Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent dark comedy, not for everyone, but definitely for me!, November 13, 2007
There are people in this world with a demented sense of humor. Those people enjoy films like "Shaun of the Dead' and find "Lake Placid" to be among one of the funnier films made that year. Then there are people who think the aforementioned folks need psychiatric help. If you are one of group "A" then I would strongly recommend "Fido" for your viewing pleasure. I personally grinned madly through the entire film, from the campy remake of the war footage to the 50's commercials skewering the elderly. The premise is simple, take all of the wholesome 50's TV shows and blend them together, remove the dog and add in some Zombies.
I rented this movie knowing that it would either be one of the most disturbing yet hysterical movies I've seen, or one of the worst. I was thrilled to discover that I loved it. The acting was brilliant in that 1950's way, the color, the scenery; everything was exactly what it needed to be to re-make the 50's with a few zombies added in. The zombies were easy to spot, shambling about in a lovely shade of blue gray doing the menial tasks in life that no one wants to do, like... mowing the lawn, or picking up garbage. Enter Fido, the lovable zombie who the Robinson's bring home. The Robinsons are a disturbing mess of a dysfunctional family, with a neurotic zombie-phobic dad who has little time or attention for his family, The pistol packing mother (Carrie Ann Moss) who does her best to hold the family together and gain her husband's attention, the son "Timmy" who is bullied at school, and friendless until Fido enters their lives. Throw in a few neurotic neighbors and a faulty zombie collar and you have an entertaining evening. The most peculiar thing about this film is that (apart from the zombies munching on people when off their leashes) there is nothing in this film to keep it from being rated PG. Not a profanity, no nudity... just wholesome Zombie Goodness.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Zombie-Pet ownership is a big responsability!, May 30, 2008
This Canadian production is one of the best horror comedies and period films available for fans hungry for bizarre and madcap entertainment. The current exploitation of the Zombie genre gives place to many different styles and moods, and a good tense and goofy comedy about the legend of the undead and the apocalypse on earth, with all the violence and gore implied, mixed with all-american family values and "pet" ownership responsability in a dystopic society that domesticated zombies for labor work, is always welcome.
Weird as it sounds, this movie is pure fun, with no major ambitions that showing a hilarious vision of a 50's era alternate universe, where domesticated zombies play a functional role in society: They deliver the milk and the mail, and even help in household chores. When the earth passed throught a cloud of space dust and the dead arose from their graves to devour living human flesh, it seemed than all hope for humanity was lost. After the mayhem and chaos unleashed by the living dead, the scientist of the Zom Com company created a special collar that turned the vicious animated corpses into docile beasts, willing to obey some basic commands. This concept of "protection" is, as you can imagine, very fragile and it test one's imagination over terrible things to come, creating a funny tension about this extravagant new society.
Now, little Timmy Robinson (Ksun Ray) isn't quite convinced of this menacing urban panorama. This quiet but skeptical young boy spends too much time alone in his bedroom, developping an anti-social behaviour that worries her beautiful mother (Carrie Ann Moss), who just purchased a zombie nicknamed Fido (Bill Conolly) to help with the housework, not knowing that the creature will soon forge a friendship with the boy at the point of becoming a member of the family. Things go out of control when Fido's collar starts to malfunction and some neighbors begin to die, but the most interesting twist is when the top specialist in zombie control of Zom Com, Mr Bottoms (Henry Czerny) , moves across the street, increasing the complications of the situation and threatening to "block" the human and zombie relations.
Speaking only for myself, this movie enchanted me for its simplicity in the vision of a colorful dystopic society living side to side with flesh-eating ghouls, and the melodramatic macabre vision over human-pet relationships, creating a bizarre paralel universe where the very concept of normality is the basis for entertainment. There's no abuse of the zombie imagery, the focus of the film rests in the freaky and abnormal 50's atmosphere created, and the performances are superb for this kind of film, destined to become a cult reference in the zombie sub-genre. The opening scene of the educational black & white video for kids in school, is an early highlight for this outrageously funny horror comedy. Higly recommended.
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17 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Next Zombie Classic!!!, September 4, 2007
Those looking for the next great Zombie film look no further!! This is one of the best movies I've seen in a looooooooong time!! "Fido" kinda takes the idea at from the end of "Shaun Of The Dead"(another Zombie great, and for those of you who haven't seen it.. SHAME ON YOU) about domesticating Zombies. All the remaining Zombies after an outbreak are fitted with collars created by "Zomcon" that prevents their hunger for human flesh & are then sold & kept as house pets & laborers. Sometimes though the collars malfunction & carnage ensues. "Fido" has a great wit & sense of humor, I laughed almost the whole way through. It's really more of a satirical comedy than a horror film. I love what the movie says about "the elderly". There are scenes from the movie that feel like they've been ripped straight from "Lassie". A young boy running through an open field followed by his staggering pet Zombie, classic stuff. Billy Connely perfectly plays his undead character, I couldn't believe it was actually him under the make-up. Carrie Anne Moss also does a great job playing a typical 1950's era house wife in a not so typical world. As not to spoil anything plot wise, I've really already described all that you'll need to know going in. Why didn't this get a wide release theatrically, I'll never know. This is definately one you'll wanna own, pre-orderer it, or race to your local DVD store on release date. This'll definately go down in Zombie history as one of the greats!!!
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