my very brief thoughts on.... 'Zombie Apocalypse' (2011)

Ving Rhames has become the 'go-to guy' for zombie movies lately. Sadly, his choice in movies has been getting worse and worse. I'm all for him starring in zombie kill fests, but this one was pretty horrible. Also, Taryn Manning.... nuff' said. Ick. Anyway, I'm going to handle this review a little different than my other ones. The reason? As I was watching this, I was taking notes. I don't ever do that with movies, as it distracts me from the plot. This one, is an exception. Probably because it was a SyFy original. Onward to the 'review':

1) The takes place 6 months after a zombie outbreak. 6 months later, everything is STILL on fire. Buildings are burning. Wouldn't that only last for the initial outbreak, as all hell was breaking loose? Terrible.

2) I already mentioned this, but Ving Rhames in another zombie flick that makes 3 now.

3) If you've seen enough zombie films, you know that they rarely use the term 'zombie'. Like in 'The Walking Dead' TV series, they call them 'walkers'. That has a nice ring to it and describes them perfectly. In this movie, they call the walking dead 'zombies' constantly. It sounds weird, all of them calling them zombies.... it really sounds strange. If you've never seen it done, check this out just for that. It's distracting.

4) One of the things about this movie that was worth the time to watch it was the explanation of why some zombies are fast and some are slow. The newer the zombie, the faster it is, the older it is.... the slower it is. It makes perfect sense and makes both zombies a reality in this movie. This isn't the first time this explanation has been used, but I think it's the first time I've seen it explained in an actual zombie movie.

5) In a stranger moment, one of the actors threw an ice skate into a zombies head! HA! Terrible.

6) All in all, I was okay with this movie.... until.... the ZOMBIE TIGER....?!?! What the hell was that about? I don't know what kind of crap they were smoking when they wrote that part. I don't know who thought that was a good idea. It is just the dumbest thing I think I've ever seen in a movie like this. Well, maybe not the dumbest, but pretty close. It makes the zombie vs. shark sequence in 'Zombi' look cool! (see the image below for verification of the scene.)I gave this a final rating of 2 out of 5 stars. It isn't the worst zombie movie I've ever seen, but it's still pretty terrible. For a SyFy movie, it's better than most of the ones they crank out. If you're home sick on a rainy day and it's one.... maybe take the time to watch it. Just close your eyes whenever Taryn Manning is on the screen. She has some serious anti-charisma. That is all!

Something better to watch with Ving Rhames vs. zombies?: 'Dawn of the Dead' (2004), 'Day of the Dead' (2008) and 'The Tournament' (2009) (not a zombie movie, but a damn cool flick that you should really watch!)

my thoughts on.... 'The Tournament'

i've said this before, but it's always a pleasure when you find a gem of a movie in the wasteland of straight to DVD junk.... and when this recommendation came along from a friend of mine, i decided to check it out.... i was not disappointed.... as a matter of fact, i watched it twice before i returned it.... that's saying something.... yes, i thought it was that good.... in my opinion, it had really high production values.... almost on par with your theatrical releases.... the action was kick ass.... the story was original.... the acting was fun.... overall a good way to spend an hour and a half....

the storyline goes that every 7 years there's a competition held to find out who's the best hired killer in the world.... they pit 30 hitmen against each other and rich onlookers bet on who they think will win.... sounds pretty simple....? everything is going to plan, when a priest accidentally becomes involved and everyone thinks he's one of the killers too.... it just gets bloody and action packed from there.... actually the whole movie is action packed and the blood is over the top.... lots of blood splatter and explosions, including people.... the whole movie oozes excess.
well, it's pretty obvious that i enjoyed this flick.... i'd love to add it to the DVD collection, as i'd like to watch it again.... Ving Rhames is at his bad ass best.... Kelly Hu (a very underrated action star) is in top form.... and Robert Carlysle plays the drunken priest to the hilt.... the rest of the cast is fairly unknown, but everyone works really well in their roles....

4 out of 5 stars.... well worth the rental from Netflix.... or wherever you can get it from.... i'm sure at some point it'll be OnDemand, but for now.... go and rent it....! if you like bloody over the top action films, this one is for you.... i wish that there were more movies out like this.... a great stress relief and good to the last drop. (of blood).

if you like this, check out: 'Starship Troopers', 'Hard Boiled' and 'Rambo' (2008)