I took a quick look at the Rotten Tomatoes rating for Shaun of the Dead yesterday after the early reviews started to come in and was encouraged enough by that that I planned to write a little article labelling the film the genre's best since Army of Darkness. Well, the full slate of reviews are out now and after taking another look at the Tomatoes listing the scope of the article has expanded just a bit. After doing a quick survey of all the major zombie related titles I could think of, and after sending Mack on a quest to dig up anything I may have forgotten about, Shaun of the Dead's rating is bested by only two directors: Sam Raimi and George Romero.
I think that now makes it fair to make this pronouncement: Shaun of the Dead is an instant classic. It is the most acclaimed genre film in roughly twenty years. Go see it. Right now.
The complete list of films, listed in descending order based on Rotten Tomatoe rankings, follows. Feel free to chime in if I've left anybody out.
Night of the Living Dead (Romero) - 100%
Dawn of the Dead (Romero) - 100%
Evil Dead - 100%
Evil Dead 2 - 100%
Shaun of the Dead - 94%
28 Days Later - 89%
Day of the Dead - 88%
Braindead / Dead Alive - 87%
Night of the Living Dead (remake) - 81%
Versus - 80%
Dawn of the Dead (remake) - 76%
Army of Darkness - 74%
The Serpent and the Rainbow - 73%
Cemetary Man / Dellamorte Dellamorte - 60%
Undead - 50%
Resident Evil - 35%
Resident Evil: Apocalypse - 23%
I went and saw it last night. I laughed a lot. I jumped a couple times. It was a great movie. Even my friends who thought it was messed up at points acknowledged that they laughed more than at most straight comedies. Thanks for the repeated recommendations over the past six months or however long you've been raving about it. Hahaha. Got some buttons too, in case you didn't get any.
Bart: If we weren't doing Vital during the TIFF you could bet that we would have also tried doing the sneak peek last week around the city. First 25 at the participating theatres got zombie make-up and a trucker hat with Aim For The Head on it. I've heard that a kid in my student ministry group got one. Going to have to follow that one up and perhaps pay a... personal visit... to his home... in the middle of the night... yeah... that's it.
Bart: If we weren't doing Vital during the TIFF you could bet that we would have also tried doing the sneak peek last week around the city. First 25 at the participating theatres got zombie make-up and a trucker hat with Aim For The Head on it. I've heard that a kid in my student ministry group got one. Going to have to follow that one up and perhaps pay a... personal visit... to his home... in the middle of the night... yeah... that's it.
Well, I've done my civic duty and brought a bunch of people over here out to see the film earlier tonight. They liked it a lot...except for this one guy, but he has a thing against the British.
Having seen the film earlier in Toronto with you guys, I had a blast just observing the audience and their reactions. It went over really well, actually...and like Tod-d has said, you probably should see it with an audience for the full effect. I might add that I was able to catch a few more inside jokes and forshadowing on the second time around...caught a glimpse of Tyres too (thanks again for the Spaced marathon, Mack)... I guess a lot of people were wondering what I was laughing at when I saw him.
So, I've fulfilled the second Great Commission and have hopefully brought more people out to be the Shaun faithful. Go ahead...join us. Next up is Spaced, I guess...gotta get my hands on those DVDs...
Oh, to Mr. Wright and Odeon films, thanks again for the Coke. Don't worry, I paid for my ticket the second time around (kudos to Tod-d for the first one).