Walking Dead Minimates: Wave 3 TRU Exclusives

TRU Walking Dead Exclusives:
Glenn & Vest Zombie
Carol & Pole Zombie

This month sees the release of the newest wave of Walking Dead Minimates from Diamond Select Toys. I’ve reviewed previous sets and if you’ve read any of them, you know that I am in love with these little guys. As always this wave contains some figures that are found exclusively at Toys R Us and some that are available exclusively at online and specialty stores. I was able to get my hands on the TRU figures, which unfortunately have been difficult for collectors in the previous 2 waves. Here’s to hoping that these guys are selling well enough to increase supply.

Glenn & Vest Zombie

This is Glenn’s second go-around as a TRU exclusive figure. The first one may be the hardest (or most expensive) WD minimate to find, so it was nice that DST gave us a new Glenn so soon. Not to mention that he’s a pretty popular character in both the comic and the show. This Glenn sports a sweatshirt and what is presumably a bald head under his cap. The figures captures Glenn’s look nicely from the period when he decided to stay at Hershel’s farm to have sex stay with Maggie. He’s also got a grittier, angrier face as opposed to his more fresh-faced earlier figure.

Vest Zombie is a pretty standard zombie. His distinction is his facial hair, which is either some serious muttonchops or an Abe Lincoln beard, it’s hard to tell. Either way I’m digging his nicely detailed zombie face. The other really nice touch on Vest is his torso damage. Instead of just painting it on, he’s actually got a small chunk taken out of his side (I’m not sure if you can see it clearly in the photo). This is an example of the tiny extras and attention to detail that make this line of figures fantastic for collectors.

Carol & Pole Zombie

If you’re a fan of the show, you know Carol as the increasingly badass, short-haired woman who lost her abusive husband and young daughter to zombies and who advocates for post-coital murder. This figure is not that Carol. Carol in the comics is slightly to moderately unstable and attempts to cling to a number of different characters in the book. Ultimately her instability leads to her self-inflicted demise. The version we get here is pre-prison, out on the road, Carol. She comes packaged with jacket and winter hat, but also has extra arms and hair for when she comes in out of the cold. Her face is fairly non-distinct, which is appropriate for her character. I’m hoping that later we get a slightly crazier-looking prison Carol.

Pole zombie is the zombie who got Carol after being brought inside the prison for research. Not as sexy as her name might imply, she comes with the pole and ropes that kept her captive in the comics, as well as a hungry look on her face. All of the zombie minimates are based on zombies that appeared in the comics, but Pole Zombie is one that most fans will easily recognize immediately. Without the pole, she can also stand in as a number member of your now-growing minimate zombie horde. If you wanted to buy three more Carol’s, you could also use the poles to recreate the Woodbury arena. (What you do with your spare Carols is your own business)

Overall, these sets continue the high quality that DST has been giving us with The Walking Dead. Also in wave 3 are Riot Gear Rick, Dexter (the prison inmate), Hershel, and a beat-up Tyreese (all with various zombies). You can get Rick and Dexter at TRU as well, Hershel and Tyreese are specialty exclusives.

*The awesome damaged city backdrops are available at Luke’s Toy Store online.

Previous Walking Dead minimate reviews can be found here, here, here, here, and here.

John Dies at the End & Osombie

John Dies at the End

A day before Zombie Movie Night I had John Dies at the End at home. I popped it into the DVD player and within 2 minutes, there’s a zombie on screen! I immediately turned it off  and decided to hold onto it for Zombie Movie Night. Ya’see, after last month’s debacle with The Bay, I couldn’t afford to take any chances and here was a movie that definitely contained a zombie.

That being said, JDatE is not really a zombie movie. It contains that one zombie at the beginning and some zombie-ish creatures later on, but it’s more of a wacky movie that throws all sorts of creatures and supernatural phenomena at the audience. Dave and his buddy, John, accidentally take a recreational drug (well Dave accidentally takes it anyway) that gives them a sort of hyper-awareness. Their senses are enhanced, which gives them the ability to recognize creatures that exist outside of regular human awareness. It also allows them to communicate with the dead. A series of zany events follow. JDatE is an intentionally confusing movie and did a good job of making me feel like I sort of knew what was going on even though most of it doesn’t make any sense.

