05-13-2010, 05:01 AM
[SIZE="5"]Survival of the Dead (2009)[/SIZE]
Rated R
Directed by: George A. Romero
Written by: George A. Romero
Starring
Alan van Sprang
Eric Woolfe
Stefano Colacitti
Athena Karkanis
Devon Bostick
Kenneth Welsh
Richard Fitzpatrick
Running time: 90 minutes
My heroes have always been Cowboys.
That’s just a statement of fact if you grew up in Dallas during the 1970’s. Every Sunday, you’d find me with enough food to feed a troop of ravenous cub scouts, planted in front of the TV watching America’s Team. Bitch, piss and moan all you like about that name, but 40 years ago, there was no doubt it was the Dallas Cowboys. One day in Cowboy history I particularly remember was the day that Roger Staubach retired. For a while, I couldn’t even think about that day without getting emotional. In retrospect, it was probably a good thing. I like that I can remember Staubach finishing while I still had good memories of him, while his game was still good, while he was something worth missing. There’s something particularly poignant when we see our heroes fall.
I’m not the biggest fan of the zombie genre – not like some of my other comrades in fear – but I have a healthy appreciation for the genre. As such, I have a great deal of respect for George A. Romero and his works. At least his earlier works. His latest effort, “Survival of the Dead” is a muddled, unscary and ultimately, forgettable addition to his “Dead” series. This time through, we’re following a group of rogue soldiers who are not so much characters as they are stereotypes. You have The Sarge (Alan van Sprang), The Kid (Eric Woolfe), The Latin Lover (Stefano Colacitti), and The Lesbian (Athena Karkanis). They make their way along the east coast trying to find someplace safe. Instead, they come across a twenty-something guy (Devon Bostick). We are also introduced to Patrick O’Flynn (Kenneth Welsh) and Seamus Muldoon (Richard Fitzpatrick), both of whom live on Plum Island off the coast of Delaware, where , apparently, you have to be Irish to live there. O’Flynn believes that the dead need to be put down like mad dogs and Muldoon thinks that they can be saved. O’Flynn’s attitude gets him banished from the island but comes across our merry band of stereotypes and convinces them to go to the island. The rest of the movie plays out a lot like the O’Hatfields versus the McMuldoons.
So where does it all go wrong, let’s start at the beginning. The opening is a bleak monologue by The Sarge that segues into a bleak scene about having to kill a friend who’s now a zombie. The scene, however, just seems very flat and superficial. In fact, a lot of the movie seems like that. There are times when it seems to want to move on to being more substantial, but never seems to. Maybe, as a Romero movie, I’m expecting too much from it, but I don’t’ think it’s asking too much to have well-developed characters and a good story… or even an attempt at a good story. The one here is just plain nonsense.
And a little nit-picky thing here – if you’re going to have soldiers, including one who’s supposed to be relatively badass – don’t let them get snuck up on all the damn time.
Still, even if the characters are cardboard and the story is thin, there are at least the effects, right? No. The effects are just as disappointing as the rest of the movie. Within the first ten minutes, get a horrible CG head explosion. The rest of the movie is filled with dozens of garden-variety head shots and one somewhat clever kill with a fire extinguisher… if it wasn’t ruined by CG.
“Survival of the Dead”, if nothing else, serves as a cautionary tale. It reminds us that maybe it’s best to go out while you’re on top, while the fans can still remember you fondly and not as a shadow of your former self.
Rated R
Directed by: George A. Romero
Written by: George A. Romero
Starring
Alan van Sprang
Eric Woolfe
Stefano Colacitti
Athena Karkanis
Devon Bostick
Kenneth Welsh
Richard Fitzpatrick
Running time: 90 minutes
My heroes have always been Cowboys.
That’s just a statement of fact if you grew up in Dallas during the 1970’s. Every Sunday, you’d find me with enough food to feed a troop of ravenous cub scouts, planted in front of the TV watching America’s Team. Bitch, piss and moan all you like about that name, but 40 years ago, there was no doubt it was the Dallas Cowboys. One day in Cowboy history I particularly remember was the day that Roger Staubach retired. For a while, I couldn’t even think about that day without getting emotional. In retrospect, it was probably a good thing. I like that I can remember Staubach finishing while I still had good memories of him, while his game was still good, while he was something worth missing. There’s something particularly poignant when we see our heroes fall.
I’m not the biggest fan of the zombie genre – not like some of my other comrades in fear – but I have a healthy appreciation for the genre. As such, I have a great deal of respect for George A. Romero and his works. At least his earlier works. His latest effort, “Survival of the Dead” is a muddled, unscary and ultimately, forgettable addition to his “Dead” series. This time through, we’re following a group of rogue soldiers who are not so much characters as they are stereotypes. You have The Sarge (Alan van Sprang), The Kid (Eric Woolfe), The Latin Lover (Stefano Colacitti), and The Lesbian (Athena Karkanis). They make their way along the east coast trying to find someplace safe. Instead, they come across a twenty-something guy (Devon Bostick). We are also introduced to Patrick O’Flynn (Kenneth Welsh) and Seamus Muldoon (Richard Fitzpatrick), both of whom live on Plum Island off the coast of Delaware, where , apparently, you have to be Irish to live there. O’Flynn believes that the dead need to be put down like mad dogs and Muldoon thinks that they can be saved. O’Flynn’s attitude gets him banished from the island but comes across our merry band of stereotypes and convinces them to go to the island. The rest of the movie plays out a lot like the O’Hatfields versus the McMuldoons.
So where does it all go wrong, let’s start at the beginning. The opening is a bleak monologue by The Sarge that segues into a bleak scene about having to kill a friend who’s now a zombie. The scene, however, just seems very flat and superficial. In fact, a lot of the movie seems like that. There are times when it seems to want to move on to being more substantial, but never seems to. Maybe, as a Romero movie, I’m expecting too much from it, but I don’t’ think it’s asking too much to have well-developed characters and a good story… or even an attempt at a good story. The one here is just plain nonsense.
And a little nit-picky thing here – if you’re going to have soldiers, including one who’s supposed to be relatively badass – don’t let them get snuck up on all the damn time.
Still, even if the characters are cardboard and the story is thin, there are at least the effects, right? No. The effects are just as disappointing as the rest of the movie. Within the first ten minutes, get a horrible CG head explosion. The rest of the movie is filled with dozens of garden-variety head shots and one somewhat clever kill with a fire extinguisher… if it wasn’t ruined by CG.
“Survival of the Dead”, if nothing else, serves as a cautionary tale. It reminds us that maybe it’s best to go out while you’re on top, while the fans can still remember you fondly and not as a shadow of your former self.