[Undead Or Alive]
Plot:An apachee warrior set's out to seek revenge on the ones who killed her people. In doing so she ends up hooking up with a local bank robber in preparation for a mission to attack a local army post. Things don't go as planned however when both discover a curse placed upon the land by Apache Geromino, has turned everyone in the area into the walking dead.

Cast:Navi Rawat, Chris Kattan, James Denton, Chris Coppola, Leslie Jordan, Matt Besser, Brian Posehn, Cristin Michele.

My Thoughts:Woo....awful.

Review:I am not exactly sure of the official tally of how many are out there, but films that mix the buddy comedy and horror genres together are certainly not horror films I will be anticipating in the near future. So is the dilemma with "Undead Or Alive". The film is set in the old west, where a U.S. allied forces deserter (Denton), and a broken-hearted cowboy (Kattan) find themselves caught in the middle of a zombie plague, brought on by the curse of Geronimo, the apachee warrior.

Yes, before good ole geronimo jumped to his death after being cornered by U.S. forces, he put a curse on all white people, and now that curse has reigned true. Denton and Kattan's on screen chemistry in the movie works for awhile, but soon it's just relegated to childish bickering and unfunny jokes. The two ironically meet in a way similar to that of Wilson and Chan in "Shanghai Noon", believe it or not, and after their initial encounter...they get arrested and put in prison with a man who is now a zombie, and killed his wife and child, which is shown at the start of the movie.

"Undead Or Alive" tries too hard to be funny, and really doesn't succeed. In fact, it fails miserably. Movies set in the wild west are rarely funny to begin with. I mean unless you're someone who lived or grew up in the sticks, both of which I am not, then I guess you'd get wild west, down home, country boy humor. I didn't, I found the humor in this film rather annoying, and the characters even more annoying. The zombies in the movie can talk, and crack jokes, which is a huge mistake.

While the backstory to the zombies being victims of Geronimo's curse is indeed a creative and likeable one, the zombies themselves are no fun to watch on screen. They only devour flesh when they're close enough to their victims. Otherwise, they shoot at them. Now sure, zombies shooting at people to incompacitate them and then make it easier for them to feast on their flesh is a scary idea on paper, but in this film...it's poorly executed. Luckily Navi Rawat, who plays Geronimo's daughter in the film...is one of the movies one and only bright spots.

I think after seeing this film, I've gained a new respect for her as an actress. She did great in her role and actually gave the film some merit. Her character for the most part is the only entertaining, and interesting character to watch on screen, and every scene she's in she brightens it up with her good looks and likeable persona. However, when she's off screen, the film falls back into poor-buddy-comedy mode with Kattan and Denton trying their best to actually do that little thing called "acting".

But Rawat with her slick moves, interesting backstory, and dedication to her mission to kill every U.S. allied soldier on the mesa makes it all look far too easy. This is probably the only or atleast one of very few horror films I've seen where the female lead has clearly and emphatically out-acted both male leads. The films final act adds more problems into the mix, with bad effects, horrible dialogue, and a few glaring plotholes.

The ending, while a surprise and pretty clever, is certainly not a likeable one in my opinion, as it conflicts greatly with the overall story. "Undead Or Alive" as a zombie movie is in my opinion, a total failure. However, I do believe that has Navi Rawat's character been the main character of the whole movie, and had a guy or two as her backup, this film then might've raised one or two of my eyebrows. But since the best actor in the movie was relegated to only being in half the film, as opposed to all of it, this flick suffered big time with two male leads totally incapable of carrying the movie.

Positives:Navis performance, the overall backstory to the zombies.

Negatives:Terrible male leads, bad dialogue, and zombies that just could not be taken even remoetely seriously. The ending also sucked.

Overall:Awful.





( Talk about it in the Forums!)



( Back to the main page)