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Daily Archives: October 3, 2019
Navy Seals vs Zombies (2015)
Director: Stanton Barrett
Writer: Matthew Carpenter (Screenplay) A.K. Waters (Story)
Starring: Ed Quinn, Michael Dudikoff, Rick Fox, Chad Lail, Molly Hagen, Mikal Vega, Kevin Kent, Lolo Jones
Plot: A team of highly skilled Navy SEALS find themselves embarking on the battle of their lives when they come face-to-face with the undead. After a deadly outbreak occurs in Baton Rouge, the SEALS must fight for their lives, and the city, against an army of zombies.
Runtime: 1 Hour 37 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: Very Basic Zombie Film.
Story: Navy Seals vs. Zombies starts when Vice President Bentley (Fox) is on a campaign trail in the city of Baton Rouge, the city comes under attack by rage filled zombies, forcing him into hiding. In response to the situation Commander Sher (Dudikoff) sends in a highly skilled Navy SEALS team led by LT Pete Cunningham (Quinn) with Carl (Lail), Billy (Vega), Travis (Kent) and new recruit AJ (Lipari) to rescue the VP.
With the plan for the VP underway, it won’t be the only mission for the SEALS need to go on, they must also save the scientists that could have a cure for the outbreak.
Thoughts on Navy Seals vs. Zombies
Characters – LT Pete Cunningham is leading the Navy SEALS, he must put his trust in the newest member of the team in AJ, while trying to get the team through the hordes of zombies to prove once again that his team in the elite military team. Commander Sheer is running the operations from the military base, he doesn’t want to see his men take any unnecessary risks. VP Bentley is the man the team are sent to rescue, he is in the running for the next presidential race. AJ is he newest member of the SEALS team, he is about to become a father and this is his first mission as part of the team, where he must prove himself to the rest of the unit.
Performances – The performances in the film suffer because of the lack of interesting non-generic characters. none of the actors get a chance to show their skills as performers, with large parts of the film just being headless running around.
Story – The story here follows a Navy SEALS unit that must go into Baton Rouge to rescue the Vice president and the scientists behind the outbreak. This is everything a zombie story has given us before, we have a group of people running around a city trying to elude the zombies that outnumber them. We know the team will dwindle down as the film unfolds which is the normal. The starting point for the weaknesses comes from that fact this story is set in a world where zombie film don’t exist, which is clear by all the behaviour through the film. Most of the actual storytelling is saved for the closing of the film which fills in most of the blanks we don’t mention until then.
Action/Horror – The action in the film is just shooting zombies, it is nothing new and becomes overly repetitive after a while. The horror side of the film gives us zombies that run, they never feel like a threat to the anybody.
Settings – The film is set in Baton Rouge, which is considered a military area, I think, the truth is, it could have been any city without any major locations being shown.
Special Effects – The effects in the film are weak with even basic door explosion looking weak, the zombie look is acceptable for a low budget film.
Scene of the Movie – The explaining.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – The stupid decisions.
Final Thoughts – This is a basic zombie film that offers nothing new to the genre, it I filled with stupid decisions and generic action.
Overall: Basic zombie nonsense.
Rating
ABC Film Challenge – Horror – C – Citadel (2012)
Director: Ciaran Foy
Writer: Ciaran Foy (Screenplay)
Starring: James Cosmo, Aneurin Barnard, Wunmi Mosaku, Ian Hanmore, Amy Shiels, Ingrid Craigie, Jake Wilson
Plot: An agoraphobic father teams up with a renegade priest to save his daughter from the clutches of a gang of twisted feral children who committed an act of violence against his family years earlier.
Tagline – They see your fear
Runtime: 1 Hour 24 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: Evil Children 101
Story: Citadel starts when Tommy (Barnard) sees him pregnant wife violently attacked by a group of children with him helpless to protect her, the baby is born, but his wife Joanne (Shiels) dies after the attack. Tommy still be agoraphobic after the attack he is trying to raise his own baby with his only support being Marie (Mosaku).
With the children still trying to take his baby, Tommy is forced to turn to renegade priest (Cosmo) to help him get rid of the problem that is targeting his family, which will see Tommy facing his biggest fear in life.
Thoughts on Citadel
Characters – Tommy is a father with agoraphobia after he saw his wife attacked by a group of children, he is trying to be the good father for his new born child, but his fears are controlling the situation, he sees children trying to take his child, he needs to face his fears to make it through this trauma he is going through. Priest is a renegade man that is aggressively searching for a way to bring down the feral children, he sees Tommy as a chance to get the job done, even if it is against what his religion states. Marie is one of the social workers that will help Tommy, she is trying to help him through the medical side even if she is the one that puts him in contact with the priest. The Feral Children are the highlight of the film because they are genuinely frightening when they attack.
Performances – Aneurin Barnard in the leading role does make us feel for his character, we believe he has been through the trauma and is the desperation to save his family. James Cosmo is fun to watch as anti-priest figure. Wunmi Mosaku doesn’t do anything wrong in the supporting role, if only we could have seen more from the character.
Story – The story here follows a new father that is dealing with his own trauma while raising his new born child, which will see him needing to face off against feral child that feed on people’s fears. The early thing that must be pointed out here, comes from the idea that we are not full convinced that we are seeing the fears of the character dealt with, for the most part we are seeing one man terrorised but even the people without the fear seem to be targets too, this mostly confuses the rule point in place. the idea that the feral child live in the abandoned flat complex doesn’t improve on things either because you would think more incidents would happen. The part of the story that does standout and is interesting to watch would be seeing how Tommy is dealing with his own traumas while remaining strong facing the possibility of not being able to raise his own child because of his problems, sadly we don’t see enough of this addressed with the horror side of the story taking over, which simply put, isn’t as interesting.
Horror – The horror starts of being home invasion like horror, which worked for the illness Tommy had, but when we enter the flats, it does become the highlight of the action in the film, feeling dark, scary with anything able to jump out to get them.
Settings – The settings show us the run down neighbourhood in which Tommy lives, the support groups around it and most importantly the empty flat block which has the feral children in it.
Special Effects – The effects are used mostly look practical, with the moments surrounding the feral child being the most notable and scary ones.
Scene of the Movie – Inside the flat block.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – It breaks the rules it sets up too easily.
Final Thoughts – This is a horror film that does take its time getting going, one the chaos is unleashed with get a highly intense final act which ramps the fear up to the max.
Overall: Slow Start, Strong Finish.
Rating
