Maggie (2015)

I'll say it from start: if you want to see a zombie movie skip "Maggie". Look for something else. Even if you want to see a different approach to a zombie movie, still ... look for something else. However, if you want a proof that Schwarzenegger can act ... then you can spend one hour and a half for this. I'm not talking about an Oscar performance, but it was something like the revelation I had more than ten years ago when I've watched Wesley Snipes in "Liberty Stands Still". Schwarzenegger in a drama role of a troubled father, totally atypical, which is carried successfully up to the end credits, is probably the only positive aspect of this movie. A completely opposite shallow performance does Abigail Breslin, holding the leading part of Maggie, a girl infected by a zombification virus, who's health is slowly degrading. The script doesn't help. Neither the directing, the cinematography, the sound, nothing. It's a slow movie that seems to take more time than it does, and probably deserves watching mostly if you want to see something to make you sleepy before bed-time ... probably a paradox in the zombie movie range.

Rating: 2 out of 5

Life After Beth (2014)

I've been waiting for "Life After Beth" since quite a while. I've managed watching this last week, in two shots, late at night when I couldn't sleep. I've been a bit afraid at the moment that it will amplify the not that good mood I had. No worries though ... The movie was so bad, that the only thing it amplified was the frequency of my yawns.

Beth dies somewhere in the beginning (big surprise) bitten by a venomous snake. Zach, her boyfriend, gets into a bitter depression until he figures out that ... Beth has still a pulse, and she's walking. Resurrected, and after she crawled out from her grave, the girl simply returned home, where her parents decide to hide the miracle. Until when the nosy boyfriend, intrigued by the isolation of his former "parents-in-law" finds out about the new zombie in town. And that's what starts the problems, but I'll leave these for who has enough patience to discover what happens next ...

I have to admit that the main reason for waiting this movie was Aubrey Plaza. Probably the name sounds totally unknown, but well ... I have my "crush" moments :P, and this one followed "Safety not Guaranteed" + one .. two ... three interviews I've seen with her (don't ask :P just youtube search - funny, weird & maybe hiding some heart deep under the outer layer .. maybe). Anyway, after "Life After Beth" I'm cured. The acting was pathetic. The directing sucked. The script ... no comment - how and why we get from Beth to a (spoiler) "Night of the Living Dead" I have no clue. Or .. it might be some hidden plot of the vipers in the surroundings to wake up the whole cemetery. Anyway ...

Rating: 2 out of 5

Dead Snow (2009) & Red vs Dead (2014)

I've had before Norwegian movies on my blog. And I think I said that they're not really on "my frequency". Well, I've finally found the exception .. a double one = "Dead Snow" & "Dead Snow 2" ...

The first movie follows a "classic" plot. A group of medicine students decide to spend a winter vacation on a cabin in the middle of nowhere. Of course, that's a bad idea ... The original part comes with the bad things that happen. More precisely at the end of WW2, in that area, a nazi platoon didn't just quietly packed and left, but decided to stay a bit longer ... years longer ... as zombies ;) Obviously, I won't get into details, but to follow with the 2nd movie I have to give a spoiler = in the first, there's a lone survivor...

... And the lone survivor has a personal vendetta to carry on in the sequel. If the first film seems to you to be just another zombie movie, with more original zombies .. the sequel is so innovative that at some point mocks itself declaring during an exchange of lines that what's going there can give birth to a new movie genre :). The trailer gives some info, and more than that I just can say that "red" in the title links again to ww2 ( guess how ;) ).

Both movies are very bloody (e.g., we have a tribute to "Evil Dead" on cutting an arm with a chainsaw). Both movies have "outrageusly awful" scenes ( I prefer to not give examples :) ), but usually caught in a sufficiently funny context, that you can forgive them. Both movies have something different to other zombie movies, the comic side which actually works here. I think just "Shaun of the Dead" managed to pull this off, "Warm Bodies" being the counterexample I prefer to give (we don't count "Fase 7" or "Cabin in the Woods" - those are not pure zombie movies). And the second movie manages this that well, that's mandatory to also see the first to catch every bit of what the sequel offers ;)

Rating:
Dead Snow - 3 out of 5
Red vs Dead - 4 out of 5

World War Z (2013)

Yup ... I'm late again. I'm in general late these days ... But I'm trying to save the last week's entry with "World War Z". I think I wrote a bit about zombie movies before, so I won't dissect the full topic again. Since Romero's "of the Dead" series, it's a subject that has been used many times, covering the full range in the movies market - from very bad to very good. The last one I've seen: "Warm Bodies" was unfortunately at the bottom of the list, so bad that contributed on postponing watching "WWZ". I don't know why, but at the time seeing Brad Pitt in a zombie movie main cast didn't inspire more trust than the undead romantic comedy I had have seen. Well, in the end I gave a chance to "WWZ", and it's not that bad ...