THE GOOD: JDatE is a good movie. It’s a better sci-fi movie than it is a zombie movie. It was interesting and funny with good acting and effects all around. It also contained some unnecessary, gratuitous nudity, which has been lacking this ZMN season. It also contains a dog driving a car, a monster made completely out of meat from a freezer, and Paul Giamatti, so that’s good.

THE BAD: The film can be confusing at times and contained some loose ends, but most of that seemed built in.

THE ZOMBIES: There’s one true zombie, the guy we see at the very beginning. We don’t see much from him and he really doesn’t fit into the overall story at all. There are also alien-leech things that can over human bodies, so that kinda counts too, I guess.

VERDICT: Again, JDatE is a good movie, but is low on zombie content. I’d recommend it, but if you and your date only get turned on by zombie movies, then this won’t do it for you. As a movie: B+, with a deduction for lack of zombies: C+

Current ZMN Rank: #29 out 112

Golden Zombey Watch: I always like name actors for Supporting Actor, so maybe Paul Giamatti sneaks in. There’s an animated segment, which will probably qualify it for the thin category of Best Animated or Partially Animated Zombie Feature. I like the film’s chances best for Nudity, though.

Osombie

After so many quasi or non-zombie movies, it was nice to watch a true, straight up zombie film. Adolf Hitler and the Nazis have been making zombies and supernatural mischief for years. Honestly, it’s become a bit played out. Isn’t there some new deceased evil asshole that we can make source of monster mayhem? Thank you, Osombie, for being the first of what is probably many.

THE GOOD: I honestly did not expect much from Osombie, but apart from trying to cash in on the death of the most hated American villain of all time, it’s actually a good zombie movie. It is essentially GI Joe vs. Zombies. And I loved GI Joe and I love zombies. The small group of soldiers fighting their way through the zombie-infest desert even have nicknames like Joker and Tomboy. They each get a little bit of character development, which is surprisingly well done.

THE BAD: If you’re looking for great cinema, it’s not here (and why are you looking for great cinema in zombie movies anyway, weirdo?). The thing that was distracting was some bad CG blood splatter. And this film was on Kickstarter, so if you donated, you may have paid for that bad-looking blood (you should have donated some corn syrup and red dye instead).

THE ZOMBIES: Regular brainless, shambling zombies here. Infected by the Taliban, of course. Even Osombie himself is a standard zombie, no messing with tradition here.

VERDICT: I liked this movie. It spoke to things that I like and did it pretty well. You may be less inclined to like it, but that’s your problem. Grade: A-

Current ZMN Rank: #27 out of 112

Golden Zombey Watch: I like the female soldier, Tomboy, for Best Supporting Actress. We’ll see if Osombie can make the short list in the crowded category of Outstanding Zombie. The whole movie is zombie slaughtering, which makes it hard to pinpoint a scene for Most Memorable Massacring of Zombies, but come award season I’ll see what I remember most.

Evil Dead (2013)

Evil Dead

I have never considered the Evil Dead franchise to be zombie movies. Despite the misleading titles, Evil Dead and Evil Dead II are demon possession movies. (You could make a stronger argument for Army of Darkness, with the skeletons rising from the grave) However, my brother asked me if the Evil Dead remake was something that we should see in the theaters as part of Zombie Movie Night. I told him my thoughts. His response was, “Yeah, but I’d like to see it.” That was enough for me, as we headed out to the theater.

THE GOOD: Evil Dead doesn’t mess much with the formula of the original. A bunch of young people are staying in a cabin and unleash an unspeakable evil by reading from   the book of the dead. One by one, the friends become possessed and try to kill the others. The remake changes the purpose of the get together from a vacation to an intervention, in an attempt to make the characters’ actions more plausible (She’s not possessed, she’s detoxing). It works to a certain point. The remake also obviously had a much larger budget than the original, so the acting and the effects are all pretty decent.

