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Things were looking bad for British cinema. You can only go so far with movies starring Hugh Grant (Four Weddings, Notting Hill) and movies about the most unlikely of people taking their clothes off (The Full Monty, Calendar Girls). There was a recent attempt to try something different called Sex Lives Of The Potato Men that was so bad the British government will probably have it suppressed under the Official Secrets Act.

But just as everything looked lost (one national newspaper suggested the only dilemma facing us was whether to put the gun barrel to our heads or in our mouths) along comes this little low budget gem to prove that the British film isnt dead yet. In fact its undead.

Despite the title Shaun Of The Dead is not a straight spoof of the zombie genre, it's more a comedy that happens to have zombies in it. The Shaun of the title, played by Simon Pegg, is your typical disillusioned, directionless man in his late twenties whose lifestyle of too much Playstation and not enough ambition results in girlfriend Liz leaving him.

The sudden and unexplained outbreak of zombies is just what Shaun needs, giving him the chance to prove himself by rescuing his former girlfriend from the shuffling menace.

Given the low budget, the zombies, special effects and make up are admirable enough, but what makes Shaun Of The Dead such a delight is the humour. One misplaced sentimental five minutes aside, there is a beautifully absurd and curiously British absurdism running all the way through.

The initial and best jokes revolve around Shaun failing to notice the zombie epidemic. In a nicely judged bit of cultural criticism, he staggers to his local shop and back with a hangover, bidding a half-hearted good morning to several of the undead.

The pitch-perfect humour also comes from a string of cultural references, matters of taste retaining their importance even in a life or death situation. When our heroes learn the zombies can be decapitated with a flying vinyl LP, theres a frantic search through Shauns record collection for something he can bear to throw. He absolutely refuses to allow The Stone Roses: Second Coming to be used as a weapon, choosing to part with the Batman Original Soundtrack and a Dire Straits album instead.