Don't get me wrong, I loved Spaced. But British film is littered with some truly execrable TV to movie adaptations - Are You Being Served, Morecambe & Wise, On The Buses........What works over a brief moment on the small screen does not often translate to celluloid. Doubly so when horror is involved - Bloodbath at the House of Death
Sadly, this is the case here. Shaun is not a terrible movie; and not at all the worst of the recent British comedy offerings. That honour goes to of course Sex Lives of the Potato Men. A cinematic experience not unlike being unexpectedly french-kissed by a scabrous, spittle flecked old derelict. An experience made doubly insulting due to the fact that you had paid twice for the pleasure: once in the ticket price; and once in the Arts Council funding. There's an amusing whinge by the Director in the Guardian.
Anyway, Shaun. Not terrible, but simply not very good. One of those films where the cast look like they're having much, much more fun than the audience. Jokes are not funny; plotting is inadequate; excellent cast is wasted; packed full of genre references that most of the audience wont get; and a tone veering from unpleasant to whimsy.
It comes back to lack of quality control on the script (a common failing with British films). There was evidently no-one in this cosy bunch of sit-com chums who could say 'that joke isn't funny'; 'that scenario wont work'; 'that scene is too long'.
Ironically, the Producer Nira Park, came out of Comic Strip; and that's precisely where Shaun should have ended up, as an excellent hour long special on Channel 4.