THE BAD: The original Evil Dead is great because of its low budget, grainy feel. Remaking it with a real budget just seems unnecessary. It was already good the way it was. The two sequels changed the tone to campy and wacky, which is what I think of when I think of the franchise. Making the new film a straight up horror film left me wanting some laughs.

THE ZOMBIES: Ok, so my opinion has not changed. This is still clearly a demon possession movie, not a zombie movie. But after the film, my brother and I examined the precedent set by other films on the ZMN roster.

Our basic, very loose zombie definition is: An external force of some kind alters human beings in such a way that they lose control of themselves and begin to cause harm to others.

Evil Dead fits this description. Still, so does the Exorcist, and no one would ever consider that a zombie movie. There has to be a little something more to make it a zombie – like the ability to infect others. But….Evil Dead contains a victim who is possessed after sustaining a bite to the hand, just like countless zombie movies. There are multiple people possessed in Evil Dead. Not just one demon jumping from body to body. We have the movie Demons on the list, which is clearly about demons. But that movie definitely feels like a zombie movie, with the possessed running around wildly trying to kill and infect others.

The main thing that feels wrong is the monster’s ability to taunt and mock the survivors, as well as trying to trick them by changing its appearance back to human. Very un-zombie-like. However, we’ve got [REC] 2 on the list, where the zombies do just that (after we find out that they’re the devil). My feelings about that move aside, it’s on the list and it’s a zombie movie.

Final decision: I don’t fucking know. I still feel the same way. In the end, we decided that Evil Dead is not a zombie movie, but based on precedent, it is a part of the ZMN Standings. It does take a serious hit in ranking based on its very slim zombie-ness.

VERDICT: If you want to watch a zombie movie, don’t watch Evil Dead. If you want to watch a horror movie, Evil Dead is ok, but you’d be better off checking out the original. (It’s currently streaming on Netflix) Grade: C

Current ZMN Rank: #55 out of 112

Golden Zombey Watch: A tough one to call since none of the zombie categories really apply. Could Mia count as both Outstanding Zombie and Best (non-zombie) Villain? Probably not, but that would be interesting.

Hunting Creatures & Remains

It’s April and although it’s still pretty cold in upstate NY, Spring has sprung. April also marks the beginning of the second half of Zombie Movie Night, Season 4. The first half has been pretty impressive for the most part, adding 3 new movies to the top 5. Let’s hope that the 2nd half comes just as strong. First up tonight was:

Hunting Creatures

This season has been pretty low on subtitles. My brother corrected that by adding Germany’s Hunting Creatures to the roster. HC tells the story of a group of low-level thugs who cross the path of a scientist with a pretty poor sense of ethics. The scientist unleashes an experimental formula meant to increase life expectancy on a group of unknowing, partying Germans. The thugs manage to escape the party and team up with the scientist in order to hunt and destroy the creatures that are now running wild. As simple as that synopsis sounds, I spent most of the film not knowing what the hell was going on.

THE GOOD: Everything good about this movie was unintended by the film’s creators. Some of the plot devices were laugh-out-loud funny, such as the scientist’s claim that he didn’t plan to make an unstoppable-super zombie, but when a guy asked him for some Tylenol, he took that golden opportunity to inject him with an experimental serum in order to find out how regular zombies react to guns. Wait, What?

THE BAD: Oh, it’s all bad. Every aspect of film making here is bad. Luckily, most of it is terrible and entertaining and I never once felt like gouging my eyes out.

