Dead Rising

Movies like this are pouring oil on the "oh-my-god-another-zombie- whatever" fire and also give games based movies a bad rap.

For probably no other reason than pure brand marketing, Dead Rising: Watchtower exists.

It doesn't add anything of significance to overall Dead Rising franchise in terms of story or, well - anything. The thing is, Dead Rising games are dumb, dumb but fun and mostly self-aware of that dumbness and all that didn't translate here very well.

On one hand, casting is kinda OK, acting is mediocre at best, uninteresting at worst. But on the other hand, right from the start we don't quite understand should this be serious or campy fun? It should be campy fun but movie just flirts with that on the surface with easter eggs and few obligatory fan service moments. Mostly it's serious and the story and script are far cry from anything interesting and/or original.

Characters are mostly bland and boring, although Rob Riggle is a good choice for Frank West. Beside him, others are just generic reluctant hero, tough girl and off the shelf villain with a dash of zombies and some government conspiracy stuff. Also, it's funny how most of the characters act totally incompetent for the first half of the movie. Like they came from some la-la-land and not the Dead Rising universe that already had few big zombie outbreaks and people are living with medicated zombies around them.

Now, mediocreness of the story and characterization aside, there is one thing that drove me almost bonkers while watching - photography. Camera shooting style is half way generic-TV-show and half way Michael Bayhem. For some reason there are first person shots from weird angles, like from a weapon's angle or zombie's POV. Which is kind of dumb because Dead Rising is a third person game, not FPS and... it's just looks dumb, okay. That and few other unnecessary camera "tricks" made this movie look like a generic post-numetal video from 2001.

I guess I should also mention zombies, right? Well, there aren't much of those during the movie and when there are, they are mostly generic. There are no zombie herds or such, just a few groups here and there. Sometimes they are fast, sometimes they are slow and clunky, it depends on the script requirements at that particular moment in the story. No rules really. Also, combo weapons and zombie kills are not impressive. But they should be, so there's that also.

As you may noticed, the main word here is "generic" and most of the time Dead Rising: Watchower is just that. Story, characters, acting, script, effects, locations, etc.. they are all in that "passable" realm filed under "W" for "whatever". Camera-work is not though, that could definitely be better.

Overall, I'm giving it a 5 out 10 which roughly translates to "you could watch it but you're not missing anything actually". I would like to say it's a cashgrab but I'm not really sure they'll earn much money with this passable generic TV-like movie anyway. Maybe it'll lead into a new Dead Rising game? At least that would be fun for a change.

When a government vaccine fails to stop another zombie infection a man teams up with an infected woman to escape the quarantined area before a crazy man wanting to be king of the zombies expands the territory.

Sony's Crackle, all streaming online, on-demand in conjunction with Legendary pictures offer an adaptation of Dead Rising Capcom's best selling video game. What's clear from director Zach Lipovsky's offering is that it's no cheap cash-in. Opening with a cute cartoon explanation of the zombie anti virus Zombrex, we're the introduced to hordes of the dead, a creepy clown and policeman zombie within the first few minutes.

With sweeping city scales and tight close ups there's a sense of scale, urgency and panic especially with the impending military action. Jesse Metcalfe's Chase Carter is reminiscent of a mix of D.J, Cotrona and George Clooney's Seth Gecko nonchalant delivery. It's good to see one of the biggest 80s stars Virginia Madsen on the screen in the role of a troubled mother. With plenty of screen presence Meghan Ory is notable as Crystal O'Rourke and Bate's Motel's Keegan Connor Tracy is weighty in a small role as Joran.

Sadly Dead Rising is broken up by satirical Robocop-like news reports and interviews featuring Rob Riggle and TV-like fade outs don't help the pacing. It has a C.S.I crisp look, while not filmatic it doesn't feel like DTV and has some great special effects. With slicing spinning blades, bats used as weapons and gun-play there's plenty of zombie blood and guts on display. The second half during the night time scenes gets a little darker, no pun intended, with eerie dead girl characters, chainsaws, rough raping nomads, shotguns, nose biting, motorbikes and more explosions.

