Zombie movie intrigue is not based on gore, whether they are runners or
walkers, or video quality. It is usually dependent on a great gimmick,
and the easiest gimmick is the location/setting.
It is kind of like "Die Hard" sequels. Strand the heroes in confined
spaces or simply offer them no exits. As long as there are a lot of
enemies, how can you mess that up...the intrigue at least? (Since
writing the first draft of this review, I have seen the fourth and fifth
"Return of the Living Dead" films, so it is not as hard as I thought in
2009). This works for all of George Romero's zombie features. If
"Flight of the Living Dead" (aka "Plane Dead") only had Bruce Willis,
all genres would come around full circle.
During a storm on an transatlantic flight, a mysterious cargo is
disturbed. As the doctors who are responsible for the contents and the
crew investigate why the plane's communications have gone down, they are
caught off guard by the undead running amok. Now it is up to a FBI
agent, a TSA agent, and a black pro golfer to regain control of the
craft before the USAF shoot them down to contain the threat.
When "Flight of the Living Dead" begins, it has a lot of potential. Sure
the exterior shots are totally CG, but it is loaded with many of the
most underappreciated character actors ever. Enough of these actors are
featured that it should be part of Universal's "Dark Universe" (if that
is still a thing). Kevin J. O'Connor and Erick Avari from 1999's "The
Mummy" and Raymond J Barry from "Rapid Fire" and "Walk Hard: The Dewey
Cox Story" all have significant roles. Unfortunately, they must have
spent the entire budget on names that will not bring the common man into
the theater.
The story starts out great. It may seem a little slow, but that is so
they can thoroughly set the continuity for the film through out. It does
a good job to maintain this, but when the outbreak occurs, you realize
that they did not set ground rules for how to handle these zombies.
This is not the rage virus, so shooting them in the ball and chest is
just done for kicks. And since they are zombies, Tiger Wood's driver to
the skull is a kill. Unless they want to associate themselves with the
lesser "Return of the Living Dead" series, just playing "Double Dragon"
through the undead is boring. Especially when there are no squibs to be
seen. The gore is too heavily dependent of computer generated effects.
Every direct-to-video zombie flick has better gore. There are a few
scenes of tearing flesh with teeth, but most of the time they pan away
when a crucial infectious bite occurs. If you are doing an unrated
zombie movie, we need a gut buster or ridiculous head being split in
half. The best we get is a nun losing her shins.
This film is like walking though a Halloween pop-up retailer. The
"Flight of the Living Dead" mayhem is only good for photos in
"Fangoria". Its script ignores the fact that it has too good a cast and
archetypes to fill it with CG-heavy violence. Leaving this movie feely
queasy would only occur as the result of consuming bad popcorn.
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