Elijah_Chandler

There are a lot of really really bad zombie movies out there. In fact, in a recent study, the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television found that for every Romero zombie film there are approximately 112 horrible knock offs (I made that up, I have no idea what the actual ratio is). To be honest and blunt, The Quick and the Undead is a Romero knock off. Accept that. It's full of zombie clichés, sub par writing, and the atypical way-the-hell-over the top gory makeup you've come to expect from a low budget feature such as this. What makes this movie tolerable? What sets it apart from its brethren films (like Dead and Deader)? A great idea. In fact, I'll go so far as to call it a fantastic idea. Nearly every zombie flick out there tries to deal with the issue of identifying the zombie uprising, figuring out what caused it, then surviving for the next 45 minutes until the credits mercifully roll. However, in this film we don't care about how it happened or why, we only know that it DID happen and the world as we know it was changed irrevocably. This movie attempts to tell the story of what happens after the fall of man, when homo sapien is replaced by homo mortus and the few surviving humans must try to piece together a life in which they are no longer at the top of the food chain. Like I said, FANTASTIC IDEA. THe premise alone makes this film tolerable. It's not great, and it has plenty of groan inducing moments (as well as a copious amount of WTF?! causing dialogue) but if you give this movie a chance I think you'll find it to be adequate for your week night diversion needs. Just ignore the bad Clint Eastwood impression...

Let's get some things out of the way: I was born, and spent a lot of my youth, in Louisville, Kentucky and it was very cool to see a movie shot there (last one I can think of was STRIPES). Also, I LOVE Zombie Flicks. See how I capitalized Zombie Flick? Look, I did it again! I'm also a fledgling movie producer of really dumb short films, and not half bad industrial films. (http://www.youtube.com/elcheapofilms) On to my review... I tried, tried, TRIED to like this movie but I couldn't. The lighting was bad, the plot was shaky at best, and the acting... oh the acting. How could you live in a city that holds the best Off-Broadway theatre troupe in the country (Actors Theatre) and have acting this bad? It's got a motorcycle gang, Zombies, and SCANTILY CLAD WOMEN! What happened?! You know what really gets me though? I've got a script sitting right next to me for a great little Zombie Flick and now the absolute best title I've ever heard for a non-Romero Zombie Flick has been taken. 'Dead Moon Rising'? Are you kidding me?! That title is so brilliant it earned them an extra star (and they only got two folks)! Also, check out that poster! It's like Evil Dead meets Duke Nukem (ED+DN=AWESOME). You've cut me deep Producers of Dead Moon Rising, you've cut me deep.