Return of the Living Dead: Necropolis

I saw this movie on the Sci-Fi Channel the other night. I think the fact that this was on cable television speaks volumes on what kind of movie this is. I think it was better than most "original" movies that pop up on late night television; it still does not make up for how bad this movie became. It's hard to believe that this is a sequel to a movie that was originally released theatrically.

This movie has just about everything corny from bad acting to Nick-at-Nite humor. The writing by William Butler was absolutely dreadful, and even a Jack Nicholson-like performance by the cast could not have made his writing appear any better. William Butler was just all over the place.

Dirtbikes, machine guns, kung-fu are some of the stupid things about the plot. Is this a horror film or an action film with some zombies? None of the characters take anything seriously in this movie. A group of high school kids know everything and there is no reason to be afraid. None of them were fazed by the fact that zombies were eating their friends and fellow classmates. Its like "Eh, whatever." and they move on to the next action sequence. A 7 year old child with a flame thrower. A little blonde girl beating up zombies. If children aren't afraid of these things, then why in the hell should I be?! Come on.

Everything about this movie was going through the motions and that comes across quite clear after viewing this movie.

I can see why many DVD distributors passed at this movie. If they get lucky, they can maybe get a deal with Anchor Bay or Elite Entertainment.

The only reason why I give this movie a 3 is because of the special effects. I appreciate that cable television probably showed more than they should have, but this movie is a joke anyway so why get worked up about some blood and brains. The special effects were the ONLY thing good about this movie.

If you're a fan of the first Return of the Living Dead movie, please don't watch this one. You'll loose ten years of your life from aggravation. The film is supposed to be set in the United States, but was actually shot in Romania and most of the actors' accents are worse than Jurgen Prochnov's on a good day. The Return of the Living Dead: Necropolis won't even qualify as a "good bad cult movie" 20 years from now. Parts 2 and 3 were already pretty bad, but this one is just embarrassing. Trash, Suicide and even Julie Walker will roll over in their graves. I wonder if the makers have even bothered to watch the first three films. Unlike Romero's walking corpses, the Return of the Living Dead zombies are not supposed to die when you shoot them in the head! Nor do they give speeches or box. The movie does have one thing going for it, though: it proves that all those B actors they got playing KGB agents in cheap 80s crime flicks got their accents right after all.

The scientist of the powerful and evil corporation Hybra-Tech Charles (Peter Coyote) goes to Chernobyl to buy some gallons of toxic waste to perform experiments with zombies. When a teenager has an accident with his motorcycle and vanishes, his teenager's friends, leaded by Charles' nephew, find that he was moved to Hybra-Tech. They break in the facility trying to find their friend and accidentally release a group of zombies starving for brains.

"Return of the Living Dead: Necropolis" is incredibly awful. The absurd story and the screenplay are among the most ridiculous collection of clichés I have ever seen. The lame direction works with a group of young actors and actresses that seem to be amateurish. It is amazing how bad the acting is, leaded by Peter Coyote, who seems to have had a neurological problem that deformed his lips. I guess the level of the sequel of this crap. In the end, this flick is so dreadful that becomes funny. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "A Volta dos Mortos Vivos: Necrópolis" ("The Return of the Living Dead: Necropolis")

THIS is what we waited for? THIS is what we've been given after more than a year of hype? I can't believe how bad this was! It's not funny, it's not scary, it's not even "so bad it's good", it's just "so bad it's really bad"...

We are talking about some grade-z bad direction, I'm not sure what was worse: watching everyone don mining helmets to explore a research facility or watching 2 of the characters test their walkie-talkies while standing five feet apart in the same shot! No wait, the worst was the fistfight (?!) between the talking (?!) zombie and the human...or any scene with the girl in pigtails. Speaking of the characters, this movie has the most unlikable group of (horrible) actors you could possibly imagine. Most of them seem to think they are in a high-school play and overact accordingly, with ridiculously exaggerated expressions of (insert emotion here). The others can barely muster up enough inflection in their voices to break past monotone...and when they do, it's only at the end of the line, so everything they say sounds like a question.

I'm not usually one to speak too badly about films because it takes a lot of work to make one. In fact, I usually give more credit than is probably deserved and therefore end up liking (or at least not minding) films everyone else hates. I thought "House of the Dead" tried too hard but was mildly entertaining and found good points to "Cry_Wolf"...that should pretty much put my movie viewing into perspective.

With this film, there just isn't anything to speak highly about. Originally, I gave this film a rating of "1" but changed it to a "2" after seeing part 5. I didn't think it possible, but part 5 is worse than this one. As a matter of fact, the only positive thing I can say about this film is that it is slightly more bearable than part 5 and I guess that's worth something.

I thought it was hysterical when they put a preview for 'Land of the Dead' with this movie...it's like they couldn't make it look bad enough on it's own, they had to give us something for comparison!

Last week, December 2, 2005, I was at the Hollywood home of the Director, Ellory Elkayam, who is married to my niece. I told Ellory about the comments on IMDb, so we logged in and read what was written by draven528, brennan79, ibanez747, jsauce, and many others.

Ellory said, "I don't disagree with what any of these people wrote." and stated that he needed the money and accepted the job for Return of the Living Dead 4: Necropolis and Return of the Living Dead 5: Rave to the Grave. He stated that he had no control over the script and that the whole experience was something that he wishes to forget. He may send in his own critique of these movies to IMDb in the future.