From:
manowarkills@NOSPAMnetscape.net
Last of the Living (2009)
Director: Logan McMillan
Writer: Logan McMillan
How does this sound for an original plot? A virus, that turns anyone
bitten into a flesh craving zombie, has nearly wiped out humanity. Mind
blown, right? Writer and director Logan McMillan starts with that well
worn plot and doesn't take it anywhere in this New Zealand zombie comedy.
Morgan (Morgan Williams), Johnny (Robert Faith), and Ash (Ashleigh
Southam) are three slackers who somehow have survived the apocalypse and
the ghouls shambling High Street. Luckily for them the water and power
are still on ('must be nuclear'!), traffic lights function and the
grocery stores are packed with fresh food so our trio can continue to do
what they did prior to the consumption of man by man; hang out drinking
beer and playing the drums. When they grow bored with their current pad
it is time to move on and find another in their Ford Cortina (with a
spiky cow catcher mounted on the front bumper!).
It is while out and about looking for their newest residence that they
stumble across Stef (Emily Paddon-Brown). She claims that she has a cure
for zombieism and needs to get back to a lab located on an island in
order to save what remains of humanity. It is not clear how a cure for
the decaying, bite sized chunks of flesh missing shamblers will actually
work. If your skull no longer had flesh on it due to someone feeling a
bit peckish would you want to be brought back to life? That plot point
aside, our heroic trio team up with Stef and embark on the perilous journey.
McMillan and his crew deserve praise for getting the film made, and
securing international distribution, but there is little else to praise
about LAST OF THE LIVING. Many of the shots are out of focus, the jokes
just aren't funny and when major characters die and the viewer doesn't
care it is a sign that the script needed to bolster character
development. I can forgive working traffic signals after doomsday and
other obvious imperfections from shooting a low budget film but I can't
ignore a lack of imagination or fresh characters to liven up a genre
that has been around since George Romero's NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD.
Watch NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEB instead. That has a few laughs.
Andrew
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)