Even though I've never played Dead Rising its surprising how it captures the feel of at least the posters, clips and game adverts I'd seen and subconsciously locked away with Metcalfe striking poses of Carter in framed angles synonymous with the game series (think Prince of Persia).

Dead Rising a.k.a. Dead Rising: Watchtower is a solid addition to the saturated zombie film market with well executed effects and action stunt set ups. It's main issue by default and through no fault of its it own nor Lipovsky's or writer/producer Tim Carter it's all been done before. The game also apparently had a liable suit brought against it in 2008 for its similarities to Dawn of the Dead '78 and 2004. Nevertheless, if Dead Rising had been released in 2006 the same year of the game release it may have faired a little better as while it is a good production it feels like it's covering old ground, zombies in general are not as fresh as they used to be, say in 1985.

Hopefully it fulfils Dead Rising fans dreams but for the average viewer with nostalgic inducing cult films like Wrymwood and Bloodbath Bombshell injecting new life into the tired genre and big budget outings like The Dawn of the Dead remake and WWZ, Dead Rising feels a little too Resident Evil Apocalypse or TV pilot-like with its expensive C.S.I feel and odd set up for sequel ending. If a TV spin off is to come, Rising's well executed focus on violence would put it above Z Nation and debatably below The Walking Dead.

Hubby says 'worth a watch but should have left it at the game'! I say 'worth a watch...the rating of 5.2 put me off...but watched anyway. Zombie acting wasn't as good as I'd have liked ( but when you have watched walking dead, it's pretty hard to follow) there are a few times when you are literally screaming at the screen because the main character is standing around when a 'normal' person would have either s##t there pants/died/or got the f##k outta there. Overall half decent film.

First of all I love Zombie movies, i watch all types even the crappy ones... Off course if your into Zombie movie the 10 rating will be George R "Night of the living dead". 8 rating comes "Dawn of the Dead" remake which is fun and a surprisingly good a french movie "La Horde". On the Bad or Worse Rating All the Uwe Bole sucks ass. I thought "Dead Rising Watch Tower" will be like the worse kind.... BUT SURPRISINGLY its well directed, good production value. Its not a Big budget one, but true to its fan of Dead Rising Games. I must say i am entertained, its a good enough movie to hold true to gaming to movie conversion. So overall if u do love zombie, this one will entertain you.

At an event where people who have been bitten by zombies are waiting for their anti-zombie injections (which they must periodically take) a reporter, out to make a name for himself in the news business, has an argument with his camera woman over his exploitive and sensationalistic idea of news reporting, and they go their separate ways. She to leave the scene, and he to sneak into a tent to take secret pictures where medical personnel are administering the anti-zombie injection for those who have been bitten. He's present when --for some reason-- the drug does not work and all hell breaks loose. On the run for dear life, he teams up with a hot brunette of the model variety with whom he had an embarrassing encounter earlier to the amusement of his camera woman.

Though this movie is not an "outright" comedy (one with a lot of blunt silliness and slapstick, for example), it is no doubt a horror comedy; played a bit more seriously and deadpan. It has some amateurish flaws of execution, but is more forgivable since it is a comedy and you can't take it seriously anyway. As well, you want to root for people who aren't part of the Hollywood establishment who make a decent effort to entertain you. The main flaw, I thought, was those narrow escapes or close calls where the zombies or bad guys clearly had ample opportunity to bite or do bad things but the would-be victim got away. Some of them doing so after the camera cuts away to another scene during the attack or threat and returns to see them still unharmed.

Nonetheless, this movie is still entertaining and therefore worth your time. Watch out for the live news broadcast with the anchorwoman and her celebrity guest zombie expert. It is reminiscent to me of something you would see on Saturday Night Live, if you ever watched that show. It is well done and funny without seeming to try to be. At the end, this movie seems to promise a sequel. I look forward to it. Love, Boloxxxi.