Review - Kill Zombie! (2012 - Dir. Martijn Smits, Erwin van den Eshof)

I wondered when I started up this disc, whether Kill Zombie! was going to suffer from the same problems that I mentioned in the recent Cockneys vs. Zombies review. It's a new zombie film after all, and I got it from Poundland. But the film commenced and the first shot was nicely done with good use of depth and foreground interest. Then subtitles appeared, followed by the original title of Zombibi. Things were looking up.

Office worker Aziz (Yahya Gaier) is ecstatic when he finally gets a date with a 'way out of his league' co-worker. His boss, being a jealous fellow, sacks him due to the amount of calls he receives from his partying brother, Mo (Mimoun Ouled Radi). Aziz visits his brother to express his dissatisfaction and ends up in a scrap with a couple of gormless buffoons. Suffice to say, they all end up in prison under the watchful eye of Kim (Gigi Ravelli). Now I know this is set in Amsterdam but I'm doubtful that they get their lady police officers to wear uniforms like this. If they do though, it's well worth moving to Amsterdam and getting arrested by an attractive woman. Anyway, where are we in the plot? Oh yeah, zombies appear.

This is in the sub-genre of zombie comedies and it's a little bit hit and miss but leans more towards the hit side. Some of the jokes are pretty obvious, but then others are more inventive and had me chuckling away. One scene in particular springs to mind where they have to kill one of their own. It goes on for a fair while but it still manages to have a good final punchline. Some of the comedy comes from Scott Pilgrim style sequences (they weren't even very funny in that film) although thankfully they are brief and not very frequent. 

The main offenders in these homages to retro games are the Barachi brothers. I may have happened to mention my severe dislike of dancers and DJs before, and now here's a new one to add to the list: cocktail waiters. The Barachi brothers are cocktail waiters. There's no point to all of that fancy flicking and posing business. Dinner ladies would vigorously shake  it for ten seconds and chuck it in a glass and the job would be done in a fraction of the time, and the end product would be exactly the same. Except you may get a side serving of flapjack. Cocktail waiters are definite show offs and the same applies to the Barachis. (It doesn't help either that they're the Deus ex machina in two situations.)

The story is a simple let's save the Princess in the spooky castle type affair with Aziz trying to rescue his new girlfriend. Gaier is great as Aziz, playing him as your everyday office worker, and taking the material seriously despite being put in some stupid situations. It's a likeable performance that allows some of the less effective moments in the film to be glossed over. Apart from the Barachi brothers the rest of the cast are all fairly non-irritating too, which makes a big change from Cockneys vs. Zombies. 

CGI blood rears its ugly head again but CGI smoke and gunshot effects join the party too for added uselessness. It's not as bad as usual because there is a fair amount of the real stuff thrown around. There is a good use of CGI at the end to show a satellite that has crashed into the roof of an office building. Yep, it looks fairly cheap, but by that point the film has built up sufficient goodwill for it to look impressive enough.

This was a pleasant surprise. It's up against Juan of the Dead  and is actually a bit better. I enjoyed both films but this has a few more laughs. Not a classic by any stretch but an entirely pleasant way to spend an evening.
6/10
evlkeith



If you like this you could also try:
Juan of the Dead, Cockneys vs. Zombies.