I think it's really hard to pull off an original subject for a movie in this genre. In the end, it's still the classic recipe the one that seems to be more catchy to the public = we have a group of survivors trying hard to stay alive and if possible find a cure. This worked perfectly in "28 Days Later", "I am Legend" and even in the "Dawn of the Dead" remake. And seems to work too in "WWZ", although there are some level differences. The movie sticks to the base idea and keeps a classic dystopian atmosphere, with some life drama in it. The context: a worldwide zombie epidemics ( the standard recipe = you're getting bitten, you transform and you never find eternal peace unless somebody is merciful enough to pass a bullet through your head ). In this context, an UN employee (Brad Pitt), with some field experience in conflict areas, is sent to investigate the possibility of a cure, in exchange for his family being kept under protection on a US Navy ship. One of the nicest parts of the movie which adds a lot to the cinematic experience is that the mission starts on American soil, and gets through Korea, Israel and finally UK. Even if a bit far fetched here and there ( a bit more in the Israel part ... ), all this traveling is a variation from the classic setting where the survivors are typically by foot and within a limited area of movement + it also adds to the impression of a global disaster. I won't get into spoilers about "the hunt 4 the cure", but the idea and the way it develops seemed rather original.

What "WWZ" also has in common with the the other titles above is .. how to say .. a warm feeling that gives a bit of hope for a better world, which is subtly induced somewhere behind and in opposition to the bloody cold terror. You know that despite the chances it seems to have, finally, somehow, the humanity prevails. .. The costs paid vary from movie to movie :) As a light spoiler I can say that in "WWZ" that's probably the problem, and specifically that the "happy-end" seems a bit too "happy". As strong I've been touched by the last zombie attack towards the main character (the scene is epic, both what you see and the symbolism behind), as disappointed I've been by the simplified outcome in the end. I guess it's one of the few cases when I would've preferred more tragedy. But well, a high budget movie has to target as many people as possible and you can feel the "Hollywood superproduction" in there (with all its evils). In any case ...

Rating: 4 out of 5 (at the limit)

Warm Bodies (2013)

I expected more from "Warm Bodies". To start with the most powerful impression left by the movie = disspointment. Since I don't have a better subject, though ...

We're talking about a zombie movie. A bit different from the usual productions like Romero's " .. of the Dead" series, "I Am Legend", or (probably) the newer "World War Z" which I didn't see yet. It's something that wants to be a zombie romantic comedy. How do you get to that ? Well, easy, we have three categories of Earth inhabitants: the "apocalypse" survivors, zombies, and advanced zombies = skeletons (let's just say that the middle group is the intermediate phase between the other two). Obviously, the survivors are camped in sort of fortified perimeter, from where they go out from time to time to get medicines and other supplies. During such an exit they get attacked by a zombie group, and by chance one of the youngest heartless creatures gets for lunch the brain of a living guy of pretty much the same age. Spoiler (and I don't feel bad for it): that's the way to "digest" the victim's memories, the result being a love at first sight towards the poor dead's ex-girlfriend. Which ex-girlfriend is actually present in the attacked group, and our zombie struck by Cupid manages to save before she's getting on the others undead daily menu. Further, as the trailer says "love conquers all" or different put, slowly the brain eater's heart starts to beat again (although his diet is kept the same for quite a while).

Sounds gross ? Well, it is. I don't have a problem with zombies devouring human people, seen that in countless movies, in much more graphical scenes than here. What I found disgusting is the way the subject is approached = it seems that nobody cares throughout the movie that the main hero in this story finds his lost humanity by chewing neurons at breakfast, lunch and dinner. And that's going past the absurdity of the idea itself which just shows how childish is the movie. The comedy side left me impassible. I don't remember anything from "Shaun of the Dead" except .. laughing with tears. Here, I don't know if I got past barely smiling, and probably not even that to frequent. The romance side I won't comment, maybe because I'm myself to zombie to be touched, or I'm way too far from the right mood to do it.

I was expecting more as I said, so maybe I'm a bit too acid. But the positive ratings that convinced me to see the movie are totally unjustified. There are probably two aspects to appreciate in this production: 1. that's the first time when I see as idea a phase of intermediate "zombies" in a post-apocalyptic front, which gives the possibility to have some nice turns in the battling forces 2. that the production doesn't take itself too seriously, as it happens with "Twilight" for instance, but that unfortunately doesn't save it from a main target: 12-16 + choose from: at most medium IQ or a sufficiently big alcohol intake.

Rating: 2 out of 5