I don't really find one to be "better" than the other, so I voted Shaun of the Dead because at the moment, if you asked which I would prefer to watch, that's what I'd pick. This is likely heavily influenced by the fact that I watched Zombieland last week, and haven't seen Shaun of the Dead since probably last year.
I've never seen Shaun of the Dead but really enjoyed Zombieland. The final act with Woody in the carnival booth has gotta be one of the best movie shoot-out scenes ever.
Went for Zombieland (because I own it, and have watched it more than once). Shaun of the Dead was good, but I enjoyed the humor more in Zombieland... perhaps it just felt more tailored to an American audience and that's why it clicked with me?
I need to watch SotD again, though. Thanks for reminding me!
Shaun of the Dead. It suffers a bit because some of the British quirks don't translate perfectly, but I think it's still a bit funnier. And I thought Zombieland dragged a bit in the middle, and painfully overplayed its Bill Murray hand. Still pretty good though.
Huh. I thought Zombieland was pretty well paced. It's pretty short as modern films go so there's not a lot of room for it to drag. IMDB puts its run time at 88 minutes so I'm surprised they packed as much into it as they did.
Both great, but I put Zombieland slightly higher. My only knock on Shaun of the Dead is that the last act kinda slogs into a standard zombie movie boarded-up survival scenario and becomes too serious.
I remember reading a review of Zombieland that said it was exactly what a video game adaptation movie should be, except that it wasn't a video game adaptation.
Shaun of the Dead. It suffers a bit because some of the British quirks don't translate perfectly, but I think it's still a bit funnier. And I thought Zombieland dragged a bit in the middle, and painfully overplayed its Bill Murray hand. Still pretty good though.
I don't think you can overplay a Bill Murray hand. His reaction after getting shot was pure deadpan gold.
"We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary." — James D. Nicoll
I've only seen Shaun Of The Dead but my god that was boring. I'm not into zombie movies (or horror movies) at all though so I probably missed all the jokes. Actually, scrap probably, I didn't figure out it was a comedy till halfway in.
I voted Zombieland. It's a close call, but what put it over the top was the whole use of the "survival rules" scattered throughout the film, complete with fourth wall breaking messages whenever one applied. Funny as hell both because they're exactly the kinds of things that get people killed in zombie films and they didn't overplay it. You'd just start to forget about them, then something would happen and "ding!" a rule number would appear.