Zombies of Mass Destruction - 2009

Zombies, fun with a political slant?

The movie actually was pretty fun, the humor was great (from Archie Bunker ridiculous, to parody like the Simpsons), and the story seemed pretty cool. Basically a zombie outbreak occurs, started by an Islamic terrorist group, and then the island goes into total chaos with jokes created within the extremes of the caricatures themselves. The main jokes focus around the misunderstanding of the teenage girl's heritage and how the typical "dumb" American doesn't know the difference between a middle eastern American and a Middle Easterner. Also, the gay couple gets it good from "right wing" crazies even though a zombie outbreak is occurring. Anyone that happens to be on the right of the political spectrum are turned into either evil people or the typical uneducated religious, political, or sportman crazy. Anyone on the left of spectrum are turned into stereotypical ethnics, gays, or hippies. The only likeable character out of the whole film is actually the teenage girl who is the type of person you'd see at any McDonald's eating a burger with her boyfriend; in other words, completely normal.

I loved this film when I watched it but looking back I slowly grew to not like it as much as I originally thought. I guess making everyone a "joke" and throwing in the political/religious aspects of intolerance and showing the "bad" in people makes it not as enjoyable or even as funny as I thought. And again, the point of the film was to show the "bad" in people but the "bad" that was shown was more of the exception and not more of the rule as the director/screenwriters presented. So as a result, I have a bad taste in my mouth. The funny aspects were more ripping the right-from-center folks and not seeing the gray in both political sides of the table but simply the black and white.

Would I recommend this film? Sure, watch it and you'll either love it, hate it, or feel as I do. It really all depends on where you are politically. If you are on the left, you'll love it. If you are on the right, you'll hate it. If you think both right and left are flawed but neither are "evil" as the film makers show, then you'll probably be right where I am. But then again, if you go into this film and try your very hardest to overlook the stereotypes of the characters and any political statement presented, you may get a good enjoyable experience.


AB