ArcherAdam

The movie is gorgeous to look at. Even when the palette is in hues of gray, it's visually appealing.

But it just feels like more than an hour of it is missing. There are sudden scene and tonal changes that would get the average film student a failing grade, and it gives the impression that the movie they shot isn't the movie they released. Curiously, the Marsten house becomes irrelevant, and what was probably the most tragic fate is left out completely. I get that you have to cut things down to avoid a 4 hour movie, but in doing so, some of the heart his missing.

It's so obvious that I think you'll be able to tell the story is disjointed, choppy, and lacks any center to give it gravity, even if you know nothing of the origin story.

I can't really say anything better than what others have said, so I'll leave it here: If you read the book and thought to yourself, "Hmmm, you know self, this story would really be perfect if they just made Jimmy Cody a black woman," then I'd recommend it to you. Otherwise, there was really no reason to make a third version of it.

To call it a World War Z/Train To Busan hybrid is accurate, but this one goes in places the other two only touched upon. It's quite gory (I'm not one to shy away from that - but it even made ME cringe), and visually it's stunning in places, but it lacks the emotional punch of those two ultimately superior films.

It's strong for the first 2/3 of it, in terms of its pacing, and we get some superficial character development regarding the main couple. Eventually the pair are separated, but determined to find each other. Most of his scenes are spent running away from the diseased (these are zombies in behavior only), while she spends most of her time trying to escape a creep she met on the subway.

Eventually the film focuses almost exclusively on her, leaving her boyfriend to be little more than an afterthought for the last third. And this is where the movie falls apart. I just didn't care about this couple. I had no emotional attachment to them, and I really didn't care if they reunited. I will say that the last five minutes of the film, where we learn what ultimately happens to them, has some of the most disturbing dialogue I've heard in a mainstream horror movie in some time.

I would have gladly given this a higher rating if was properly placed in the genre to which it belongs.

As a humanities lecture with some forgettable humor tossed in, it's outstanding. As a character study of a severely broken woman it's fascinating. As a standup comedy show it's a dismal failure. Her material includes competent but hardly memorable jokes that go on for way too long.. Her ramblings about men didn't offend me -do people think this is the first time our gender has heard any of this? It's hardly the groundbreaking work it pretends to be.

I've noticed some unfortunate things from reading the reviews on this, though. If you're only mildly entertained by dull, razor thin feminist baiting tripe you're some sort of incel. Women aren't above criticism, and if you're going to touch on this subject you don't get to call anyone who disagrees with you a misogynist and leave it that. It's too simplistic. And it takes away all accountability for your failure to entertain.

The message I took away from this was unfortunate - men want comedy (most of the top tier comedians are male), women want validation. And that's truly a sad, cynical attitude to walk away with. She makes a better public speaker preaching to the choir because, as a comedian, she does little to dispel the tired stereotype that women aren't funny.

Thank God for Kathleen Madigan.