Cinephile (Foreign Film): Shaun of the Dead

4/5 Stars

Plot: “The uneventful, aimless lives of a London electronics salesperson and his layabout roommate are disrupted by the zombie apocalypse.” -IMDB

Review: Perhaps you are a lot like me. You scroll through your favorite streaming service or take a chance on a new release playing at your local cineplex. You just want to laugh, get lost for a few hours, and relish someone else’s misfortune. When the credits roll, you find yourself disappointed. The movie was over-hyped, the funniest bits were all in the trailer, crude humor stands in for anything intelligent, and/or some combination of all three.

Hollywood, and the film industry, has a comedy problem. Rightfully so, there has been a public reckoning. For the first time in human history, marginalized groups, who often serve as punching bags at the hands of filmmakers, have a vehicle for their frustrations. Social media and blogs burn with demands for political correctness, seats at the table, and calls to pick on something else beyond the traditional lowest hanging fruit. In this wake, filmmakers have not been able to adjust. What was once funny has found a home on your television screen as scripted shows and left the theater barren.

Desperately in need of a good laugh and a reminder of the industry’s ability to create smart, adult…