ARMY OF THE DEAD "Zombie Heist" $70 Mil Netflix Thriller from Zack Snyder and Dave Bautista

[AndyDursin]

Yup, more zombies -- but the premise is at least different this time out:

Dave Bautista has just closed a Netflix deal to star in Army of the Dead, the $70 million-budget zombie heist film that Zack Snyder will direct.

Scripted by Shay Hatten and Snyder, the adventure is set amid a zombie outbreak in Las Vegas, during which a man assembles a group of mercenaries to take the ultimate gamble: venturing into the quarantined zone to pull off the greatest heist ever attempted.

https://deadline.com/2019/04/dave-bauti ... 202589488/

[Monterey Jack]

Snyder's Dawn Of The Dead remains his best film, so if he tones down his usual all-greenscreen fetish, this could turn out to be quite good. It's nice to see him do something comparatively modest, for a change.

[AndyDursin]

I think after getting canned by DC he's basically had to go back and do something "modest".

[Monterey Jack]

I think after getting canned by DC he's basically had to go back and do something "modest".

I don't think that's a bad thing at all. Too many directors, once they get a taste of luxe, megabudget filmmaking, rarely or never go back to the kind of small, intimate films they cut their teeth on at the beginning of their careers. After the first X-Men, Bryan Singer's only "small"/non-FX movies were Valkyrie and Bohemian Rhapsody. After the first Spider-Man the only return to Sam Raimi's low-budget roots was Drag Me To Hell (which was followed up by the all-greenscreen Oz The Great & Powerful). The Wachowskis started off GREAT with the tense, sexy and witty Bound (which cost like five million bucks), but once The Matrix hit big, they never again did anything without a $150 million budget and gobs of overblown pretention. I wish more established directors would mix it up and take on movies where they don't have that cushion of gigantic studio money to fall back on instead of low-budget ingenuity. I kind of love it that Rian Johnson's first post-Star Wars gig is the modest noir thriller Knives Out (with a killer cast). How cool would it be to see Spielberg make something akin to The Sugarland Express again?

[AndyDursin]

Spielberg has made plenty of smaller-scale dramas over the years that didn't cost much (The Terminal, Munich, The Post, etc.) and has basically done that his entire career. Of course the success he's had has enabled him to do that and make whatever he wants -- a luxury most directors don't have.

But, sure, it's great someone has the ability to go back and make something more modest in scope -- especially when there's fewer and fewer theatrical releases of that type going out now (and this won't be either). I'm no fan of Snyder, but I'll give it a shot and sounds like it might be fun (even if "fun" isn't a word I usually apply to any of his films!)

[AndyDursin]

Coming May 21st -- certainly doesn't look "modest"!!

[AndyDursin]

Another Friday morning home screening.

This one taking a long time to get going....long time. Long...long....time.

[AndyDursin]

Remember when movies used to be cut for pacing? These studio less auteur pictures have no shape. Here's another one.

[Paul MacLean]

Aren't people tired of zombies, dystopias, explosions and virtually-interchangeable CGI effects by now?

[AndyDursin]

This movie is terrible. Just wretched so far.

Snyder obviously watched I AM LEGEND at some point because he's decided to turn the zombies into the same quasi functioning undead as that film, with the same emotional beat that you saw in the extended cut of that film.

[Monterey Jack]

Remember when movies used to be cut for pacing? These studio less auteur pictures have no shape. Here's another one.

It's only gotten worse with the move to streaming...why cut a movie to maximize how many screenings they can get in an opening weekend when you can deliver the "filmmaker's original vision" the first time around? This is why the "Snyder Cut" of Justice League is FOUR...HOURS...LONG.

[AndyDursin]

This movie is so bad, I find the positive reviews and Rotten Tomatoes score to be a total joke.

It's Snyder on a budget, basically, so you strip out the spectacle -- arguably the main thing he has going for him as a director -- and you're left with this mind-numbing assortment of banal, totally unappealing characters you care nothing about...with a story that is almost entirely predictable from start to finish. Throw in some I AM LEGEND so these zombies are now quasi-vampires -- and again we get a dose of Snyder's "zombie baby" fetish -- but none of it goes anywhere interesting. And the worst part? Even on a budget (which shows) for this kind of movie, it's a whopping 2.5 hours long, for no reason at all, even though the action is confined to sporadic sections of the movie and it's all mostly talk. And dull talk at that.

The best scene is the opening credits -- which promises something lively, energetic, gory and fun. What happens thereafter is only one of those things.

3/10