THE ZOMBIES: These guys appear to be fast variety zombies. A distinguishing characteristic was the development of sharp teeth. Despite their nasty chompers, these zombies were inefficient for the most part. They get a couple of kills early on, but later when the heroes are creature hunting, many of them get put down without putting up much of a fight. There is the aforementioned super-zombie, Boris, who can’t be killed, but also suffers a handful of beat-downs. Threat Level: 3

VERDICT: While laughingly bad movies are more entertaining than straight-up bad movies, I can’t justify giving HC anything higher than a D.

Current ZMN Rank: #96 out 109

Golden Zombey Watch: HC is currently one of only two eligible nominees for Best Foreign Language Film. There’s a slight chance that Ollie, the ridiculous scientist, may sneak in for Best Villain or Boris for Outstanding Zombie.

Next up was my pick of the night:

The Bay

…………………SSKKRREEEEEECCCHHH!!!!!!!!………………………

ERROR!! ERROR!! ERROR!!

There’s nothing worse on Zombie Movie Night than a movie with no zombies! The Bay has the honor of being the second film disqualified from ZMN eligibility for lack of zombie content. It contains a parasitic pandemic with government cover-up, but even with the loosest of zombie definitions, it does not qualify.

You cannot imagine my shame. I can no longer give my brother shit for presenting Carriers in 2011.

Ok, so after a bit of a scramble a perusal of Netflix’s streaming movies, we put on movie #3:

Remains

Remains is comic book-based movie made exclusively for Chiller, a basic-cable horror channel. The story is not incredibly original, but that’s not always a bad thing. A group of survivors who barely tolerate each other  hole up in a rundown casino after a Night of the Comet-esque blast turns the world into flesh-hungry zombies.

THE GOOD: Remains is decent. It’s never great, but never awful. The cast contains a few vaguely familiar faces and everyone puts in a pretty good performance. Remains does contain the first use of an American Gladiators-type Gyro Ball to navigate through zombies. Not a bad idea if you’ve got one lying around.

THE BAD: Nothing sticks out as atrociously bad, but I get the feeling that in a few months I’ll have trouble distinguishing Remains from a number of other average to below average zombie flicks.

THE ZOMBIES: The first wave of zombies are pretty typical shamblers, though they do start to eat each other once in awhile, which you don’t see that often. They also sleep standing up at night, which seems weird. If you’re gonna make your zombies sleep, why would they stay standing? Later in the film, faster, more aggressive zombies show up, though no explanation is given. Threat Level: 6

VERDICT: Remains falls just below the median. It’s not bad for a basic cable movie, but it’s not going to make anybody jump and shout. Well, at least it had zombies in it. Grade: C-

Current ZMN Rank: #69 out of 109

Golden Zombey Watch: Best Supporting Actress is always a weak category, so I think Tawny Cyprus has a pretty good shot. Grant Bowler and Evalena Marie were good in the lead roles, but the competition for nominations will be a bit stiffer for them.

Warm Bodies (the movie)

Warm Bodies

A little while back, I reviewed Isaac Marion’s zombie romance novel, Warm Bodies. It has since made it to the big screen. And, for me, any time a zombie movie gets a theatrical release, it’s a big deal. My brother was less excited, and worried that going to see a girly romance movie with another dude would hurt his super-manly or something. I was finally able to convince him to get out to the local multi-plex in what I think was Bodies’ final week in theaters. Turns out we were both glad we made it, because Warm Bodies was better than both of us expected.

I’m not going to recap the movie, as it stays pretty faithful to the book. You can read that review by clicking the link up in the first line of this review.

THE GOOD: This is one of those cases like The Running Man or The Bible where the movie is actually better than the book. The movie highlights the good stuff and cuts out some of the stuff that didn’t really work in the book. Gone are the Bonies’ church ceremonies, R’s zombie wife, and zombie kids in school. The movie does a better job of illustrating how the zombies are stuck in a state of limbo. They can either lose their humanity completely and become Bonies or try to recapture their humanity and start to feel again. A bit touchy-feely to be sure, but it really works on film. One could see it as a metaphor for survivors of trauma. When a person experiences a traumatic event, specifically when they’ve been harmed by another human being, they can choose to become cold and callous to the world, whether out of fear or anger or they can take the risk of trusting people again, reaching out and making connections; living life. It’s not always obvious that you have a choice, especially if you’re numb to the world; like a zombie. It’s not until the zombies see R changing that they realize that they too, can change.

