ARMY OF THE DEAD
Brains, blood, and Dave Bautista – what more do you need to feast on in writer-director Zack Snyder’s heist/undead epic hybrid that doesn’t take itself too seriously and delivers the gross-out fun fans of the genre love? Vegas is infested with zombies and blocked off from the rest of the world. In less than two days, the government is going to nuke the place, but not before former zombie war hero Scott Ward (Bautista) and his motley crew can get in and crack the vault that holds $200 million. According to casino head honcho Bly Tanaka (Hiroyuki Sanada), it’s a quick in-and-out operation, but that’s never the case. He’s the one who has offered up this once in a lifetime opportunity, but he won’t be there when the rest of them walk right in to a zombie kingdom where the King and Queen rule, and these ain’t your usual fumbling flesh eaters.
Seeing Snyder go back to his roots is a fantastic feeling, yet the energy brought isn’t a mainstay and the long-drawn-out runtime certainly has something to do with it. The blood-splattering, the roaring of zombie tigers, and a kick-ass cast do help pass the time. But the best is Bautista and the emotional weight the big guy carries with him. His character has lost his wife due to the outbreak and how he lost her caused irreplaceable damage to his relationship with his daughter (Ella Purnell). Ward isn’t risking his life to be rich, it’s 100 percent for his kid…and maybe to start a food truck. What viewers want they’ll undoubtedly get in nightmarish action and jokiness. Snyder could’ve gone more terrifying and tension-filled, but what he’s done is infectious (see what I did there?) and doesn’t disappoint.
Check out our episode of The Vick’s Flicks Podcast on the filmography of Zack Snyder here:
Listen to “Ep. 70: Zack Snyder” on Spreaker.OXYGEN
Mélanie Laurent is excellent and really resourceful as a young woman who wakes up in a cryogenic pod and is losing O2 at a rapid rate. Time is running out as she desperately needs answers to a bunch of significant questions in order to stay alive in Alexandre Aja’s breathless, engrossing French claustrophobic sci-fi thriller. With that said, its ideas aren’t unique and not too many mysteries are well kept secrets that viewers probably won’t guess early on. But Aja and Laurent don’t desist from delivering a tense journey that takes viewers on an entertaining ride that gets us invested pretty quickly, attesting less can be more.
Brandon Vick is a member of The Music City Film Critics’ Association, the resident film critic of the SoBros Network, and the star of The Vick’s Flicks Podcast. Follow him on Twitter @SirBrandonV and be sure to search #VicksFlicks for all of his latest movie reviews.
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