The worst thing about Undead or Alive: A Zombedy is not necessarily the film itself--and it's bad--but all the interviews and marketing plugs I've read or seen with the director, Glasgow Phillips. He continually plugs the film by saying things like "If you're not sold at 'Zombie Western,' then I don't think you're one of our customers" (from an eFilmCritic interview). That's basically a cutesy way of saying the film has nothing of value other than the fact that it happens to be an amalgam of two genres of film.
The wannabe campy slasher film reminds me more of a drunken high school attempt at slurred comedy and oozing gore than an actual feature film of any substance (and b-movies have some sort of substance!). The plot's typical of any zombie film--and that's not necessarily a bad thing. But the delivery is what's really lacking. Chris Kattan (Saturday Night Live) and James Denton (Desperate Housewives) play washed-out characters who don't take their situation, or each other, seriously. The entire film is reminiscent of a bad comedian laughing at his own bad jokes.
After the film, during the Q&A session (SXSW), someone described the film as Blazing Saddles meets Shaun of the Dead. But Blazing Saddles was funny and Shaun of the Dead was decent camp. This film is neither.
The wannabe campy slasher film reminds me more of a drunken high school attempt at slurred comedy and oozing gore than an actual feature film of any substance (and b-movies have some sort of substance!). The plot's typical of any zombie film--and that's not necessarily a bad thing. But the delivery is what's really lacking. Chris Kattan (Saturday Night Live) and James Denton (Desperate Housewives) play washed-out characters who don't take their situation, or each other, seriously. The entire film is reminiscent of a bad comedian laughing at his own bad jokes.
After the film, during the Q&A session (SXSW), someone described the film as Blazing Saddles meets Shaun of the Dead. But Blazing Saddles was funny and Shaun of the Dead was decent camp. This film is neither.