In addition, the actors in the film really do a nice job. Nicholas Hoult as R puts in a good performance, considering most of his dialogue is done in voiceover and his on screen acting consists of single syllables. Teresa Palmer (looking very much like a young Alicia Silverstone) is good as Julie; good enough so to make the viewer overlook the fact that she is falling for a rotting corpse. The supporting cast really stands out though. Film veteran John Malkovich breathes life into a character that could really otherwise be a cardboard cut-out. Analeigh Tipton shines as the best friend and Rob Corddry steals almost every scene he’s in.

THE BAD: Julie’s is holed up in an airplane for days, yet her skin and hair look fantastic. How is that possible?! They could’ve mussed her up at least a little.

THE ZOMBIES: see Warm Bodies

VERDICT: I read the book and was still surprised with how good the movie turned out. It’s certainly different, but it stands up to the better calibre of zombie movies out there. I’m not sure how well it did in theaters and I’m not sure that I’ll want to see a host of zombies in love knock-offs pop up, but WB really deserves better than to be written off as the Twilight of zombie movies. If you didn’t see it in theaters, check it out when it comes to DVD. And watch it with your girlfriend! Grade: A

Current ZMN Rank: #4 out of 107

Golden Zombey Watch: WB may be all over the awards this year. My brother has already advocated for Corddry for Best Supporting Actor, though I might like Malkovich in that spot as well. WB may end up with contenders in every acting category as well as Outstanding Zombie. I’d look for it in Best Soundtrack as well, this is the first zombie movie that I know of to feature a Bruce Springsteen song.

Scary or Die & Rise of the Zombies

Zombie Movie Night: March 2013 was filled with familiar faces. Unfortunately, known actors tend to raise expectations, which is always a treacherous road to take when dealing in zombie movies.

Scary or Die

Scary or Die is a series of horror short stories. The description would have you believe that they’re interwoven, but aside from sharing some characters on a very thin level, they really have nothing to do with one another. There are five stories and some are longer and more developed than others. The first story features Golden Zombey Award Winner, Bill Oberst, Jr. as a radical anti-immigration advocate and is the film’s purest zombie tale. The second and third are supernatural tales with no zombie elements. The fourth features the cover-boy clown-monster who has a lot of zombie characteristics. It stars Corbin Bleu, who my brother pointed out is a star of the High School Musical franchise (while giddily jumping up and down and clapping his hands). The final story is very short a contains a woman rising from the dead a result of voodoo magic.

THE GOOD: I may be biased, but I felt that the zombie portions of this film were the strongest. If Oberst’s short was expanded into a full movie, I probably would have enjoyed it. The clown story was enjoyable and a fun little twist on a typical zombie infection tale. It also featured a clown giving double-barreled middle fingers, biting someone, and then pirouetting down the street! How could you not love that?

THE BAD: Although those parts were good, they weren’t enough to carry the whole film. Even the clown story dragged a bit, though it probably was only about 30 minutes long. What really hurt this film’s overall score was the fact that the stories just didn’t have anything to do with each. Even if they weren’t all zombie stories, it would have been nice to have them all tie into one another in more of a Pulp Fiction-y kind of way.

THE ZOMBIES: SoD features traditional, rise from your grave zombies, a voodoo zombie, and an infectious clown zombie. It might be frightening if all of these creatures existed in the same world, so I’ll give them a Threat Level: 8.

VERDICT: The immigration story gets a B-, Clown gets a B, and Voodoo zombie gets an incomplete. Mixed with the other two stories, the whole thing feels a little disjointed and ends up with a final grade of C.

