems long on comedy-horror). Anyway, Shaun has everything - the dude from Black's Books as the foil, a total loser roommate who's primal motivation is to play PS2 twitch games, an archetypal london accountancy prig, hordes of flesh eating zombies (the traditional, slow-moving, can be out-thought by a coffee maker kind), London being casually reduced to a post-apocalyptic state, a pub is the center of much of the action, a perky ex-girlfriend (this film is all about the ex-girlfriend), several decent lines, and bio-hazard teams showing up and mowing down a crowd of undead civilians. And it even has instruction for how the living can pretend to be zombies, for those times when you might need to shuffle your way out of a crowd of them without being identified by the sweet aroma of your spicy brains. Oh, and its really sweet, really delightful, and really funny. It's probably a good date flick - it's pretty twisted, and if they don't like this film, they won't like any of your friends anyway. If horror is not your bag, see it anyway - it's a little gory, but not really frightening - there are exactly zero actual surprises, unless you're really not paying any attention.
And it answers one of the really big questions brought about by modern British entertainment - What would reality shows be like if they could cast the undead as contestants?
