Redcon-1 - Army of the Dead

Given the word I had heard about this zombie film, I was disappointed with the execution but - being a fellow creative - I don't want to dwell on the negatives so will get those out of the way early on before concentrating on what was done well.

1. Acting / characters: The acting was not good in this film. Some of the dialogue was both clunky and cheesy. I found myself not really knowing much about the characters and - as a result - I didn't care about them.

2. The run time: The film was way, way, way too long. At least an hour too long. It was action scene, zombie stuff, internal conflict with the soldiers, repeat the above for over two hours. None of the action sequences brought anything new to what you were watching so - when you saw the first one, you'd pretty much seen the rest of them.

3. Script / Plot: Nothing we haven't seen before but not as executed as well as it could have been. It needed tightening and some new twists (other than a "twist" at the end which just missed the mark by a mile and infuriated me). It appears to have taken bits from your favourite zombie films, mashed them together and executed them in a poorer style.

That's the negatives.

The positives.

1. Action is hard to direct and I've seen many directors who are at the top of their game fluff this. But it was clear to see what was happening, who was punching who and with little motion sickness (some go way overboard with shaky cameras in other films but not this one). It was shot well.

2. The score was good for the material they had to work with. Had the script been tighter, there could have been some powerful scenes with the added music.

3. For a low-budget film it looks great. There are a couple of dodgy effects which people laughed at (knees getting shot for example) but - overall - it would stand up well next to high budget films...

Last comment: style over substance. Had it not been so long, it could have been an average film but... The running time and other issues killed it for me personally. Give it a watch though and make your own mind up :)

This is a B-Movie, to be sure, with the requisite bad acting and feeble effects, featuring "fast zombies", kind of a cross between traditional zombies & 28 Days Later. The trouble was in their inability to keep their zombie lore straight for 10 minutes without changing it around. They were all over the map trying to hit every trope existent without any rhyme or reason to tie them together cohesively. At a running time of 1:55 this was at least 30 minutes too long. Making it shorter could have avoided some of the more painfully indulgent scenes near the end.

From what I knew of the film I had hopes that it might be an OK movie; even if the budget for it was low as is with a lot of Zombie & Horror films that get churned out. As a person from England I am not used to seeing this genre of film being made over here so, I had hopes that it might be as good as the English Werewolf horror flick, "DOG SOLDIERS." Well peeps! About 5-10 minutes into the movie I completely abandoned all hope of anything remotely scary, horrific or decent being in this stupidly made ZombApoc!

I don't know about you peeps but I am sick of directors trying to stand out to inflate their ego's by completely changing the entire Zombie movements, habbits etc. etc. If you watch a lot of Zombie movies you will know what I mean i.e. zombies that move like Olympic 100 metres athletes and think about what they are doing! Eh? Directors are ruining the zombie world with their hybrid crappy intelligent and athletic undead. The zombies in this were climbing, running, thinking and organising themselves just like uninfected people do. Heck! The infected were all as strong as Poppye the Sailor man and, the bad guy even manages to become strong as the Hulk! It seems to have been made up as it rumbled along and the almost 2 hour running time just made it drag out painfully and dismal.

If only the king of Zombie movie-makers, George Romero, was still with us we could be watching better releases. I'm suprised Mr Romero is not rising from his grave and punishing these untalented directors...especially the ones who remake his older movies and make a right rubbish hash of them!

Is there nobody out there who can put a lot more BITE into the Zombie Horror flicks?

I'm reviewing this 25 min into a 2 hour run time. i can't imagine this film will improve within the remaining time left.

the three stars is due to the film having some redeeming features...such as, i would recommend watching this if you suffer from the following - constipation - bound to bore the s*&t out of you illness - you will likely fall asleep watching this insomnia - you will likely fall asleep watching this boredom - will motivate you to find something better to do

the characters are apparently 'acting'? i'm not trained as an actor, so i'm not an expert. there appears to be an unlimited supply of ammo. why just shoot a zombie when you can show off your nemours fighting skills and weapons training.

this production must have been fun for the cast, getting to dress up in military fatigues and carry and fire blank firing weapons without any aspects of any real danger that might be associated with the characters they portray. which is something i have yet to work out.

the production missed a trick. they could have achieved a further star with some gratuitous nudity thrown in???? which is what a lot of low budget films resort to!!!

IN ORDER TO CONTAIN A SPOILER. THERE MUST BE AN ELEMENT OF STORY?

The film is generally very ordinary in all aspects, and some places are even romantic to some ridiculous. However, there are still some things to watch out - the relationship between characters and characters is very good, and some places can even be said to be touching.