Shaun (Simon Pegg) is a rather pathetic human. He gets up in the same old sleepy daze each morning, saunters to the same old workplace, grabbing the same old morning snack from the local corner shop on the way, is made to feel less than worthless by his boss, goes home and hangs out with his only real mate, Ed (Nick Frost).

His girlfriend Liz (Kate Ashfield) leaves him, and all in all it's just like a bad dream. I mean, can things get any worse?

Yes. Things indeed get worse... namely in the form of a zombie apocolypse.

Faced with a crisis of this scale, Shaun sees it as his last opportunity to prove himself in the eyes of those he loves...

(Sorry..?

What's that?

Zombies?

Oh, didn't I mention that?

Yeah, there's zombies.

I MAY have also failed to mention that to my other half either when I dragged her out to the cinema to see a nice British romantic movie. Everyone loves romantic comedies, take Love Actually as an example, or anything else with Hugh Grant...

I mean, it's ESSENTIALLY the story of a guy trying to overcome adversity to win back the woman of his dreams. And it's funny. Therefore: Romantic Comedy. That's practically the definition.

The insignificant fact that this movie also happens to use a zombie apocalypse as the means to provide said adversity is negligible... not even worth mentioning...

Well that was my thinking anyway.

Back to the story.)

Determined to make something of himself after finally discovering said zombiepocalypse (when you're used to a routine, sometimes you don't notice subtle changes in your surroundings), Shaun decides to save his best mate, win back the girl of his dreams -- apparently to do this he has to take her friends with them as well. And, no good guy could leave his mother to become zombiefied, so best he stop off and pick her up on the way.

This was the first time I was introduced to the work of Simon Pegg, and frankly the man is a genius. You need to be able to appreciate British humour, but generally those that don't are complete morons, and therefore there's no chance of them reading this anyway. (As we all know the high caliber of Geek Speak readers.)

I laughed. Freaking hard. I then proceeded to watch anything and everything that was released with Simon Pegg and/or Nick Frost from that point forth. It's the understated sense of humor of seemingly relatable people in a complete farcical situation that makes this movie an absolute winner.

And if you are struggling to find a movie to cuddle up on the couch with that special someone, gaze into each other’s eyes lovingly over a bowl of triple butter microwave popcorn (yes, it comes in triple butter flavor), and enjoy a movie together that makes you feel as warm and fuzzy on the inside as you make each other feel... I think we've found a winner.

   -- Jason Murdoch