Nonureva Really Surprised!

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

DipitySkillful an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Aaron1375 I am surprised to see the score for this film is relatively low. Granted, it is not as good as other zombie/comedy films such as 'Dead Alive' or the all time great 'Shaun of the Dead', but it is a lot better than most of the tripe put out the last four or five years since 'The Walking Dead' has become all the rage. Not slamming it or any other more well known zombie films, I am referring more to the thousands of zombie films that have gone direct to DVD or are made by the SyFy channel. Is the film perfect? Absolutely not as there are so many plot holes and inconsistencies it is insane, but at the same time, I do not think a film that has a guy completely naked at one point and pulling guns out of nowhere the next is a film that one should take too seriously either.The story has a relatively small town being bombarded with meteors that quickly transform most of the population into bloodthirsty zombies. You get to meet some of the town's population at first, but it does go by quickly as soon the town's local beauty queen finds herself besieged by hordes of the undead. A man rescues her and she soon finds herself at this person's house trying to hide out with other survivors. Soon they have to try to make it to the local hospital as one of the survivors is pregnant. As they try to escape they soon come across a huge wall encompassing the entire town and it quickly becomes apparent that there is more going on than a simple zombie outbreak.I thought the film did do a good job for the most part as it flowed pretty quickly. The one guy did look exactly like Torgo from 'Manos: The Hands of Fate' albeit with better knees, and I have to wonder if that was done purposely or not. The other characters do a fairly good job, but once again this is not as good as Shaun of the Dead as the acting is much better in that particular film. Another problem with the film is that it lags on a bit too much at the end. It proceeds so quickly for the most part then it just kind of takes forever for the film to finish as there is a lot of staring going on. They could have easily trimmed the film 5 or 10 minutes and kept the quicker pace. Still, it was a spot of fun and I loved all the gun stuff with the one character who looked like Torgo. I wish more of the film had been focused on him as he exits the film in confusing fashion at one point as suddenly he is on the ground and it is not apparent how this happened.So, I enjoyed this film a good deal. Still think there are numerous zombie films with comedy that are better, but I still think this one is better than a lot of the newer stuff released recently. It is fast paced for the most part, but does kind of lag near the end. The gore is pretty decent, never getting as gory as say 'Dead Alive', but with enough to keep things messy. A few twists here and there keep the film interesting too as this is not your typical zombie outbreak. Still, it is so strange how much that guy looked like Torgo, only he was not a servant of the master, but rather a mentor!

wes-connors A small Australian fishing village has celebrated "Miss 2002 Catch of the Day" beauty prize winner Felicity Mason (as Rene Chaplin). Apparently, the contest winnings were small as Ms. Mason loses her home and is forced to leave town. The scowling woman doesn't get very far, however. Meteorites are landing and people are turning into blood-thirsty zombies. Mason's male companion is one of the first victims. Of course, he wants to munch on Mason, but she's the star of the movie and gets away. Mason joins a group of survivors, including bearded gun enthusiast Mungo McKay (as Marion). The group tries to hold off the zombies. Some have more success than others..."Undead" is brought to you by brothers Peter and Michael Spierig. They play up an alien angle and inject a lot of humor into the film. The storyline doesn't really engage, although an understanding of genre is clearly evident. Characterizations are not fully developed. In one of the more memorable scenes, the cast is directed to undress and rinse off due to fear of contaminated rain. Mason looks beautiful in her bikini underwear and it looks like Mr. McKay doesn't like boxers or briefs. The Spierig brothers include a generous amount of blood and gore; this, and some playful photography, show imagination and potential. The end hints at a sequel, which so far been avoided.**** Undead (2/27/03) Michael Spierig, Peter Spierig ~ Felicity Mason, Mungo McKay, Rob Jenkins, Lisa Cunningham

siderite As horror/sci-fi movies go, this is not one of the best. It is, however, pretty fun. Clearly inspired by some of the earlier Peter Jackson work, Undead features zombies, aliens, crazy people with guns, stupid people with guns, alpha male and alpha female and lots of blood. This is the good part.The bad part is that most of the actors involved are playing like they are having fun, but can't really act. Also, for a 2003 movie I expected slightly better special effects. The script was interesting enough, even if a bit confusing at times, but the biggest failure of the film was its inability to choose between comedy, horror and sci-fi. I don't doubt that reality has a bit of both, but in Undead, the transition just didn't work.Bottom line: I did watch the movie as it was done by the same people that made DayBreakers, which had an awesome 10 minutes start. Unfortunately, it's about the same amount of time this movie has that is really interesting, the rest being average, at best.

MrGKB ...who really, really ought to know better than to provide deceptive grist for the blurb mills, "Undead" takes a somewhat interesting idea and then thoroughly botches the execution of it. With a cast of unknowns (most of whom will remain that way) and a script straight out of high school, "Undead" is to be lauded only for what it achieves on a relatively shoestring budget, and really, it's not all that much.Meteorites plummet to earth in and around a small town in Australia, and those who are struck by them become flesh-eating zombies (and presumably capable of infecting others, although this is never demonstrated, to the best of my recollection). Shortly thereafter, an alien craft descends to vacuum up the afflicted in beams of light in order to cure them. Okay. This is an interesting concept, but it's handled ineptly by the Spierling Brothers writing/directing/producing team; they seem more interested in bringing their CGI effects to the screen via their home computers. All well and good, but without a script worthy of merit, all the CGI and special make-up fx in the world can't hold an audience's interest. Staged and directed with ham firmly in fist, "Undead" simply can't transcend its poorly-constructed story and horrendous dialogue, nor the limits of its actors. Were he alive, Ted Sturgeon would be nodding his head in agreement.And, yes, Tony "Fangoria" Timpone and Harry "Ain't It Cool News" Knowles ought to be forced to watch this one a hundred times in a row as penance for their fawning.