The Walking Dead

It could have been much better, the movie is actually worth watching once just for the dialog of Eddie Griffin's character and Sgt. Barkley. The problem comes in the form of awkward acting from all the cast (except the aforementioned characters) and the very predictable nature of EVERYTHING you experience during the movie. The film feels rushed and underdeveloped and very average. As the movie moves along you become a bit more attached to the characters due to the flashbacks of life before being deployed to war and good character development but overall this is probably one of the worst war movies I've seen. I give it a 5 just for Eddie though, he is great in this flick.

Okay..... if Platoon or Apocolypse Now is available, you should rent those films instead. However, if you've seen those features (and enjoyed them) -- then give The Walking Dead a shot. Its nothing extraordinary, but each actor (especially Allan Payne) gives a excellent, believable performance. Its also nice to see that Central Florida was used as a location to film something besides a bad comedy (Earnest Saves Christmas) or bad Reality TV shows (Making The Band).

The Walking Dead is a recent Vietnam War movie that focuses on mainly 4 black soldiers and one white soldier in a couple of days of battle. The story has them being dropped off with another platoon to try and rescue some POW's. Soon they realize that it is just the four of them that are still alive. The movie gives you a flashback of each of the characters and why the joined the Army. The movie doesn't get anywhere near as powerful or good as Platoon or The Deer Hunter, but it still holds up as a solid war movie. Joe Morton (Speed, Apt Pupil) and comedian Eddie Griffin (Armageddon, TV's Malcolm and Eddie) give the only two performances of note. Morton gives a good performance as the leader of the group and Griffin surprised me with a strong performance as the loud-mouth with a heart.

I came across this movie after hearing Scarface's song by the same title from thee soundtrack, both of which I didn't know existed until recently and that's a shame. I could have already been up on game with this movie. Kind of like Dead Presidents, the movie and the song tells of the military, United States, and why black people shouldn't be fighting for a country yet to fight for them. Casting was excellent. Booyah!

Give me a break. The Vietnam war was a real war where real people died. Total U.S. fatalities in the theater were over 55,000, if I recall correctly. And as wars go, this one was not managed very well, in my opinion, but this movie is disgraceful in its blatantly dishonest portrayal of the war. All of the characters are basically comic book characters. All of the behaviors displayed by all of the characters are behaviors that would never have been exhibited by anyone who actually found themselves in a war zone. The movie implicitly wants to be taken seriously, but you cannot take it seriously. The white officer leading the platoon is especially a comic book character. His enlisted men show him a level of disrespect that is so far over the top, and so far beyond what any officer in the U.S.M.C would ever tolerate of his marines, that the movie becomes a comic book within just a few minutes. And it is a bad, bad, comic book. In reality, a marine officer will put his life on the line for his marines at the drop of a hat, and his non-commissioned officers will do the same for him. No non-commissioned officer in the marines would ever speak to his superior officer in the way that these jackasses do. Anyone that did would find himself doing hard time. In the U.S.M.C., discipline is everything. Discipline is the life blood of the Marine Corps. This movie isn't just unrealistic, it is disgraceful. The people who made it are shameless, and have no knowledge of the Marine Corps.