ARMY OF THE DEAD: 3 ½ STARS
The first 20 minutes of "Army of the Dead," the new Zach Snyder movie now streaming on Netflix, are a blood pumping -- and squirting -- good time.
In the film’s opening minutes, a car careens into a military transport carrying "some Area 51" style cargo. Turns out the "cargo" is a bullet-dodging, bloodthirsty undead creature, who quickly lays waste to the security detail guarding the truck, turning them into zombies with a quick chomp.
The undead plague quickly spreads. Hardest hit is Las Vegas, which goes into the ultimate lockdown. Walled off to keep the zombies in, Sin City is now the undead capital of the world.
Into this mix comes Dave Bautista as Scott Ward, a soulful, badass leader of a ragtag team of misfits hired by a wealthy casino owner to infiltrate Las Vegas and steal a safe full of cash. The only problem? There are hundreds of well-organized zombies between them and the money.
Snyder brings the undead to vivid life in the prologue that sets the stage in an eye-popping (sometimes literally) way and if the entire movie was as inventive as the first 20 minutes, "Army of the Dead" would be a thrilling, darkly funny rollercoaster ride. But once the movie becomes a hybrid of "Oceans Eleven" and "World War Z," the exuberance fades in favour of more standard zombie fare.
Still, there are some innovations to the genre. There is a lovesick zombie, undead tigers --because it wouldn’t be Las Vegas without one of Siegfried and Roy’s big cats -- and zombie Cirque du Soleil contortionists. Beyond that, "Army of the Dead" stays true to the conventions of the zombie and heist genres, filtered with Snyder’s grim, anyone-can-die-at-any-time sensibility.
However, one major shift from typical zombie lore works well. Zombie alpha Zeus (Richard Cetrone) is as bloodthirsty as you might imagine, but he also has the capacity for love. It’s a new twist that gives his character more depth and a motivation beyond the usual mindless hunger for humans.
Is "Army of the Dead" scary? Not really. Gross? For sure. There’s enough fake blood here to fill the Dead Sea, but as stylish as the slow motion CGI plasma sprays are, the movie, at 148 minutes, feels overlong and is a bit too deliberately paced. The zombies are cool and slightly more advanced than usual, but, unfortunately, the overall story isn’t as evolved.
THE RETREAT: 3 STARS
"The Retreat," now streaming on VOD, is a survivalist horror film that sees big city couple Renee (Tommie-Amber Pirie) and Valerie (Sarah Allen) out of their element and fighting for their lives in the remote countryside.
Renee and Valerie are at the, "if this isn’t going anywhere you have to let me know" stage of their relationship. Valerie wants to go to the next level, Renee is elusive. Affectionate, but noncommittal. "I’m trying to talk to someone who clearly has trouble with adult conversation and avoiding conflict," Valerie says.
A weekend away at a cabin with friends seems like the tonic their relationship needs, but doesn’t turn out as planned. They arrive to find the place deserted with no sign of friends Connor (Chad Connell) and Scott (Munroe Chambers). Alone in unfamiliar surroundings, the couple stumble across some unsettling signs. They hear sounds in the woods and a deer’s head strung between two trees unnerves Valerie, but Renee, who used to hunt with her family, is less freaked out. "We were there to reduce the population by selective slaughter," she says, foreshadowing an inner strength that will soon come in handy.
As darkness falls, they are convinced someone is watching from the woods and soon they’re in a battle for their lives against militant extremists determined to kill them simply because they are "different." "Time to cull," says killer Gavin before the axes start swinging.
Played out over a tight 82 minutes, "The Retreat" doesn’t waste time in setting up its characters and situation. Building atmosphere and a sense of tension through the remote setting and strain between Valerie and Renee, director Pat Mills gets down to business quickly, amping up the eeriness with jump scares and a haunting soundtrack.
The scenes are effective enough, although once the darkness hits, physically and metaphysically, the film itself goes dark with low light photography that sometimes makes it hard to see what’s happening.
So far, it is a typical cabin-in-the-woods set up, but with one major difference.
What sets "The Retreat" apart from other rural survivalist films is its subtext. Horror is not often kind to LGBTQ+ characters, treating them as villains or killing them off soon after the opening credits have rolled. Here, they are front and centre. Hunted by a group of heavily armed losers simply because of who they are, Renee and Valerie fight back.
"The Retreat" is a welcome twist on the survival genre from a queer director and female screenwriter that mixes anxiety, horror and empowerment.
TRIGGER POINT: 2 STARS
"Trigger Point," a new action movie starring Barry Pepper and now on VOD, is stylish looking and features good actors, but suffers from a bad case of been there, done that.
Pepper is Lewis, a retiree leading a quiet life in a quiet upstate New York town. His days are spent at the local diner, flirting with waitress Janice (Nazneen Contractor) and sipping tea at the quaint local book store.
His home life, however, isn’t so quaint. His cabin-in-the-woods is a veritable fortress, complete with high-tech surveillance gear and drone security.
Turns out Lewis is actually Nicolas Shaw, a former superspy for a shady operation called "The Agency." In hiding after his actions resulted in the assassination of his entire team, he’s brought back into the dangerous world of international intrigue by his former handler Elias Kane (Colm Feore).
Kane’s daughter Monica (Eve Harlow) has been kidnapped by the shadowy figure who may have been responsible for the methodical murder of Shaw’s team.
So, just when he thought he was out, Shaw is dragged back in to rescue Monica and search for the man responsible for his professional and personal undoing.
"Trigger Point" director Brad Turner has a long and varied list of television credits, including episodes of "MacGyver," "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." and "Hawaii Five-O." He knows how to shoot action and where to put the camera so the movie looks good when the bullets are flying.
He’s also good at casting interesting looking, solemn-faced actors like Pepper, Feore and Carlo Rota, all of whom have tread this territory before.
It’s in the storytelling that things go south. Weighed down by tough guy banalities, there is very little in "Trigger Point" that we haven’t seen before and done better. The actors breathe whatever life they can into this collection of clichés but no amount of grim determination can elevate this above the level of a forgettable direct to video time waster.
