You know how in all of those George Romero zombie movies like Night of the Living Dead, there's always that one guy who maintains his composure and knows exactly what he is doing, even in the face of incredible danger?
How, I've always wondered, does he manage to both keep his cool and keep all of the other nimrods in line as well?
Shaun of the Dead, a zombie comedy directed by Edgar Wright, who I'd never heard of before either, hilariously critiques this Dudley Do-Right horror-flick hero by featuring as its own hero an average bloke whose heroic intentions don't always have the effect of, well, saving anybody from zombies.
Unlike the Romero prototype, in which danger immediately comes into the forefront, Shaun of the Dead takes its time developing characters and backstory.
In a day when nothing seems to be going right, British 20-something Shaun (Simon Pegg) gets dumped by his girlfriend, is undermined by his employees at work and forgets to get his mom flowers for her belated birthday.
Furthermore, his home life is in turmoil, because his responsible roommate, Pete (Peter Seranfinowicz), is fed up with their slacker roommate, Ed (Nick Frost), and it appears this matter is coming awfully close to confrontation.
Meanwhile, we notice from Shaun's channel surfing that some kind of national crisis is developing in the periphery.
But Shaun has bigger problems to worry about, so the whole zombie plot takes a back seat to his personal life.
When a zombie does finally materialize, stumbling its way across Shaun's front lawn, it turns out to be exactly similar to those we've seen in dozens of other horror movies.
This is slightly disappointing, considering the vast potential one has to play around with the conventions of cinema zombies.
But this disappointment is soon forgotten during the ensuing hysterically funny scene, in which Shaun and Ed try to kill their zombie invaders by flinging only Shaun's most expendable LPs at their heads. After disposing of his undead neighbors Shaun sets out to save his girlfriend and his mother, whose husband (his stepfather) we learn has recently been bitten and thus will himself turn into a zombie in only a matter of time.
Shaun soon discovers he can't quite kill his soon-to-be-zombied stepdad, however, at least not with his mom around, so he is forced to take him along as well.
Also joining the group is Shaun's recently ex-girlfriend Liz (Kate Ashfield), and her antagonistic roommates Dianne (Lucy Davis) and David (Dylan Moran).
This ragtag group sets out, by Shaun's somewhat illogical decree, to hole up at the Winchester, a local pub.
Like the best writers of ensemble comedy pieces, Wright and his co-writer Pegg compose their dialogue like a musical symphony -- each character bouncing their unique one-dimensional notes off of each other in perfect meter.
There isn't much surprise or variation within the characters, but, in a comedy like this, that's what endears them to us and makes them complement each other so well.
Wright, a 28-year-old BBC director, makes his presence defiantly known with this film, combining the energy (and certain techniques) of Darren Aronofsky (Pi, Requiem for a Dream) with the heart and wit of British novelist Nick Hornby (High Fidelity, About a Boy).
But be warned: If you go into Shaun of the Dead expecting the kind of nonsequitur, it's-all-a-big-joke satire employed in the Scary Movie franchise, you're at the wrong movie.
This writing team privileges characters over jokes, thus you won't find anybody in Shaun of the Dead doing anything out of character for a cheap laugh the way a lot of modern satires often do.
The result is a movie that's more than just an enjoyable theater entertainment.
Because the humor stems from its personalities rather than an assortment of throwaway gags, this is the kind of comedy you'll be able to watch loyally on video once every couple years or so and laugh your appendages off each time.
