“What did I just
watch?” Those were the first words out of my mouth after seeing The Dead Don’t
Die. Knowing nothing about the director and only seeing the great cast and what
seemed to be a pretty funny trailer, I was going into this movie pretty blind,
but also excited. A seemingly zombie comedy movie with Bill Murray, Adam
Driver, Tilda Swinton, Steve Buscemi, Iggy Pop, Selena Gomez, Tom Waits and
more? This seemed perfect. While it wasn’t perfect, it was still pretty
interesting…and strange.
As I said, The Dead
Don’t Die stars Bill Murray and Adam Driver as Cliff Robertson and Ronnie
Peterson, two police officers in the small town of Centerville. Strange things
start occurring one day such as electronics not working, the sun staying up for
various times, clocks stop and animals start acting strangely. This is
apparently caused by the polar fracking that has been happening. One of the other side effects of this ends up
being zombies. Cliff and Ronnie try their best to survive and protect their townspeople
from the undead.
On paper, this
seems like a fun movie and it is a decent amount of the time. I mean when you
have Tilda Swinton as Scottish or Irish (their words), Samurai undertaker who
cuts down zombies with a katana, it is going to be a good time. And that's not even the tip of the iceberg
when it comes to her character. Unfortunately for the most part though, this
movie falls a bit flat. I saw how on average it looks like it is sitting at
around fifty percent and I have to agree.
The Dead Don’t Die
has a lot of talent, and while some of them get to shine, some go nowhere. There are characters and plot points that get
either dropped or our just left completely unresolved. I often wondered why
certain characters were even there. Meanwhile though, we have a small role like
Iggy Pop as a coffee obsessed zombie that ended up being pretty funny.
A lot of the movie
focuses on this bit of deadpan humor which I love. The only side effect of this
being you have actors not being able to show what they can do, and characters
acting a bit out of the norm. This does work at times, particularly with Adam Driver's character and
provides really funny moments. Unfortunately those moments don't happen enough.
This movie also
takes quite a long time to get into the zombie aspect actually. It kept
building up to it, alluding to things not being right before moving to a
different set of characters. When we
finally get zombies, we only get two of them for a scene or two before going
back into some more set up. I do
appreciate a few things with these zombies though. While a bit in your face,
the love of the classic zombie genre is there and the practical effects for the
zombies and gore looks pretty good. I also enjoyed that the zombies didn't bleed,
it made a bit of sense. Less so when a newly turned zombie got cut and dust poured
out, but that's beside the point. I did chuckle a bit too at the zombies being
drawn to things they obsessed over while alive.
So you get zombies wanting wifi, free cable, toys, candy, tools. It
could be pretty amusing.
On the opposite
side of all of this though, we get where
this movie really bothers me. I am okay with their being a bit of a message and
social commentary in a movie. The
problem gets to be when a film hammers it in so much that it becomes less of a little
clever commentary and more of a PSA. It is very obvious through some monologues
from Tom Waits character and from other scenes that this movie is pushing anti-capitalism.
This would be fine honestly if done right. The problem is, it isn't clever with
it. It is so in your face that you grow sick of it. It also gets that way with
the polar fracking. It could have been fine as a commentary. Mention it once or
twice, even keep the government trying to
convince people it causes no harm and the scientists-know-nothing bit, it
would've been fine. Unfortunately, we hear about it constantly. Doesn't matter who the characters are, how
old they are, whether it is conversation,
magazine headline, television
news broadcast or radio broadcast, everyone has something to say on it. There might be more time spent talking about
fracking than zombie screen time. It gets a bit obnoxious and I’m pretty sure
most of my theater was fed up with it.
Where this movie
does shine though is in some of the meta humor and fourth wall breaking. When
the jokes hit, they are legitimately really funny. Most characters get to have
their moments, producing some funny lines in this almost too deadpan of a movie
at times. The film also does a good job at having the feel at times of a George
A. Romero Zombie film. Unfortunately then you get moments talking about how
great the classics are and trashing hipsters.
Despite having an
amazing cast, some really funny comedy at times , and some decent commentary
when not being overbearing, it all does not equal out to a great movie that I
would recommend paying for. If it is on cable or you can rent it cheaply, sure
give it a shot and you will get some laughs. I wouldn’t bother paying full
price to see it though. The dead may not die but my brain sure felt like it did
by the time the credits rolled.
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