Mutant Vampire Zombies from the 'Hood' (2008)
** (out of 4)
First off, if you're coming to a movie with a title like this, you really shouldn't be expecting the work of Orson Welles. A solar flare crosses paths with the Earth, which turns most people into the title characters. There's a small group of survivors in Los Angeles and they're quite an interesting mix as we have white cop (C.Thomas Howell) and rival black and Chinese gang members. At just 81-minutes and featuring a terrific title, MUTANT VAMPIRE ZOMBIES FROM THE 'HOOD' is just what you'd expect to see at a drive-in forty-years ago when this type of exploitation was getting produced in mass numbers. Of course, today there's no way anything like this could ever come close to a theater but that's too bad because fans of trashy, silly exploitation should be able to get a few laughs out of this film, which is a lot better than you might think. Obviously the budget is extremely low but I give credit to director/co-writer Thunder Levin and his writing partner George Saunders for making up for that by delivering some nice characters, some fun dialogue and a rather interesting set-up for a good time. Having rival gangs and a cop having to team up isn't exactly the most original thing as it was done in previous movies but it works here because the characters are so memorable and most shocking is that you begin to care for them and want to see them live, which is usually something these movies never pull off. The dialogue is also fun for fans of the genre because there's mention of George Romero and various zombie pictures from the past few decades. I was also surprised to see how good the performances were including C. Thomas Howell who doesn't seem bitter about appearing in something like this and instead gives it his all. I also really enjoyed Tyshawn Bryant in the role of G-Dog. The movie features some funny sex scenes, some nudity and quite a bit of CGI gore to keep things moving. This isn't a classic or even a good movie but I think it's a good example of taking a small budget and little story and doing something good with it.
** (out of 4)
First off, if you're coming to a movie with a title like this, you really shouldn't be expecting the work of Orson Welles. A solar flare crosses paths with the Earth, which turns most people into the title characters. There's a small group of survivors in Los Angeles and they're quite an interesting mix as we have white cop (C.Thomas Howell) and rival black and Chinese gang members. At just 81-minutes and featuring a terrific title, MUTANT VAMPIRE ZOMBIES FROM THE 'HOOD' is just what you'd expect to see at a drive-in forty-years ago when this type of exploitation was getting produced in mass numbers. Of course, today there's no way anything like this could ever come close to a theater but that's too bad because fans of trashy, silly exploitation should be able to get a few laughs out of this film, which is a lot better than you might think. Obviously the budget is extremely low but I give credit to director/co-writer Thunder Levin and his writing partner George Saunders for making up for that by delivering some nice characters, some fun dialogue and a rather interesting set-up for a good time. Having rival gangs and a cop having to team up isn't exactly the most original thing as it was done in previous movies but it works here because the characters are so memorable and most shocking is that you begin to care for them and want to see them live, which is usually something these movies never pull off. The dialogue is also fun for fans of the genre because there's mention of George Romero and various zombie pictures from the past few decades. I was also surprised to see how good the performances were including C. Thomas Howell who doesn't seem bitter about appearing in something like this and instead gives it his all. I also really enjoyed Tyshawn Bryant in the role of G-Dog. The movie features some funny sex scenes, some nudity and quite a bit of CGI gore to keep things moving. This isn't a classic or even a good movie but I think it's a good example of taking a small budget and little story and doing something good with it.