Day of the Dead (2008)

Watch this movie as in any way being connected to the Romero series of movies or even the remake of Dawn Of The Dead and you are heading down a one-way alley towards a wall spray-painted with "disappointment". Watch this movie, however, for the sake of seeing a decent little zombie flick and you should enjoy yourself. Is it in the same league as any of those just mentioned? Of course not. Is it the worst horror movie of the year? Not by a bloody, and I do mean bloody, long shot.

The plot? The dead start problematically walking about with bad hunger pangs and a few survivors back up and back up until they find out the cause of the problem and also the fact that they must destroy as many zombies as possible before the film ends. Oh, and there's a zombie known as "Bud" (maybe not quite Bub but close enough) and an army member known as "Captain Rhodes" in at least two nods to the original movie (a film much maligned over the years but one that's also growing in the hearts of zombie fans worldwide, from what I've seen).

The main points against this movie are the facts that we've seen much of it before, Mena Suvari is the least convincing soldier since my mother gave me a Barbie in a khaki skirt for Christmas and told me it was an Action Man (that's G.I. Joe for my American friends) and, at only 80 minutes long, it feels like little more than a taster for something that could/should have been even better. Also, there's a bit too much CG-blood for my taste.

On the plus side, and it's not a universal view, I loved the non-stop action once things went all pear-shaped, the zombies new super-skills added to the tension and gave a new spin to an old stalwart and the blood was flowing quicker than the Mississippi on a really, really rainy day.

Horror fans won't necessarily be scared by this but they WILL be entertained. Which, from a zombie movie, is sometimes all you need.

See this if you like: Mena Suvari, Resident Evil, Nightmare City.