Dead Trigger

If ever a movie could be described as half-arsed it's Dead Trigger. From the acting, script, direction, plot and overall execution it just falls flat on its face. And while some films fall into the category of so bad it's good, Dead Trigger is just plain bad.

The plot is all over the place, stuff happens with little to no logic or explanation given. None of the protagonists make any sort of impact whatsoever. I've seen cereal boxes with more personality and when anyone dies the only thing you feel is indifference.

Dolph Lundgren spends the entire movie with a dish cloth round his neck. I don't know why.

The only scene that stands out is the one where a recruit, who was boasting about his shooting prowess, comes face to face with a zombie, freezes in terror and drops his shotgun, somehow blowing his head off.

If you like zombie movies avoid this like the plague.

If you like Dolph Lundgren movies go elsewhere. This is really not worth your time or money.

The sole reason for why I picked up a copy of "Dead Trigger" (aka "Zombie Shooter") was because it is a zombie movie. Yeah, that is sufficient to make me have an interest in watching a movie. However, reading the synopsis for the movie and the fact that Dolph Lundgren starred in a zombie movie, wasn't exactly factors that made me feel overly thrilled about watching "Dead Trigger".

Now hold on for a second, Dolph Lundgren does put out the occasional entertaining action movie for sure, but starring in a zombie movie? Not so sure that it was going to be the ultimate combo.

And my fears came true, because Dolph Lundgren is not particularly suited for a zombie movie, despite having done one prior to this one already, which wasn't particularly outstanding either. Or perhaps it was the fact that he seems very disinterested in the script and movie and was just there to cash in on a paycheck. It definitely felt like that given his performance and demeanor throughout the scenes he was in.

The storyline and script in "Dead Trigger" was fairly straight forward, albeit to the point where you need zero brain activity to keep up with the movie. You just switch to autopilot mode and sit back and watch the movie. The ultimate point of the movie, as revealed at the end of the movie, that couch potatoes sitting at home playing online shooters can become elite military personel trained to kill zombies and save the world was just a slap in the face. Playing online shooters gives you absolutely zero real-life skills worth of any proper job.

For a zombie movie, then "Dead Trigger" wasn't particularly outstanding. The zombie make-up and special effects were adequate, just don't expect anything overly gory or interesting in terms of decay and zombie injuries. It had an up-scaled low budget feel to it, but still managed to fair well enough, and the effects served their purpose. The horrible CGI animated blood sprays was just laughably bad to look at.

As for the acting in the movie, well let's just say that you shouldn't be expecting anything in terms of character development, dramatic acting, or anything even close to that. This was low budget to the core.

I managed to endure "Dead Trigger" to the end, despite my attention failing twice throughout the course and I started doing other things. But returning to the movie 5 minutes later revealed that nothing important had been missed. I've watched it once now, and can honestly say that this foray into the zombie genre didn't even leave as much as a dent.

Oh dear where do you start with this? The terrible zombie effects, the characters so poorly written you don't care even a little bit about them, the terrible action and fight scenes. Guns with endless ammo, bargain bin script. Only Dolph Lundgren it seems is aware of what kind of movie he is in and plays it corny. Some fun if you want to crack open some beers with friends and have a giggle, otherwise avoid this one.

Unfortunately this was a "professional" job. I loves me some Dolph, but this one was hard to get through. I just pretended it said "Troma" on the case, and it made it a little easier to take.

Here's an example of the stellar writing: Forgettable character #1: I've never shot a gun before Forgettable character #2: Speak for yourself, I was... something something blah blah blah

Um... Forgettable character #1 WAS speaking for himself. The sentence literally started with "I've". Please, people... pass any English scripts by a native English speaker to look for such obvious problems with common phrases. I wouldn't even call this an idiomatic expression, just an abject failure to understand a very straightforward sentence.

Another example: At one point, the heavily armed characters pile into a pickup truck to make their getaway, and the four in the bed of the truck continue firing at zombies BEHIND THEM as they speed away. What is that meant to accomplish apart from wasting ammo? Luckily (for them) they rarely acknowledge the need to reload and never EVER run out of bullets, or this would have been a much shorter movie.

There's only one reason why I picked this up - the recent Dolph Lundgren horror comedy "Don't kill it", which was a decent no-brainer. "Dead trigger" falls way below decent.

There are so many flaws that I don't know where to start. First of all, Dolph Lundgren should never wear a scarf. You'll see why. I hope you don't though, 'cause it's not worth watching this 10yr olds vision of a good zombie flick. The story - what was it exactly? There are a lot of seriously underdeveloped charachters dying all the time & in the end you have no idea what, who and when held any importance. Towards the end of the movie, you're just not entirely sure what is and was going on - random characters just pop out of nowhere. It's a real structural mess, like, who funded this damn script? I can't even put together the plot in one sentence - IMDb plot synopsis for this movie doesn't sound much like the actual content of this failure of a horror. And the 'plot twist' at the end? Didn't get me, not one bit. The next most cringy thing about "Dead Trigger" were the performances - it seems like they learned their lines right before shooting and went ahead with all the first takes. Even poor Dolph was not acting much, just talking and 'screaming' in the same constant low voice & making the same mildly concerned face. Most of dialogue was real bad, as you'd expect, a lot of it - also pointless and unessential. But wait, even more cringier were the special effects - all digital and real dirt cheap lookin'. Cuts, bullets wounds or any other origins for those splashes of blood were never to be seen as well - it's a real annoying "on the nose" thing. While it looked like they had gotten some decent enough locations, the props and costumes looked like they were rented in the nearest paintball store.

Basically, "Dead Trigger" shoots blanks and reeks of crappy filmmaking. If you're expecting a fun time, hilarious moments and whatnot - don't, it's gonna be funny maybe for the 1st half an hour, that is, if you don't watch it alone. A passable snoozefest with a generous cringe topping. My rating: a well deserved 2\10.