Review: Abraham Lincoln vs Zombies

As preposterous as the title sounds and the obvious fact that the film is a ripoff of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter this is actually a pretty decent zombie flick.

The movies title pretty much says it all. President Abraham Lincoln and a group of Secret Service agents fight zombies in an attempt to keep the infection from spreading.

That being the plot one has to temporarily ignore the fact that sending in a company of troops would have worked much better. Also there's no way in hell anyone would have let the President of the United States lead an attack against the living dead even if that President is Abraham Lincoln.

Now as for the acting, it sucks. Except for Bill Oberst who portrays Abraham Lincoln no other actor in the movie should quit their day jobs. That does not take away from the movie though which moves at a brisk pace and actually has one or two genuine scares. There is plenty of zombie action but maybe not as much gore as some would like. As for the zombies these zombies tend to "sleep" even when humans are around at times. If seems as if the script dictates when the zombies are aware of the humans.

To me what makes this movie fun is the historical figures that it works into the script. Theodore Roosevelt, Stonewall Jackson, John Wilkes Booth, and Pat Garret (look it up). It's amusing to see little nuggets dropped here and there about things that later or said or done by historical figures. The writers Richard Schenkman, Karl Hirsch, and Lauren Proctor were very clever in this regard.

I strongly recommend that you check this movie out. Abraham Lincoln vs Zombies is a fun, quick, and enjoyable way to spend 90 minutes.

Movie Review Chanbara Beauty: The Movie - Vortex

As some may already know I recently subscribed to Netflix and have been binge watching anything with the word zombie in the title or description. 90% of the time that has led me to watch some good to decent to that wasn't that bad zombie flicks. 10% of the time it has led me to shit like Chanbara Beauty: The Movie - Vortex

The movie is in Japanese featuring English subtitles which is not the problem. To say that this movie is bad is being kind. This is the type of movie that makes Syfy movies look like cinematic masterpieces.

The movies synopsis is pretty simple:

In a post apocalyptic future when zombies dominate the Earth, Aya (Tejima Yuu) and Saki (Akari Ozawa) are two young women from the almost extinct Imichi clan. They travel Japan killing as many of the undead as they possibly can but it seems like there is no end in sight for their fight and they seemed destined to fight forever. A woman called Misery (Kumi Imura) enlists their aid to destroy Himiko, the mistress of the undead. The two agrees to aid Misery but instead find themselves in conflict with a group of human survivors being led by Aya's old friend Reiko (Rika Kawamura) and a young man called Ryo (Youhei Hoshina) who are protecting a child named Kei. Tricked and seduced by Himiko, Saki sides with the zombie queen on the condition that her parents be resurrected. Now, Aya must fight alone and try to save her sister...but what are the secrets of the Imichi bloodline and its relationship to Ryo's bloodline?

The guy or gal that wrote that synopsis could have saved a lot of time and wrote:

A movie featuring scantily clad women fighting zombies with bad anime special effects throughout it's entire 85 minute run.

It's not even the acting that makes this movie so bad it's the special effects and the zombie effects which are awful. The zombies themselves make no sense. At times they are like the slow moving Romero zombies and at others they are quick enough to dodge swords and oncoming strikes.

Unless you are a teenage boy in heat there is absolutely no reason to ever watch this movie. Stay away. Any zombie flick on Syfy is ten times better.

George Cook Thedeadwarseries.com

Zombie Movie Review: Dead Heist, Hip Hop gangstas vs vampire/zombie hybrids

I recently signed for Netflix which has given me access to a sh*t load of zombie movies. Most bad but many fun none the less. One movie I checked was a 2007 straight to DVD (remember those) flick Dead Heist. The official synopsis below:

Four friends plan the perfect small town bank heist, but choose the wrong night. Their plans go horribly wrong when vampiric zombies attack the town and trap them in the bank. Can they escape with the money and their lives?

My synopsis would be much shorter, Hip Hop gangstas vs zombies or vampires.

That synopsis pretty much sums up the entire movie. The best part of the movie is 80s rapper Big Daddy Kane showing up as a scientist turned zombie/vampire hunter. Kane steals the show as does a good job of not taking his role or the movie to seriously. Neither does director Bo Webb which leads to a fast paced (80 minutes) movie that gets to the gory action ASAP. How the zombies/vampires came to be is briefly explained by Kane's character as having something to do with some type of artificial blood his team was creating.

The make up and special effects are nothing special but better than the average cheap zombie flick. The acting is no where as bad as one would expect and the movie delivers on the gore and the action. The last 20 minutes is a bullet riddled gore fest that should excite most fans of the genre although it does strain credibility. But then again doesn't a zombie movie stretch credibility?

So on a scale of 1 to 10 I'm give Dead Heist a 6 and recommend you check it out.

The movie is available on Netflix or through Amazon's Instant Video. You can access the movie on Amazon Instant video by using the link below. It's $2.99 to rent.