Dead Air

Dead Air - yet another zombie film. And this one doesn't even have the budget of the Resident Evil films, so that doesn't really bode well.

It's about a zombie outbreak (or rather 'infected' as the 'zombies' resemble the 'infected' people from 28 Days Later rather than George Romero's slow-moving 'shufflers') in Los Angeles which starts off near a late-night radio station. The staff there have no idea what's happening and do their best to cover the sensational news story as best they can.

It's mainly set inside the towerblock/radio studios which masks the lack of budget as best it can. However, the film's biggest problem is another ('zombie') movie made the year before called Pontypool. It too does exactly the same thing, i.e. a low budget zombie movie set in a late night radio station where a smart-alec 'shock-jock' covers the outbreak.

I quite enjoyed Dear Air. The characters were pretty believable and the plot slightly different as to the zombies' origins, but, all the way through it, I just couldn't get Pontypool out of my head.

If you haven't seen Pontypool and like zombie movies, I would definitely recommend Dead Air. However, if you have seen Pontypool, there's not an awful lot new here and it might come across as retreading old ground.

I liked this film a lot. People have described it as like 28 Day Later - it isn't. Both films have zombies - the comparison ends there. This film is about post 911 paranoia - it says it right at the start of the film before any zombies appear the shock jock radio presenter said tonights shows is all about paranoia.

If you liked The Man From Earth or Frequency then I think you'd like this. It has that similar feel of a stage play or simple drama with heart. The actors were great- really strong in ensemble. I kind of fancy Patricia Tallman - she is easy on the eyes and she always seems like she has a warm heart - she always gives heart to a scene. The lead was really well played - he has a great voice and this film is nice to listen to which is a pleasant change from some of the more bombastic screamy action films you normally see.

So a simple genre movie with some decent exposition, terrific acting and solid pacing. You can find fault in this movie if you try to compare with movies that it is not - but I would prefer to watch this than some low calibre action crap. The world doesn't need another cheap action zombie horror - but the world could do with another few of these movies - thoughtful simple idea driven drama's. To all those involved - great job. Have watched it twice already and I enjoyed it both time.

I watched this film mistakenly thinking that it was that other radio station zombie flick. The shonky production values and low-rent cast soon gave away that this was another one of the those cheap sci-fi channel style knock offs.

The central performance from Bill Moseley is initially quite engaging as the dubious radio shock jock but as the film goes on becomes less and less convincing as he is actually required to act. The rest of the cast have little to do other than look concerned and have no depth whatsoever.

The cinematography is dull, flat and completely uninspired, like so many of these kind of films. It doesn't even manage a decent bit of convincing gore, the zombie make up is literally pathetic apart from one notable exception towards the end of the film.

The film tries to inject originality and a message into it's concoction of half baked and ripped off ideas by somehow equating this outbreak with intolerance towards Islam and the war on terror. This is woefully handled with all the intellectual clout of a 6 year old. As the characters and seemingly the writers are unable to distinguish the difference between race and religion - describing all people of a certain skin colour as "muslims." Most notably one character is revealed to be Muslim by skin colour alone. At the same time the "muslim" terrorists who cause the outbreak are the usual psychopathic stereotype.

Presumably the far far superior Pontypool had a similar budget as Dead Air yet shines everywhere where this film fails miserably.

After reading a brief description of this film I thought someone had remade PONTYPOOL already. Well it is not a remake...but it really, really, borrows heavily from it. It also borrows quite a bit from 28 DAYS LATER.

Terrorist simultaneously detonate chemical bombs at major sporting events across the United States. The chemicals turn people into highly contagious, rabid, homicidal maniacs. A radio talk show host (Bill Mosely) and his crew are broadcasting live while the events unfold.

Most of the events take place at the radio station ala PONTYPOOL. Luckily the virus is man-made and not verbal (a plot point of PONTYPOOL that, while original, just didn't work for me). The infected have bleeding eyes, run fast and can infect you with just a scratch ala 28 DAYS LATER. So basically this movies takes the best parts of both films and mixes them together for its own purposes.

Over all I thought this was a great, entertaining movie. It moves along quickly and has some truly disturbing and horrific moments. Unfortunately the similarities to the other films was a bit of a let down and will probably turn some people off.

Just have to disagree with kosmap. Better script does not equal better story. You can easily have a better story idea but a worse script. That review should be ignored simply because of the ridiculousness of that comment. Anyways imo this was better than Pontypool. I like the main character in that movie better though.