La Horde

La Horde is probably the best action film of the year. It doesn't work as an out and out horror but it is a balls out insane action film. The plot in cops and criminals join forces in a tower block as the End of Days happens and the dead return as bloodthirsty aggressive zombies. If you like action brutal, bloody and violent then see this. The plot isn't anything original but this film has verve by the bucketload. The scares are good and the tension is slowly built higher and higher. The only complaint is that the ending isn't clever despite being different.

Go see it if you love robocop/28 days later/dawn of the dead.

Great fun.

Not recommended for fans of typical zombie films.

Recommended for those who have been waiting for an independent horror film which does not simply make fun of the genre.

A team of angry Parisian police officers vow revenge against a gang lead by two Nigerian brothers who have recently killed a friend of theirs. They lead a seemingly suicidal, unsanctioned, raid on the gang's compound and are almost immediately captured. As the torture, interrogation, and killing of police slowly reaches an apex, it becomes apparent that the cops and gangsters should probably be the least of each other's worries. Inexplicably, zombies are destroying civilization, and Paris is burning. Don't be fooled by the complete absurdity of this premise. The Horde, though redolent with the usual genre-defining campiness and cliché, is not a self-parody, and does not bother to explain itself.

Aside from Mr. Romero's more serious efforts, I have rarely seen a zombie film which was created with the level of TLC that went into The Horde. Most of the characters actually have their own personalities and the acting is good. The script is, though predictable, a lot less absurd than the usual horror film, and never insults your intelligence. Though the film is not utterly humorless, it stops well short of comedy, and carries its plot admirably. The visual effects and choreography are excellent. Claude Perron's fight scenes are especially entertaining.

The French film "La Horde" doesn't exactly bring a fresh approach to the over saturated zombie genre, yet is still entertaining enough for what it is. It benefits from its breakneck pace and intensity, and is just as much about character as it is bloodshed. (Not that it skimps in the gore department at all, though, far from it.) A quartet of detectives - Aurore (Claude Perron), Ouessem (Jean-Pierre Martins), Jimenez (Aurelien Recoing), and Tony (Antoine Oppenheim), find the dead body of a colleague and turn rogue, vowing to avenge his death. Unfortunately, things don't go as planned: first, their quarry, gangster Adewale (Eriq Ebouaney), is able to get the drop on them, and start torturing them, then this big mess becomes an even bigger one when scores upon scores of the living dead start to overwhelm humanity, as the apocalypse seems to have begun. While this is all pretty predictable in terms of the script, "La Horde" does manage to entertain by ensuring that its audience never gets bored. It starts quietly enough, but soon it's kicked itself into a high gear and has stayed there. Some zombie cinema lovers may take exception to the fact that these are very FAST zombies, as well as to the generous array of digital rather than practical carnage, but if you don't concern yourself too much with those elements, you may find this a reasonable viewing experience. The characters, by and large, are NOT sympathetic, including the cops, so the lack of rooting interest may make this hard for some people to follow. Still, as in any film with a similar premise, there is a certain amusement in seeing cops and crooks alike being forced to team up in order to survive - and, as we can see, the crooks aren't completely one- dimensional. The acting is good for this sort of thing. Both Martins and Ebouaney have a formidable screen presence, and Martins has one hell of a great exit where he truly goes down fighting. While "La Horde" may not be among the most stimulating films of its kind - at least in an intellectual way - one could definitely do far worse, as it manages to maintain a fever pitch for much of its duration. Seven out of 10.

A group of law enforcement agents raid a building where some criminals are hold up. This is in retaliation for the brutal murder of one of their own and to rescue others held hostage. The raid has unexpected consequences.

This movie was off to a great start once the raid of the building commenced. It was very realistic; very tough. The criminals were convincingly hardcore and menacing. But this great start slowly began to dismantle as the movie progressed. Eventually it's edge and credibility was lost and it became for me just another farcical zombie movie. What went wrong? --A lot of things for me; some subtle and not easy to articulate. It seems to me that the decline began when the cops and the criminals decided to join forces. Perhaps because, at this point, the criminals didn't seem so menacing and in control anymore; no longer hardcore. Just terrified and confused. The dangerousness of them had been transfered to the new threat: the zombies.

Something more concrete is the fact that they kept shooting the zombies in the body or torso when clearly this wasn't working; and this after a successful head shot earlier. If it were you or I, we would have figured this out; concentrated our shots to the head. But the people in this movie never came to this elementary deduction. So credibility was lost because no one is that stupid. My guess is that the director and the writer didn't want the zombies killed too quickly; more suspenseful if they kept coming at you. How to do this? Let the people in the movie avoid head shots and common sense.

Another thing that bothered me was the introduction of this bloated, cartoonish, old fart who kept referring to the zombies as "chinks". As well, there was a scene wherein one guy took on a swarm of zombies all by himself. I did not at all find that credible. None of the zombies got even a nibble for some time. And mind you, these aren't the slow, leg-dragging, zombies of old. These are the newer, more ferocious ones that run as good as you and me.

Lastly, the advent of the zombies wasn't explained at all. In no time at all zombies were all over the place and humans were extinct or near-extinction. How could the world make such a sea-change in such a short span of time? What happened? Was there radiation from a nuclear explosion? Was there a virus? What the hell happened??? Notwithstanding all I've said so far, the movie has entertainment value. Just disappointed it turned into just another zombie movie as it progressed.

I seem to have a little time so I'll answer some of the questions of my zillions of adoring readers.

"Yes, you young lady. What's your question?"

"Are you a perv?"

"No, I am not. Next question.Yes, you young man."

"Are you a drug-fiend?"

"For godsake! You, kid, what's your question?"

"Do you wet your bed?"

"Okay. That does it! No more questions!"

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"Okay, make it quick."

"How do you feel when someone votes against the usefulness of your review?"

"Fair question. I feel they must already have known what the movie was about."

Love, Boloxxxi.

The film has a frantic pace and the first scene is the discovery of a police officer found dead in a rubbish pit. At the funeral his colleagues vow to kill the men responsible and track them down to a condemned and abandoned tower block on the city outskirts. The raid isn't too successful and the police find themselves at the mercy of the violent gang members. However, something stirs outside in the night and within minutes all hell breaks loose. The cops and gang members must reluctantly work together if they want to escape from the tower block alive. There are one or two scenes of complete overkill and plenty of blood to keep zombie fans happy. Don't really know to refer to them as zombies or not but they are like the infected in 28 days later. The film only really slows down in the middle for a short period before heading to a bloody and violent conclusion.

Certainly one of the better zombie films to be released in the last few years and very enjoyable.