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Shaun of the Dead is badly overrated, from the dry comedy now all too familiar to UK viewers of The Office and Spaced (indeed some of the cast feature in these shows) to the lame attempts at generating any horror tension (watch the zombies do their groaning and shuffling routine around the bar at the 'last stand' sequence).
Fanboy stuff, the few moments of interest (the long take through the streets with the hero oblivious to what is going on, some nice slapstick as he attempts to vault a garden fence) are not good enough to lift this film above anything other than a knowing parody with a distinctly English take on the predominantly American (Romero) zombie epic.
But there are absolutely no surprises, and horror/comedies like this remain smug and devoid of threat while horror/comedies like Tremors and Return of the Living Dead validate themselves with unpretentious B-movie talk and aesthetics stretching beyond a feature-length sketch.
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