Johnny Z

No pun intended - the movie is quite nice for a low budget affair. You have to like the ferocity and the passion they bring on the table! Stunts are well done and the action is really well shot (as is the whole movie by the way). Still all that being said, the movie has its flaws and you really have to like that kind of stuff in general to really rally behind it.

Poster looks nice and gives you a first look into the mindset of the filmmaker. Actors are well chosen too. Characters are interesting and the movie knows its audience. So be wary what you want to watch or do not like to see ... and act accordingly. I have seen worse, but I have seen better too of course.

After escaping from a government testing lab, a half-human/half-zombie escapes into the wild with a helper who manages to turn him over to a friend who manages to teach him martial arts as a means of defending himself in a zombie-plagued world, but when the government agency tracks him down must try to survive.

This was a big disappointment with a lot of factors holding it back. One of the main detriments on display is the wholly confusing and convoluted beginning that really makes it hard to get into. As we're dropped into this story involving a dystopian wasteland overrun by zombies and a government corporation experimenting on an individual to be able to develop a curse from his blood, the lack of context without any kind of preamble to set it up is immensely difficult to follow. The clandestine nature of it all, the vagueness of what's going on, and not filling in the blanks are all a part of what helps to make this feel way too twisted and scattershot from what it could've been. It doesn't help that this highlights the second real issue in that it's way too ambitious for what it really is. An obviously low-budget affair rife with the kind of flimsy effects and small-scale production despite being set after an apocalypse, that's not even enough to overlook the convoluted storyline here that pulls off way too many aspects that it doesn't need to. Containing a highly over-the-top and far more twisting narrative as we have to deal not just with the master/student relationship being built up over their training sessions as well as the race to recover him that seems to have way too much going on, all of which end up lowering this one overall. There are some aspects to really enjoy with this one. When it works is the use of the Action and Horror elements being mixed together. Featuring a ton of impactful martial arts sequences with the use of training scenes between the two or the series of battles here which might not have the type of fancy choreography expected, the hard-hitting and continuous action here focusing on the training sessions, the interactions at the undergrounding fighting club with the other zombies, or the final half which is a massive series of hand-to-hand or weapons-filled battles provide a slew of high-energy scenes filled with cheesy gore and bloodshed. Alongside the fine zombie makeup for the creatures, these provide the positive points here.

Rated Unrated/R: Extreme Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

In a genre that is drowning in poor story lines this one could have been interesting. Not unique, similar things have been done before. But the problem is the acting and pacing. I am also not sure how they chose their leads. It didn't seem like they had a martial arts background, or if they did, they didn't use it to the best of their ability. And bad acting can be fun, if there is something nice to look at, but in this movie most of the extras are more attractive then the leads. So again, not sure how they cast for this. But if you love all things Zombie, it's worth a watch, but if you only like well written and acted zombie movies, or even poorly acted or camp movies with hot leads, you will want to pass.

The description makes it sound like something slightly different and intriguing. However after a few minutes. We could easily see how low budget and nonsensical this piece of filmmaking is. It's supposedly a zombie film but the genre feels extremely dull, generic and simply boring. The tone is severely off, no thrills, no suspense. It feels more like a borderline drama- without any drama.

The camera angles to several fight scenes are filmed in an amateurish way. The acting isn't great either, nor are the characters. Whom we don't exactly know who is who or even remember their names.

Overall there is just a lot lacking to make this movie any worthwhile. The story's execution is terrible and worst of all it's boring. We simply don't care for the title character of Johnny Z.

With the 2022 movie "Johnny Z" being a zombie movie of sorts, of course I opted to sit down and watch it. Sure, I had neverh heard about this movie from director Jonathan Straiton prior to sitting down here in 2023 to watch it, but with it being a zombie movie, of course my interest was caught.

The storyline in the movie was adequate. I mean, it wasn't particularly rivetin storytelling, nor was it a drag. The plot and script that Ron Bonk and Jonathan Straiton came up with proved entertaining enough for what it turned out to be.

The cast ensemble in the movie was all unfamiliar actors and actresses. And that is usually something I enjoy when I watch movies. The acting performances in "Johnny Z" were actually fair enough. Nothing outstanding, mind you, but fair enough for what they turned out to be.

I am not a fan of running and agile zombies, and that was what was here. The zombie make-up was adequate enough for a low budget production such as "Johnny Z" was. I have seen far worse zombie make-up effects in other movies, so at least the adequate enough zombie make-up counted for something in favor of the movie.

It was definitely clear that the movie-makers poured their heart and souls into the movie, but it still came off as being a low budget zombie movie, though on the higher end of the low budget zombie movie scale. And that effort helped to carry the movie and keep it somewhat afloat.

Ultimately then "Johnny Z" is a zombie movie that came and left without leaving a lasting bite mark in the zombie genre. And it is not a movie that I will ever return to watch a second time, nor is it a movie that I will recommend to zombie afficionados.

My rating of "Johnny Z" lands on a generous four out of ten stars.