To kako - Stin epohi ton iroon

I absolutely respect that the filmmakers did a fine job with the budget that they had, and its very clear that everybody involved had a great time making this movie. And you know what? Good on them! I'm glad they took something so ridiculous and cheesy and just ran with it, having a blast along the way; but this film is surely not for everyone and in the end wasn't for me. In many regards it is clear that "Evil in the Time of Heroes" was simply meant to entertain, and to a degree it certainly succeeded. I laughed and gasped and had a half-decent time (not a stellar/memorable time mind you). However, when all is said and done I found this particular venture into the realm of ridiculous horror was too stylized and ambitious for its own good.

For starters, I think it can be easily argued that "Evil in the Time of Heroes" works as an experimental film more than anything and as such I can honestly say you will more than likely hate this experience if you are not familiar with this type of filmmaking. This film is literally all over the place. It jumps back and forth between modern times to ancient times, between current events to hours/days/minutes/seconds ago, and after a certain point it just becomes clear that the film doesn't really know when or where it needs to focus and truly doesn't care. This is fine to an extent, but it also becomes slightly frustrating and eventually grows stale.

As such, "Evil in the Time of Heroes" is a definitive example of the hand-held shakiness, quick cutting, fast paced, bizarre camera angles, seemingly direction-less style which seems to pop up every once in a while (even in mainstream cinema like with "Crank" and "Crank 2: High Voltage"... only amplified).

Furthermore, it becomes clear that one may not even be able to fully appreciate the themes and jokes without some understanding of Greek history and modern life in Athens. Of course there is a large degree of slapstick humour, situational comedy, and an overall absurd awkwardness which can be enjoyed by all. And I certainly valued those aspects. But the completely random pacing of the film, coupled with the preposterous actions its characters take and the bizarre situations that occur, are sometimes a little too much to choke down.

So take this review as a little forewarning on what to expect. "Evil in the Time of Heroes" is NOT your typical horror-comedy along the lines of "Shaun of the Dead", "Dead Alive", "Night of the Creeps", "Re-Animator", "Return of the Living Dead" etc. It is something entirely different... ABSURDLY different. With this in mind, perhaps you will enjoy the film for what it is!

This is splatter/comedy for a very select audience, with a lot of inside jokes and tastelessly absurd gore, but very little substance and style. This is a sequel to "Evil", a zero-budgeted amateur zombie movie that came out in 2005 and unexpectedly grew out to become a modest cult hit. The budget for the sequel was much higher, but apparently all the cast members were volunteers. "Evil in the Time of Heroes" implements a bizarre and unappealing narrative structure that constantly jumps back and forth between Athens in ancient times and present day. In both eras, the place is infested with zombies and only a small handful of people (courageous warriors in the past and random losers in the present) remain and battle for survival. Out of nowhere Billy Zane ("Titanic", "Dead Calm") shows up as some kind of prophet slash Jedi Master and he shepherds the pack of undisciplined survivors in their fight against the living dead. How about that? Billy Zane speaks Greek and appears in a crap horror movie for free? The make-up effects are often splendid and the film contains numerous very creative killings sequences, but the lack of subject matter and character development quickly gets on your nerves. The whole thing is hectic, very incoherent and desperately tries to appeal to the comic book fanatics. This is fun & relaxing for about ten minutes, but what remains is a completely immature and easily forgettable "just- another-zombie-comedy"

The first movie was really good. Even though the special effects were terrible, it had everything a good Zom-B-Movie needed: action, fun lines, great characters.

Having seen the trailer of this sequel and understanding a few things about the storyline, also knowing that they had a better budget this time (having Billy Zein sure wasn't for free) left me with huge expectations on this one. Too bad they were never met.

The idea was cool but the script was terrible. Bad lines, mostly cursing whenever they could not find a good line to use. Some of the acting was still bad, I liked the character of the father of the taxi driver though. Fun Greek dude. The punk could be a good additional character, however he was nothing but a regular boring character with punk clothing and appearance.

I had to pause the movie multiple times for a break though as it had large moments where it was uninteresting (or should I say boring?) The action was definitely missing. Lame love stories and chasing bad guys instead of zombies to a post apocalyptic Athens...

The special effects were somehow improved but I was still disappointed from the zombie killings. No inspiration, they were just penetrating the zombie heads with everything you can imagine: sticks, bones, cut off hands, shoes whatever!! Seriously guys, I know its a fiction movie, but how could anyone pierce a scull with minimum effort and a 'weapon' like that? I'm surprised they did not kill any zombies by cutting open their heads by hitting them with a raw egg or something...

Overall, it seems to me like if the script was written overnight and the movie shot within 2 days (but it wasn't!)

Viewed at the Festival de Cannes 2010

A sequel to the way, way better 2005 film, Evil In The Time Of Heroes is, sadly, a mess on every level. Previous reviewers have said this is a Greek film for Greeks! And I am sure in the original language the characters and situations have far more resonance. But nothing can disguise the fact that in terms of what matter; story, script, characters, development, direction and, well, everything that goes into a film, this production got away from all those concerned and, at best, looks like it's being made up and improvised as it goes along.

Now this isn't necessarily a bad thing, because let's-do-the-show-right-here can still have its charms. But for Evil In The Time Of Heroes this doesn't apply because the film is so confusing in terms of narrative and continuity it's impossible to figure out hows and whys. Historical flashbacks, featuring Billy Zane (I think a sad effort to throw in a 'name' after everything else has failed) try to make sense of what's going on but serve only to add more confusion.

Okay, so the story makes no sense but there's always the acting, right? Not in this case! This is one of those films best viewed with your eyes closed! But maybe these people are big in Greece and household names, so who knows? In any event, there is every Greek stereotype on display here, but since that's the Greeks poking fun at themselves I've no beef with that.

To end on a positive note: I really do respect anyone who makes a film and Evil In The Time Of Heroes makes a real effort. Unfortunately it doesn't go anywhere. If the film makers return to their roots, examine how and why the 2005 film works and this bigger-budgeted one doesn't, then here's all success to their third outing.

First of all CONGRATULATIONS for the fact that when they were in Ancient Greece the spoke ANCIENT Greek! How am i supposed to follow a film when Alexander the Great instead of speaking Ancient Greek speaks English? This movie contains many laughs, many laughs with catchy phrases in Ancient Greek, or in Modern Greek and a lot of splatter laughs. So this is what this movie is about, SPLATTER COMEDY! You are not supposed to be frightened. The direction is awesome, fast camera, zoom-in and zoom-out many times makes your eyes stuck into the screen. The visual effects are very real, Ancient Athens looked very real and i loved seeing the Parthenon on the background. The plot was a bit shallow but who cares? This movie is a splatter comedy/parody and it's a fantastic one. From the fight scenes in Ancient Greece where a fighter licked the sword to the point where Kleanthis smashed a head with his hand. Absolute must-see for a marvelous comedy with tons of blood and many zombies!!! p.s. Billy Zane thanks for speaking Ancient Greek, for a real Greek you should be proud! p.s. 2 No actor (including Zane) and no zombie (i also was a volunteer zombie) took ANY money for this film!