Army of the Dead [Zack Snyder, Netflix]

pixelburp

Synder's second film for 2021 alongside the Justice League redo. Announced in 2008 but Netflix acquired it in what seems like a classic case of "nobody else wanted it" scenario familiar at this stage. There's apparently a trailer coming soon...

It stars David Bautista, the premise being a bunch of criminals breaking into a Las Vegas casino during a zombie outbreak


https://twitter.com/ZackSnyder/status/1363501327184134146

Agent Coulson

I have to say I have been looking forward to this since it was announced by Netflix two years ago as I actually really liked Snyder's Dawn of the Dead.

FortuneChip

More interested in this than his Justice League movie anyway.

As said, Dawn Of The Dead was really good.
Fan of Garret Dillahunt, and you can only assume Bautista is well suited for this sort of movie.

Dades

I thought this sounded like the best concept ever when I heard it first.

Had no idea it even in production. Yay!

pixelburp

Dades wrote: »

I thought this sounded like the best concept ever when I heard it first.

Had no idea it even in production. Yay!

It feels like a perfect B Movie, almost Grindhouse level of a story, I'm just not sure Synder is the man to pull it off. He takes stuff so seriously I'd wonder has he the right senses to have some fun with the idea.

WrenBoy

I've put this on my watch list.
Can I just say imo Dave Bautista has no business being as good as he is. He was just supposed to be head henchman or the boss before the final boss in Action flicks like Stone Cold or Triple H before him but I think he's great, even in the shlocky stuff he's usually the best part. Don't know why but I think he's neat. Only the Rock has done as well after transitioning from wrestling to acting with pants on. :pac:

Dades

Yeah, I'm a fan of Big Dave as well! Very watchable onscreen.

pixelburp wrote: »

It feels like a perfect B Movie, almost Grindhouse level of a story, I'm just not sure Synder is the man to pull it off. He takes stuff so seriously I'd wonder has he the right senses to have some fun with the idea.

Dawn of the Dead was great, but BvS was soooo grim I hated it.

The publicity stills suggest it will be more action madness than navel gazing.

pixelburp

Dades wrote: »

Yeah, I'm a fan of Big Dave as well! Very watchable onscreen.

Dawn of the Dead was great, but BvS was soooo grim I hated it.

The publicity stills suggest it will be more action madness than navel gazing.

I hope so because when I first read of this I thought "urgh, more Synder", but now I'm wondering. Thinking if Synder might find new fans and plaudits if he just embraced his inner trash merchant, and pivoted away from the earnestness. And that's not meant as an insult, junk food is good for the soul, but it's plainly obvious (at least to this opinionator) that Synder on Serious Mode can be a bit of a drag. But his highly stylised schtick would go well with something more flash-fried.

EoinMcLovin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H83kjG5RCT8

Agent Coulson

pixelburp

I wonder if Capcom's legal department is speculating if they have a case; some of that really felt like it was riffing on Dead Rising 2.

Very much a teaser, that video. Hard to be totally sure of the tone, but yeah. It looks like we might finally get some "fun Synder". One can only hope.

yourdeadwright

Dades wrote: »

Yeah, I'm a fan of Big Dave as well! Very watchable onscreen.

Dawn of the Dead was great, but BvS was soooo grim I hated it.

The publicity stills suggest it will be more action madness than navel gazing.

Didn't Chris Delia get replaced due to all the allegations ,


He would have provided a nice comedy aspect in this , not sure who replaced him,

pixelburp

yourdeadwright wrote: »

Didn't Chris Delia get replaced due to all the allegations ,

He would have provided a nice comedy aspect in this , not sure who replaced him,

IIRC, Tig Notaro.

yourdeadwright

pixelburp wrote: »

IIRC, Tig Notaro.

Off course they replaced him with a women , I should have guessed cause wasn't the scandal to do with texting women or something ,

pixelburp

yourdeadwright wrote: »

Off course they replaced him with a women , I should have guessed cause wasn't the scandal to do with texting women or something ,

Honestly I had never even heard of D'Elia, but had Notaro, finding her quite funny, so seemed like a smart move from my PoV

dubstepper

Looking forward to this. Dawn of the dead was good fun. One quibble would be the value of cash in a post apocalyptic world?

