Media

Movie Renter's Guide - November, 2009

"Shaun of the Dead" (Blu-ray) - Reviewed by Chris Heinonen

Synopsis

Shaun (Simon Pegg) is a normal, everyday working man who is trying to cope with the same things we all do: roommates, family, a job, and a relationship. Just as he decides to turn his life around, a satellite crashes in Britain and starts to turn people into Zombies. Now he must spring into action to save himself and those around him, and get his life into order.

 

Commentary

I have to be honest and say that Shaun of the Dead was not my cup of tea. All of my friends raved about it, so I really looked forward to watching it when it arrived, but it just didn't click for me. I'm not sure if it's the style of humor, or something else, but I just found it to be slow moving, and not that funny. Perhaps this style of movie (I also don't enjoy "This is Spinal Tap" really) is just not something that I enjoy as much as others.

Technical

Shaun featured a pretty nice looking video transfer, with overall good detail, especially for a movie that had a fairly small budget. I didn't really notice any grain and the overall quality was very high. This carries over to the soundtrack, which is very impressive for a comedy/horror film. Using the surrounds fairly aggressively to draw you into the scene, and with very clear music and vocals, the soundtrack is a winner overall and much better than most other films of this genre.

Extras

This is a fairly loaded Blu-ray, featuring BD-Live content, multiple commentary tracks, deleted scenes and outtakes, trailers, Zombie trivia, and extra commentary from the characters on story-boarded scenes that weren't shot but expand on their character. Universal really loaded this single disc release with all the extras they could fit onto it.