Current ZMN Rank: #59 out of 106

Golden Zombey Watch: Infected Clown may contend for Outstanding Zombie, though that’s shaping up to be a tough race this year. This film’s best shot may be at Zombie Origin, as it appears during the first story that the zombies were raised by a combination of blood, piss, and moonshine.

Rise of the Zombies

If I took the ingredients from five really good meals and mashed them all together with no plan, no talent, and no skill I would present to you a pretty shitty meal. Rise of the Zombies has a lot of ingredients that have worked elsewhere, but is a pretty shitty movie.

Zombie outbreak on the west coast. Survivors find refuge in a prison (because prisons are cooler places to hole up than malls nowadays). Survivors make decisions loosely based on the premise of finding a cure. Stars Danny Trejo (Machete), LeVar Burton (Star Trek TNG), Ethan Suplee (My Name is Earl), French Stewart (3rd Rock from the Sun), and Mariel Hemmingway (she looks famous…Manhattan…I guess). The cast is actually what sold this one for me, five names I’ve heard of, how could I pass that up? Unfortunately, they’re also the ones who make this movie such a flaming turd.

THE GOOD: Looks good on paper. I’ve seen all of these stars put in good performances in other stuff (I can’t really vouch for Hemmingway). The scenarios in the film have all worked in other stuff on the Walking Dead: survivors in a prison, emergency C-sections and amputations, questioning purpose in the face of the apocalypse.

THE BAD: Unfortunately, none of it works here. It’s all terrible. Burton’s the only one who gives a decent performance, though his subplot is so separated from the rest of the story that it becomes pointless. Trejo really mails it in. He either didn’t learn his lines or he was just ad-libbing and refusing to do second takes. I can’t imagine someone actually put pencil to paper and wrote the line, “We’re just sitting here….like sitting ducks.” Hemmingway and Suplee are especially and atrociously terrible. I’m talking Death Valley: The Revenge of Bloody Bill-level terrible. And I really like Ethan Suplee, he’s never been a star, but he’s been good in everything I’ve ever seen him in: My Name is Earl, American History X, Mallrats, even Boy Meets World for god’s sake! I just don’t get it. I hope for his sake that he’s struggling with addiction or depression or something. (Editor’s note: I don’t really hope that) And while the acting is bad, it’s not the only thing wrong with this film. There are poor set pieces, awful dialogue, emotional moments that don’t hit their mark, and bad special effects, too.

THE ZOMBIES: Pretty standard zombies here. There’s a lot of silly psuedo-science explaining the cause and a half-assed thing with the zombies having an aversion to electricity, but it never really goes anywhere or is integral to the overall plot. Threat Level: 6.

THE VERDICT: I laughed through a lot of this movie, so I can’t say it was totally unenjoyable, though most of the time I was laughing in disbelief. The true crime here has to be lack of effort. Overall, a pretty bad movie, and a disappointing thud of a D.

Current ZMN Rank: #88 out of 106

Golden Zombey Watch: The whole damn movie might be up for Best Unintentional Comedy mostly on the poor acting of Suplee and Hemingway and the line-stumbling of Trejo. There is one point in the film where zombies scale the side of a bridge like they’re freakin’ Storm Shadow. That moment might contend for Bizarre Zombie Behavior or WTF Moment.

Zombie Dearest & Resident Evil: Damnation

February is the month of love……..and African American history………….and cold, but mostly love. So Zombie Movie Night: February 2013 included two movies sure to tug at your heartstrings. And no one likes tugging on and devouring heartstrings more than zombies!

Zombie Dearest

Gus is an aspiring comedy writer/loser who gets caught almost cheating on his wife. His wife, Deborah, subsequently moves out and into her childhood home. Gus chases after her and Deborah agrees to take him back with following conditions: he fixes up the house and doesn’t get a paying job while she brings home the bacon. Seems like an odd way to make up for infidelity, but let’s go with it, what the hell? Exasperated when attempting to repair a backed up septic system, Gus calls out to a greater power for some help. And apparently while doing this, he was grabbing a corpse’s penis…and apparently corpse’s penises have the power to grant wishes. As is such, help comes in the form of said corpse rising from the dead ready to do manual labor. Gus uses this as the opportunity to work on his (terrible) stand-up routine while Quinto the zombie works on digging up the septic system. Come to think of it, this movie is actually a rip-off of Michael Keaton’s Multiplicity, only with a zombie instead of a clone.