Xaniaj

yourdeadwright wrote: »

Off course they replaced him with a women , I should have guessed cause wasn't the scandal to do with texting women or something ,

Texting underage girls and sending unsolicited pics as far as I can remember.

Looking forward to this, I'm a sucker for zombie movies!

Dades

dubstepper wrote: »

Looking forward to this. Dawn of the dead was good fun. One quibble would be the value of cash in a post apocalyptic world?

I thought the zombie outbreak has been contained to Las Vegas or something so it wasn't a global thing.

I'm on board with that anyway!

dubstepper

Dades wrote: »

I thought the zombie outbreak has been contained to Las Vegas or something so it wasn't a global thing

Right, that makes more sense. I'm in either way

pixelburp

IIRC that was the premise of Dead Rising 2 as well, the outbreak isolated to Las Vegas - I think that world also had a cure so it wasn't as much of a guaranteed apocalypse either.

As outbreaks go, Las Vegas probably isn't the worst, given its a city smack bang in the middle of the desert and would disappear within a couple of years were the water and electricity turned off. I imagine it'd be an easier population centre to isolate.

B.A._Baracus

pixelburp wrote: »

I wonder if Capcom's legal department is speculating if they have a case; some of that really felt like it was riffing on Dead Rising 2.

Very much a teaser, that video. Hard to be totally sure of the tone, but yeah. It looks like we might finally get some "fun Synder". One can only hope.

Yeah! Dead Rising 2 immediately comes to mind.

Agent Coulson

May 21st

titan18

I liked his Dawn of the Dead so hopefully this will be as good

Fysh

titan18 wrote: »

I liked his Dawn of the Dead so hopefully this will be as good

That was screenwritten by James Gunn, who isn't attached to this film. I wouldn't bet on this being the same quality as DotD 2004, although we might be lucky...

pixelburp

Fysh wrote: »

That was screenwritten by James Gunn, who isn't attached to this film. I wouldn't bet on this being the same quality as DotD 2004, although we might be lucky...

Tonally alone I suspect the two movies will be quote divergent. The Dawn remake was a serious beast, strong on the drama and tragedy of the situation. Army appears more like it's going for a fatalistic fun heist.

B.A._Baracus

Just realized something more about this movie :pac: (Dead Rising related)

but lets define "irony"? :pac:

- So Zack Snyder directed Dawn of the Dead in 2004 (A remake of the George A. Romero movie)

- Then in 2006, Japanese video game developer Capcom releases Dead Rising. A game set in a shopping mall in Colorado during a zombie outbreak. Sound familiar? ... Capcom even went as far as to put "This game was not developed, approved or licensed by the owners or creators of george a. romero's dawn of the dead" on its boxart to try and avoid legal troubles (you can view the image here)

- Dead Rising 1 was a commercial success so work for a sequel is greenlit. In 2010, Capcom releases Dead Rising 2. This time it's set in the fictional casino town of "Fortune City, Nevada" (it's reallyLas Vegas even complete with the strip)

- During the events of the Dead Rising 2

it is revealed the bad guy caused an outbreak of zombies to rob casinos!

:pac:

- Here we are in 2021 and Snyder is directing Army of the Dead which is about a bunch of guys using the zombie outbreak to rob a casino.


Checkmate huh?

Fysh

pixelburp wrote: »

Tonally alone I suspect the two movies will be quote divergent. The Dawn remake was a serious beast, strong on the drama and tragedy of the situation. Army appears more like it's going for a fatalistic fun heist.

I mean... It's also the film that used Richard Cheese's cover of Down With The Sickness for a montage and had a big A-Team/MacGuyver nod with the van bit towards the end. I remember it managing to find moments of humour in between the misery without fumbling the tonal shift (which Gunn is good at and Snyder, from what I've seen, is bloody awful at ).

