Shaun Of The Dead (15)

Richard Curtis shot through the head by George A Romero is how co-writer/star Simon Pegg and director Edgar Wright pitched their rom-zom-com. And it bloody well delivers. Fulfilling the filmic potential displayed in cult sitcom Spaced, the makers have created a hip, flip comedy that comes up trumps in both the head-splatting and side-splitting departments.

Pegg is perfect as the titular chump, drifting through life until girlfriend Kate Ashfield dumps him. This prompts best mate Ed (Nick Frost) to observe: ""It's not the end of the world"." Sorry, but it is - - at least if the zombies overrunning Crouch End are anything to go by... A knowledge of Living Dead lore helps while you're watching, but it's by no means essential. In fact, viewing Shaun with a non-horror fan reveals some of its shocks to be genuinely scary. But more than that it's funny, mostly because the characters feel true and are just as recognisably flawed, petty and sweet come the end of the world as on any night down the pub.

DVD Extras:

""Ed and Shaun's relationship was basically mine and Simon's for years"," recalls Nick Frost in the Making Of." "I would just lie on the couch while he moaned at me for being a lazy bastard."" Such is the tone of these flippant-but-enjoyable extras, which are extensive without inviting charges of overkill. A Day In The Life Of A Zombie Extra is a 10-minute, what-it-says-on-the-tin featurette from TV gob Joe Cornish. Short behind-the-scenes peeks from Pegg and co-star Lucy Davis also offer plenty of unguarded moments, while 10 minutes of outtakes suggest the shoot was a lot of fun (though they're not as amusing as you might expect). Fourteen minutes of deleted and extended scenes show that Frost has a really filthy mind, with only the Tube-closing "body on the line" gag missed from the final cut. There are also fuller versions of the Trisha zombie clips and Coldplay's ZombAid interview, a concise special-effects comparison and a bunch of quality trailers (""In A Time Of Crisis... A Hero Must Rise... From His Sofa""). The Zomb-O-Meter trivia track is absolutely superb, stuffed with amusing or interesting observations - - from how many times the F-word is used (77) to noting that "Fulci's Restaurant" is named in honour of Zombie Flesh Eaters director Lucio. The three short comic-strips pasting over plotholes are also an innovative touch, while the commentary by the principal zombie actors is good for a laugh. A second chat-along finds both Bill Nighy and Penelope Wilton wondering what "bollocks" sounds like in German, while in the other cast commentary, Frost reveals he shaved his pubes in preparation for the role (apparently to get the appropriate groin-scratching loutishness for the role).The fourth (yes, fourth) yak-track has Pegg and Wright extracting both facts and the urine from each other. (""All that's come out of this commentary so far is that you're racist, homophobic and hate your landlord"," Simon says.) For all the jokiness, though, there's some diverting info here, including references to Suspiria and Don't Look Now, the "amputee stuntmen" hired for that authentic zombie feel and the news that the film's cinematographer, David Dunlap, was a camera operator on Scorsese's GoodFellas. Then there are the elements we can't review because they weren't ready by our press date - - another comic strip, photos and storyboards - which may be enough to bump this up to a five-star disc. Certainly the boys win credit for name-checking Total Film in the `Flip Chart' feature, while elsewhere Wright is heard giving the ultimate in zombie direction: ""Less moaning, more entrails"." Genius...

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