THE GOOD: In its best moments, ZD is slightly entertaining, but never really what I’d describe as good. I actually found its bizarre plot points to be the more enjoyable aspect of the movie: Corpse penises grant wishes?! Deborah’s parents killed the original Quinto and buried him next to their septic system because he was annoying?!

THE BAD: ZD is definitely bad, but its not the worst I’ve seen. One thing that I found most annoying is that the movie doesn’t seem to know how it wants the characters to react to the zombie in the backyard. Sometimes they’re scared of him and sometimes they accept his presence without question. It seemed to fluctuate based on the needs of the scene without thought to the broader picture. ZD contains a terrible cop-out ending, but even worse is that it contains a sex scene with no nudity! This seems to be an odd trend this season (see: Evilution, Legend of the Bog), and it needs to stop!

THE ZOMBIES: Quinto, the corpse buried in the backyard, is the solo zombie for most of the film. He’s pretty docile and trainable, though he does get a little bitey at points in the movie. He only scores one confirmed kill, but his seemingly tame affect allows him the opportunity to sneak up on you. For the sneakiness factor, his Threat Level elevates to a 4.

VERDICT: ZD is unique enough not to be a terrible movie. It’s not much overall, but it certainly has some moments. It’s lower end, but not the lowest. Grade: C-

Current ZMN Rank: #63 0ut of 104

Golden Zombey Watch: Outstanding Zombie seems to be loaded with mediocre zombies with names this year, if that trend continues Quinto may end up making the cut. Best Actress is kind of weak so far, which may work out for Shauna Black. ZD strongest contender will be Zombie Origin, because…corpse penis wishes, what the hell?!

Resident Evil: Damnation

If you like Resident Evil video games, but can’t stand the constant button pressing and decision making, then you’re in luck! Resident Evil: Damnation is the second Resident Evil CG motion picture to follow the adventures of Leon Kennedy, star of the video games Resident Evil 2 and 4. The movie takes place in the same universe as the video games, so if you’ve been following along you know that Leon started out as a rookie cop caught in the zombie outbreak in Raccoon City and has since grown-up to become a globe-trotting special agent specializing in killing zombies …er, Bio-Organic Weapons. Damnation places him in a specifically vague Eastern European country caught in the middle of a civil war, with both sides sporting monsters created with zombie-creating plaga virus.

THE GOOD: RE:D is what it is. It plays out like one long video game cut scene. So, if you’re cool with that, you’ll probably enjoy this. Resident Evil 2 holds a special place in my heart, and I attribute a good deal of my affection towards zombies to that game. So I like watching the continuing adventures of Leon Kennedy.

THE BAD: RE:D is what it is. If you don’t like the games, then you won’t like this movie. The animation and voice acting is video game quality. It’s not the greatest thing you’ll ever see or hear, but it’s not awful.

THE ZOMBIES: As is typically the case with Resident Evil, especially in later stories, the zombies take a back seat to the monsters. Lickers are heavily featured and the giant monsters at the end are reminiscent of the big bald guy that chases Claire Redfield around in RE2. The zombies in the film are infected humans. They’re slightly evolved, they use weapons and purposely spread their zombieness by spitting a giant spore thing into their victims’ mouths. Threat Level: 7

VERDICT: How you feel about the games will ultimately decide how you feel about this movie. Even if you do like the games, there’s not really anything outstanding about this film. It’s enjoyable if you’ve got an hour and a half to kill. Grade: C

Current ZMN Rank: #59 out of 104

Golden Zombey Watch: If there is Best Animated category this year, RE:D will definitely be there. Not sure it will get many nominations past that.