EoinMcLovin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tI1JGPhYBS8

pixelburp

Huh. Not sure how I feel about the "Zombie tribe" idea. Was hoping for something a little more standard, but we'll see. Still looks like it could be a bit of fun.

Dades

pixelburp wrote: »

Huh. Not sure how I feel about the "Zombie tribe" idea. Was hoping for something a little more standard, but we'll see. Still looks like it could be a bit of fun.

Yeah that threw me a little. I like my zombies fast but stupid.
Still absolutely cannot wait for this.

That Kenny Rogers track...

Joe Don Dante

looks a fun movie . a very good tailer, music makes it ever better

Agent Coulson

Oh that looks so much fun.

Slydice

EoinMcLovin wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tI1JGPhYBS8

:eek: Oh my goodness!

Well.. that trailer is very good!

silverharp

why would $$ be worth anything?

Mickeroo

silverharp wrote: »

why would $$ be worth anything?

Impression I get in the trailer is that normal society is ticking away and zombies are cordoned off in vegas. Doesn't seem to tie in with the Dawn of the Dead remake where society had completely collapsed (I had thought this was set in the same universe).

pixelburp

Yeah; if Las Vegas was cordoned off in time, while the rest of the US continued as "normal", then the cash left in the city would be there for the taking for anyone brave/stupid enough to enter the fallen city.

silverharp

ok thats believable

Mickeroo

I'm not sure about the sentient zombies that have developed some sort of culture angle, just makes it look like they are fighting orcs from lord of the rings in some parts of that trailer.

FortuneChip

Beware the Snyder trailer!

(Looks great of course, but we don't always get what his trailers promise)

CatFromHue

Not always a huge fan when there's Zombie/Alien/Predator dogs or when Zombies gain intelligence but that still looks great!

Slydice

FortuneChip wrote: »

Beware the Snyder trailer!

(Looks great of course, but we don't always get what his trailers promise)

eeeeeehhhhhh... I'd be more inclined to lump it into the Warner Brothers department. They've definitely got some epic trailer maker(s)

pixelburp

The first 15 minutes were released; it's age blocked 'cos of the gore, but something like ytprivate.com should work if you don't feel like supplying a CC or your ID The tone is ... weird. It's kinda all over the place in those 15 minutes; some of it played straight, others really winking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErlMJSL2bCw

2smiggy

pixelburp wrote: »

The first 15 minutes were released; it's age blocked 'cos of the gore, but something like ytprivate.com should work if you don't feel like supplying a CC or your ID The tone is ... weird. It's kinda all over the place in those 15 minutes; some of it played straight, others really winking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErlMJSL2bCw

something they released on purpose ?

pixelburp

Yes, the video itself is on Netflix's official channel.

gmisk

Reviews are pretty decent so far 74 percent on rotten tomatoes.

JP Liz V1

WrenBoy wrote: »

I've put this on my watch list.
Can I just say imo Dave Bautista has no business being as good as he is. He was just supposed to be head henchman or the boss before the final boss in Action flicks like Stone Cold or Triple H before him but I think he's great, even in the shlocky stuff he's usually the best part. Don't know why but I think he's neat. Only the Rock has done as well after transitioning from wrestling to acting with pants on. :pac:

Yes Batista doing well out of WWE, he is picking good roles which play to his strengths, his dead pan comedy style suits too

It must kill pretty boy Orton that Batista the big star of Evolution now in big movies :pac:

Slydice

Well now I've got my hopes up that Snyder saw what Villeneuve did with Bautista in Bladerunner and might be running with it.

titan18

I liked it, although the camera work is a bit annoying/off-putting at times as it has this distorted/out of focus effect in some scenes.

Salty Crew

Really good fun. Really enjoyed that.

Parts of the story reminded me a lot of Aliens. Also a nod to An American Werewolf in London near the beginning. At least that's what it reminded me of.

Xaniaj

Twas grand but nothing too special.

Chris_Heilong

Just finished it, It was fun enough, I like the call backs to American Werewolf in London....and Aliens....and the Omega man. The action was solid and it had many original elements to keep it interesting, a few cliché things happen here and there which is very predictable but it does not take away from the fun.