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Undead Or Alive DVD Review
Undead Or Alive DVD Credits:
Undead Or Alive Directed by:
Glasgow Phillips
Undead Or Alive Written by:
Glasgow Phillips
Undead Or Alive Cast:
Matt Besser, Chris Coppola, James Denton, Chris Kattan, Brian Posehn, Navi Rawat
Undead Or Alive Released by:
Odd Lor Entertainment
Region:
1
Undead Or Alive DVD Release Date:
11th December 2007
Our Rating: Extras Rating:

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Undead Or Alive Synopsis:

Army deserter Elmer Winslow and local cowboy Luke Budd are on the run after robbing the evil Sheriff Claypool, stealing his money and fleeing the town, they find themselves with an angry posse on their trail. Joining Elmer and Luke is an Apache warrior, who's out to wreak vengeance on behalf of her decimated people; her plan is to attack the U.S. Army wherever she can find it, and she takes Elmer up on his offer to go with her to the nearest Army outpost he knows. Their plans become complicated when they discover that, as a result of the great Apache Geronimo's curse on the white man, all the people of the surrounding areas have turned into zombies.

Undead Or Alive DVD Review:

Zombie films: they’re great, they’re fun, but they are part of a genre that is incredibly hard to keep fresh and genuinely entertaining. Glasgow Phillips’ Undead or Alive ventures out to be a genre film with a little twist. It attempts to put zombies in a western setting. Is it semi-entertaining? Yes. Is it good? Not really. I will admit that this is a novel attempt to try and make something new out of two extremely exploited genres but in the end, it doesn’t get the job done.

There are plenty of laughs throughout the film but there is an abundance of misses as well. As the opening title cards intercut with an Indian shaman sitting by a fire, we get our first unsuspected laugh. The third or so title card says “The part where you read is almost over.” That’s funny and I was in no way expecting it. But at the end of the title card sequence, I got a good idea of what I was getting myself into when the last card says, “Okay, it’s over.” They took a decent a joke and absolutely killed it within seconds. And after the main credits roll, we get the title and the subtitle that brands the film as a self proclaimed “zombedy.” Films that go out of their way to make sure you know what kind of genre they are lose credibility before they can even get underway. The laughs come sporadically through the rest of the film but everything doesn’t work as well as it could have.

Like the multitude of films in this genre, there is an excess of gore. It’s funny but it’s not all that fresh. After all, there’s only so many ways to decapitate a person or rip their flesh apart. Still, I feel like it would have been better had this film been able to show some new and stunning ways to display wild man-eating zombies. However, the gore is pretty good and no computer graphics are used to cheat any of it. As far as the zombies go, they are a mediocre choice. The film goes with zombies that transfer the curse by means of infection while decomposing and thirsting for human flesh. However, they are inconsistent. Some are mindless wanderers while others maintain their character traits. Some are quick and strong while others are slow and stupid. So, true zombie aficionados might have some complaints.

Besides the gore and the comedy aspects, the acting is good for what it is. It’s supposed to be a little over the top and zany so it works. Elmer (James Denton) and Luke (Chris Kattan) become an unlikely team of outlaws that try to escape but instead find themselves fending off zombies infected by the “Geronimo Curse.” Luckily, Geronimo’s attractive and sassy niece, Sue (Navi Rawat) is conveniently there to help them along the way. Matt Besser is great as Claypool but Chris Coppola, who plays Cletus, comes off as trying to be funny and imitate Nick Frost’s character, Ed, in Shaun of the Dead. Unfortunately, Coppola does not even come close in comparison. Besides him, the acting is on par. The plot is ridiculous but it is meant to be and the actors do a great job with it.

The Special Features on the DVD are pretty good, especially for the film they are accompanying. The commentary, which features Phillips, Kattan, Denton, and Rawat, is entertaining and provides some insight on what it took to get certain shots and what was going on behind-the-scenes. The two featurettes are pretty fun as well. In From South Park to the Wild, Wild West, Glasgow Phillips spends about fifteen minutes describing what it was like on set, how the shoot went, the talent of the actors, the problems that arose, etc. In Geronimonsters! The Zombies That Walked the West, we get about twelve minutes of what went into creating the zombies and special effects as well as the origin and history of the all inclusive set in New Mexico. There’s also a theatrical trailer that I can almost guarantee you never saw.

Undead or Alive is not something stunning and new that will knock your socks off. In fact, most likely only zombie fans will have any urge to see it. And even then, they will be split on how much they enjoy it.

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Undead Or Alive DVD review written by: Bryce Carlson

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