We’ve finally made it to the last day of the Blogging from A to Z challenge! There were definitely days I wasn’t sure I was going to make it to the end, but I’ll save that for my reflections post next week. For now, it’s Movie Monday and the letter is Z, so you know what that means – zombies!! Which is kind of ironic considering I feel a bit like a zombie after a month of daily blogging.
I’ve always been a fan of zombie movies. Zombies may seem slow and bumbling, but their sheer numbers and determination make then pretty dang scary. Today’s Netflix Watch Instantly selection is called Zombie Apocalypse (in some listings there is a 2012 in the title). For my previous Monday Movie selections, I picked ones I’d never heard of until the Netflix ratings predictor assured me I was going to love it (and the ratings were always right). But in this case, Netflix tried to warn me off, saying, “Girl, you are NOT going to like this, turn back now, you could do so much more with this hour and a half, like trim your dog’s toenails.” Usually I listen to Auntie Netflix because her rating system really ‘gets’ me, but I had another reason for wanting to watch this particular zombie flick.
Two months ago, my short film Saying Goodbye was screened at the Beaufort International Film Festival. While there, we met a charming guy named Gary Weeks. He introduced himself as a screenwriter, but my sister thought he looked familiar, so we looked him up on IMDb. Turns out he’s also an actor who’s played several parts we remembered, including Fiona’s paramedic boyfriend from Burn Notice. We chatted with Gary several times over the course of the festival, and he was very nice; so since we are zombie fans, we decided to watch him in action as one of the main characters in Zombie Apocalypse despite Netflix’s dire prediction.
Well, the Netflix rating system enjoyed having another chance to say, “I told you so.” As much as I wanted to like it because of Gary, I was not a fan. I think Gary did a great job giving his character depth and pathos because I’m 99% sure none of that was actually on the page since the script was so bad. It was as blandly typical as a zombie movie gets – a random group of survivors trying to… survive. The dialog was cringe-worthy to the point I was embarrassed for all the actors who had to deliver the lines. And there were actually well-known actors involved in the project like Ving Rhames, Taryn Manning, Eddie Steeples (Crabman!), and Lesley-Ann Brandt (aka the gal who left the buzz-worthy show Spartacus to be in American movies. Oops!). I guess the producers spent their entire budget on hiring familiar faces because the zombie makeup and special effects were bargain basement terrible.
It wasn’t all bad. There were a few creative zombie kills, and the characters actually wore sports gear when wandering around to protect themselves from potential zombie bites (I don’t recall seeing that in previous zombie movies I’ve watched, but I’ve now added looting a sporting goods store to the top of my to-do list when the zombie apocalypse actually happens… ‘cause you know it’s coming!). Also, there was one character who got some funny one-liners, but I actually think it was more the actor’s delivery than the lines themselves. Annnd… that’s about it as far as bright spots.
So even though I thought Gary was a great guy, I can’t recommend this movie. But I will be checking out some of Gary’s other movies and following his career as both a filmmaker and an actor.
Have you seen Zombie Apocalypse? What did you think of it? Any really good zombie movie recommendations? How Zonked is Freya with her letter Z (just like I feel!)?
We’ve finally made it to the last day of the Blogging from A to Z challenge! There were definitely days I wasn’t sure I was going to make it to the end, but I’ll save that for my reflections post next week. For now, it’s Movie Monday and the letter is Z, so you know what that means – zombies!! Which is kind of ironic considering I feel a bit like a zombie after a month of daily blogging.
I’ve always been a fan of zombie movies. Zombies may seem slow and bumbling, but their sheer numbers and determination make then pretty dang scary. Today’s Netflix Watch Instantly selection is called Zombie Apocalypse (in some listings there is a 2012 in the title). For my previous Monday Movie selections, I picked ones I’d never heard of until the Netflix ratings predictor assured me I was going to love it (and the ratings were always right). But in this case, Netflix tried to warn me off, saying, “Girl, you are NOT going to like this, turn back now, you could do so much more with this hour and a half, like trim your dog’s toenails.” Usually I listen to Auntie Netflix because her rating system really ‘gets’ me, but I had another reason for wanting to watch this particular zombie flick.
Two months ago, my short film Saying Goodbye was screened at the Beaufort International Film Festival. While there, we met a charming guy named Gary Weeks. He introduced himself as a screenwriter, but my sister thought he looked familiar, so we looked him up on IMDb. Turns out he’s also an actor who’s played several parts we remembered, including Fiona’s paramedic boyfriend from Burn Notice. We chatted with Gary several times over the course of the festival, and he was very nice; so since we are zombie fans, we decided to watch him in action as one of the main characters in Zombie Apocalypse despite Netflix’s dire prediction.
Well, the Netflix rating system enjoyed having another chance to say, “I told you so.” As much as I wanted to like it because of Gary, I was not a fan. I think Gary did a great job giving his character depth and pathos because I’m 99% sure none of that was actually on the page since the script was so bad. It was as blandly typical as a zombie movie gets – a random group of survivors trying to… survive. The dialog was cringe-worthy to the point I was embarrassed for all the actors who had to deliver the lines. And there were actually well-known actors involved in the project like Ving Rhames, Taryn Manning, Eddie Steeples (Crabman!), and Lesley-Ann Brandt (aka the gal who left the buzz-worthy show Spartacus to be in American movies. Oops!). I guess the producers spent their entire budget on hiring familiar faces because the zombie makeup and special effects were bargain basement terrible.
It wasn’t all bad. There were a few creative zombie kills, and the characters actually wore sports gear when wandering around to protect themselves from potential zombie bites (I don’t recall seeing that in previous zombie movies I’ve watched, but I’ve now added looting a sporting goods store to the top of my to-do list when the zombie apocalypse actually happens… ‘cause you know it’s coming!). Also, there was one character who got some funny one-liners, but I actually think it was more the actor’s delivery than the lines themselves. Annnd… that’s about it as far as bright spots.
So even though I thought Gary was a great guy, I can’t recommend this movie. But I will be checking out some of Gary’s other movies and following his career as both a filmmaker and an actor.
Have you seen Zombie Apocalypse? What did you think of it? Any really good zombie movie recommendations? How Zonked is Freya with her letter Z (just like I feel!)?
