In Army of the Dead, Las Vegas is a walled city (of shipping containers) where inside the perimeter thousands of zombies shamble around looking for someone to eat. The U.S. Government plans to drop a tactical nuclear bomb on Sin City and destroy the zombie apocalypse once and for all.
But the owner of one of the ruined casinos hires a team of misfits to sneak into Las Vegas before the bomb hits to retrieve $200 million in his casino’s safe. The leader of the team, Scott Ward (played by Guardians of the Galaxy’s Dave Bautista), recruits Tig Notaro as a helicopter pilot and Matthew Schweighofer as a safe-cracker. There are other characters on the team, but they’re mostly muscle.
As the caper progresses, more things go wrong. Plenty of gunfights and mayhem result. In typical Zach Snyder fashion, Army of the Dead has TWO fake endings which makes the last 10 minutes of this movie painful to watch. Unless you really love zombie movies, skip this. GRADE: C
Yeah, pretty bad. Most of the characters are instantly forgettable. The actors not good enough to bring any life to them. Tig Notaro’s scenes don’t always mesh with the rest of the film. They were all shot after the film was completed and she replaced another actor. The biggest problem though is the script. Terrible dialogue, even for a zombie film. The whole sub plot with the daughter Kate is awful. Dave Bautista may be good at some things but emotional dramatic scenes are not one of them. I think a C rating is being kind. And also the film is way longer than it needs to be. Probably Snyder’s worst film.
Steve, you and I are on the same page with ARMY OF THE DEAD. Terrible “emotional dramatic scenes.” The whole daughter thing never rings true especially when Kate goes to the zombie headquarters to rescue her friend. Insane!
Snyder’s worst film is Really saying something. Wow. I like Notaro, but the clips she brought along to a recent talkshow appearance were Not persuasive.
Todd, Tig Notaro’s scenes in ARMY OF THE DEAD were edited in…and they look like they were added. Sloppy editing!
I’m a huge fan of horror movies, but zombie films aren’t high on my list. I will admit that Snyder’s first feature, the DAWN OF THE DEAD remake, is one of the great ones. Of the films that followed I’ve seen only 300 and WATCHMEN, and didn’t like either. I might give this one a try, but it’s not likely. If it actually gets made, it’ll be interesting to see what he does with Ayn Rand’s THE FOUNTAINHEAD.
Michael, I’m with you on zombies. Snyder will have to up his game for THE FOUNTAINHEAD.
Totally agree. We watched it Saturday night and fast forwarded some of it. Bautista is a lot better as Drax the Destroyer, who is at least funny. This totally lacked any sense of humor. Plus, they completely botched the ending, as you said. When the chopper crashed, what happened to the daughter’s friend, the one she searched for the whole movie and risked everyone’s life to save? Presumably, she died in the crash, but they never showed her. Nor did they show Notaro. And the final ending, presumably to leave things open for ARMY OF THE DEAD 2, was totally ridiculous. Even Bautista “turned” within a few minutes, but we’re supposed to believe that the final survivor (not to mention how he survived a nuclear explosion and the radiation) didn’t change until HOURS after he was bitten? Just dumb.
Jeff-Actually Notaro is shown slumped over in her seat after the crash.
Jeff, “just dumb” pretty much sums up ARMY OF THE DEAD.
They had to eat a lot of moldy prunes to come up with a plot line that lame. You must have been bored out of your skull to even start watching it!
Rick, ARMY OF THE DEAD was dull, dull, dull. And stupid.
I’ve heard of Bautista, but you got me at Tig Notaro and Matthew Schweighofer, George.
The German guy was new to me. Notaro does standup. She was good in series two of Star Trek: Voyager.
Jeff, Tig Nature built a routine into her standup act when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2012.
Fred, Tig Nataro–as Steve pointed out–was added to the cast at the last minute for her comic value. Matthew Schweighofer is a “European” star.
I’m not fond of zombie movies so I wouldn’t have watched this anyway!
Bob, you and I share indifference for zombie movies. But, they keep making them!
Notaro’s semi-autobiographical sitcom ONE MISSISSIPPI was a gem. I’ve attended a nightclub performance or two by her.
Zack Snyder is pointlessly overindulged by the Warner/DC film unit, who mostly seem determined to make terrible films. I’ll grant you, the DAWN OF THE DEAD remake he directed was the least bad, but I won’t say it was good. The worst I’ve seen so far has been SUCKER PUNCH, and I’ve been mostly avoiding them since, though would catch pieces of them on cable and streaming out of curiosity as to what clumsy attempts at psychodrama he was going to be allowed to throw up on screens of late. He actually manages to be worse than Christopher Nolan…also saying something.
Todd, I skipped SUCKER PUNCH because of its horrendous reviews.
They were too kind. His participation in a parody of his work on LATE SHOW/COLBERT last night was better than any of his own work I’ve seen. (To be sure, I’ve never paid extra, beyond the cable bill, to see a Snyder film.)
Todd, I’ve only watched ARMY OF THE DEAD because it was on Netflix.