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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
outlandish action mix well with the cross genre antics, June 1, 2006
This review is from: Undead (DVD)
The small Aussie burg of Berkelely receives a deadly rain of meteorites, turning people hit by the celestial stones into the walking dead. It doesn't take long for our main characters to assemble in the obligatory isolated farmhouse to ride out the plague of zombies.
All of our familiar friends are holed up here from the loony cops, spiteful pregnant waitress, her clueless boyfriend, misunderstood beauty queen, and badass fisherman (whose fashion taste takes after Torgo from MANOS, THE HANDS OF FATE). Our sympathies are tied to the multiple-barrel shotgun wielding fisherman Marion (Mungo McKay) and the lovely Rene (Felicity Mason). The pair carves a swath through a seemingly endless supply of reanimated corpses only to find that zombies aren't the full extent of their worries.
Comparing UNDEAD to Australia's other famous zombie film, DEAD ALIVE, is a tempting albeit simplistic temptation. It's true that both films share similarities in their use of the walking dead and barrels of fake blood but what the pair share most is their wicked sense of humour. The excessive gore, kinetic camerawork, and outlandish action mix well with the cross genre antics. Hopefully this wonderfully silly film is a sign of things to come from the Spierig brothers.
UNDEAD is slated for release by Lion's Gate Films while already on DVD in Australia.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A well done zombie flick that isn't for everyone., October 12, 2005
This review is from: Undead (DVD)
This Australian zombie import seems to be garnering a lot of love it or hate it responses on the internet.
While it is obviously a throwback to the old Evil Dead movies and Peter Jackson's early splatter horror-comedies like "Bad Taste" and "Dead Alive", Undead manages to feel like it's own movie thanks to some surprising twists in the movie that a lot of people will probably throw their hands up in disgust at.
But I found the "twist" to be very refreshing.
As a zombie film, this movie does tread some famaliar ground. Only head shots will kill them, they are just wanting to munch on some human flesh/organs and getting killed by one will eventually cause the victim to turn into one as well.
The cause of the zombie outbreak, however, is due to a meteor shower of some sort.
The characters in the film are your usual assortment of people from various backgrounds & professions, but the main character of Marion who steals the movie is a sort of backwoods Australian fisherman who just happens to handle guns like he's in a John Woo movie. (He also can do some amazing stunts and moves that leave the other character's jaws on the floor).
The gore is pretty extreme at times, though it's limited to a few isolated scenes. I would have thought that the MPAA would have butchered this film, but it appears that the film made it through uncut. You get a hand punching through a skull (with the brain in their hand), a zombie literally getting blown in half (twice), graphic head shots and numerous decapitations.
The film was made for about only 1 million Australian dollars but the filmmakers who are brothers make this look much better than a lot of major studio films with 100 million dollar budgets.
Most of the gore effects and basic F/X sequences were done on a laptop by the filmmakers and with the exception of a couple of scenes (the zombie getting yanked into the plane's propellers for instance), most of the stuff is pretty convincing.
I've heard comparisons of this film that's it's Evil Dead 2 meets Night of the Living Dead meets War of the War meets Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind. And as off the wall as that sounds, it's a pretty apt description.
The movie's main weakness IMO is that they tried to cram a bit too much into one film and the plot gets a bit scattershot at times as a result.
But overall, I was very impressed and this film entertained me a great deal.
Kudos to Lions Gate also for delivering a features packed DVD for the film as well.
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18 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Hugely Entertaining, October 10, 2005
This review is from: Undead (DVD)
This movie is hugely entertaining and the best homage to Night of the
Living Dead, Bad Taste and The Evil Dead ever made. When strange
weather phenomena occurs in a small Australian town, zombies start
appearing. A small group of people end up in a house to fight them off
but have to fight their way out as one of them needs medical attention.
The rest of the movie is spent on fighting the zombies and revealing
their origin. The gore and blood are plentiful and first rate. The
effects are mostly "real" and cgi is at a minimum. There is comedy
throughout but is more of the dry, Aussie/Brit variety so is not
overwhelming or overly stupid. It made me laugh out loud on mamy
occasions. The dialogue is pretty witty and there are many memorable
and quotable lines. There is also a nice twist towards the end of the
story and a good finish that wraps it up, while still leaving ot open
for a deserved sequel.
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