Cockneys vs Zombies

I can't say I expected this to be that good but I did expect to enjoy it more than I did. British zombie flick that will obviously draw comparisons to Shaun of the Dead (and to which it can't even compete with). There were some good ideas thrown around but I didn't really find it to be that funny at all. The two brothers and the grandpa are likable enough but I honestly just don't care about any of the characters. There is some cool gore but nothing that hasn't been done before. In my opinion, this was just a stereotypical zombie flick that attempted to add in some original ideas but was executed pretty poorly. For some reason the style and (attempted) comedy of this movie reminded me of 30 Minutes Or Less, which I also gave a 3/10... Score: 3/10 Watch again?: Nope

Americans don't get irony? Sorry, Englanders - so much irony it comes out your arse in a watery rush. This is the anti-comedy. Badly written/directed/shot/edited. And it's drawn out, with zero scares and hahaha laughs. Plenty of good actors. They got Michelle Ryan, so there had to be a long, slow close up on her amazing face. No chance. Really was the weirdest day of her life. Everything else inferior, and comparison to the classic Shaun is stupid. The IMDb reviews for this are perverse. Or maybe they're recruiting for UKIP?

Attempting to salvage a botched bank-job, a group of inept robbers find their efforts interrupted by a viral outbreak and must fend off the swarm of zombies infesting London's East End to save their grandfather stuck at an old-folks home overrun by the creatures and get to safety. This turned out to be quite an enjoyable and entertaining zombie effort. One of the biggest pluses here is that this one contains a large portion of goofy and plain hilarious moments that are flat-out funny for just how absurd this one gets while attempting to play it straight. There are so many genuinely hilarious quips, comebacks, and comebacks that take centerstage here not just from the robbers being generally inept and comically silly while also giving off plenty of opportunities to clash with the hard-headed group of elderly folks who live at the center which keeps this going. The way the robbery gets botched, the arguing between the family, the zombie assault on the retirement home, and the eventual charge down to their escape are all quite funny for how blatantly goofy it's portrayed yet come off as completely relevant in the way it transpires and ends up making these scenes better by not writing the movie around the jokes but instead working the comedy into the story. This truly funny comedy makes the action all the better as there's a massive amount of action. This one is pretty much nonstop with plenty of shoot-outs, including the bank robbery itself as well as the interactions with the hostages who come with them which offer up not just the escape from the bank but the encounters at the factory safehouse that is overrun with the creatures providing some solidly enjoyable encounters. That leads the way for the great finale where they charge through the streets after the retirement home visit to hold off the creatures in the safe house with the hostages being forced into action to save themselves, as well as the different encounters along the escape route in the streets filled with the zombies which just really gets all the high-notes here with the mad-collision of bullets flying everywhere, zombies getting shot to pieces or blasted to chunks and the victims being pulled apart and devoured in nearly every one of these encounters which makes for a huge gore quotient to go along with the comedy and thrilling action. While these make the film quite entertaining, there's one rather important factor holding this down. The biggest drawback is the fact that there's a rather convoluted series of plot points that seem to go nowhere and bring more people into this that don't need to be there to begin with. The idea of the bank robbery to find a bit of money for the experience is an odd one to go about as it hooks them up with a psychotic veteran that they really shouldn't be friends with so this all feels like a wasted way to get that across. There's also the overlong finale that tries to be an emotional epic that didn't need to accomplish it and also causes way too many survivors for a zombie effort anyway. These here make this one fall slightly, but overall not enough from being one of the better zombie efforts recently. Rated R: Extreme Graphic Language and Graphic Violence.

A gang of bank robbers fight their way out of a zombie-infested London. When I heard the title of this film, I kept thinking there was no way this could possibly be good. The reviews were consistently positive, but that title was just so bad. Hopefully others are not scared off by the lame name, because the critics were right -- this is a winner. We have a rocking soundtrack that keeps the pace and flow going, one of the best chase scenes ever put to film, some clever moments in a subgenre (zombie films) that should be completely used up by now... and some elderly folks with big guns. Others have said this is "Shaun of the Dead" meets "Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels". That may be fair -- it is as good as both of these films, and really needs to be seen. I can see it becoming a cult classic alongside "Shaun"...