Undead (2005)

The general consensus on this film is that it's too incompetent to be worthwhile. To which I can only say: Well, yes, it's incompetent. (The butt-ugly DV cinematography makes Australia look like Smogland.) But there's a certain cheery bravado about it that, in my eyes, makes it difficult to truly dislike. Unlike, say, Dead and Breakfast (which wants to entertain you so badly that it can't see how badly it fails), this film knows what its Good Parts are, knows what its Stolen Parts are, and most importantly knows what its audience expects and how to deliver it. (Owen Gleiberman singled out the walking stump-legs as the only original thing in the film, which just goes to show you that A) he's never seen Dead Alive, this film's biggest inspiration, and B) he slept through the awesome scene where Marion punches a zombie fish.) It's not ambitious, but neither is it delusional about its quality -- it's a low-grade B-zombie film that knows it's a low-grade B-zombie film and tries to work within those parameters. On those terms, it's something of a success. It's got problems, yes (how can we still get a zombie movie, in this day and age, where people don't know to shoot the bloody things in the head?)... but it also has a man punching a fish. And that's gotta count for something. Also: the plot is perfectly simple. Just because there's aliens landing in the middle of the film doesn't make it confusing, people.

Grade: B-