Netflix's ARMY OF THE DEAD directed by Zack Snyder (TBD) 1 1

[Beige]

I'm liking the 'best of other series' actors in this:

Tig Notaro (Jett Reno - Star Trek Discovery)

Garret Dillahunt (John Dorie - Fear The Walking Dead

Theo Rossi (Juan 'Juice' Ortez - Sons Of Anarchy)

All were excellent in their 'Break-Out' roles - (Notaro still is) - so excellent casting by the Snyder team!

[Bosco685]

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After spending the better part of a decade engrossed in the world of superheroes, directing three DC films during that time, filmmaker Zack Snyder has made his return to the realm of the undead with Netflix's Army of the Dead. This is Snyder's first foray into the zombie genre since his feature debut (and still his best movie), Dawn of the Dead, was released back in 2004, and there was a question of what the director's return to the genre would look like after spending so much time with capes, cowls, and enormous tentpole budgets from Warner Bros.

 

Army of the Dead feels like a culmination of Snyder's career to this point, much more so than his recently-released cut of Justice League. With the creative freedom afforded by Netflix, Snyder returns to the genre that he's clearly best at with an exciting original story, bringing with him all of the lessons and techniques he learned from his stint with DC and a cast that feels down for just about anything. The film is a triumph for a director whose career has been mired by polarizing opinions, and it's easily the most exciting zombie film in years.

 

In Army of the Dead, a military convoy transporting a top secret government asset from Area 51 loses control of said asset outside of Las Vegas, Nevada. The asset, as it turns out, is some sort of zombie, though it's faster and stronger than most humans. Sin City quickly becomes overrun with the undead and the entire town is walled off with shipping containers, keeping the outbreak from spreading to the rest of the country. Some years later, a mercenary that fought in Vegas when it first started to fall, Scott Ward (Dave Bautista), is approached with the dangerous mission of breaking into a secure vault beneath the Las Vegas strip where millions upon millions of dollars is sitting, completely untouched. Scott puts together an eccentric and lethal team to retrieve the cash, though they're battling against both the intelligent and organized zombie horde inside, and a ticking clock, as the President of the United States has signed an executive order to drop a nuclear warhead on the city.

 

Army of the Dead is a Zack Snyder movie through and through, which does mean that you'll have to deal with a lot of slow motion actions shots and a horde of needle drop covers of classic folk songs. It's certainly messy at times and a couple of the subplots don't quite find their footing. But it's an imaginative and absolutely thrilling ride that is hard not to enjoy. If this is Snyder looks like without studio control? Please, sir, may we have some more?

Rating: 4.0/5

 

[Bosco685]

Zack Snyder's Army Of The Dead Reactions Are In, Here's What People Are Saying

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Army of the Dead will release on Netflix on May 21, but in select theaters (which is a big deal for the streaming service) on May 14. Though we have a while to wait until the film debuts, some critics have already seen it, and they’ve started to share their thoughts on social media.

 

Our very own Sean O’Connell (who knows a thing or two about Zack Snyder) got to see an early screening of the Dave Bautista-led zombie thriller, and it’s safe to say that he loved it! He called the film “legit terrifying” and a total blast, while also commending the comedy. 

 

 

Kirsten Acuna, a correspondent at Insider, also enjoyed Army of the Dead! She commended the refreshing concept and was intrigued with the storytelling.

 

 

Scott Menzel of We Live Entertainment is also singing the movie's praises. He called Army of the Dead a "violent, gory, and bloody blast." Now that's what we like to hear!

 

 

Collider's Perri Nemiroff commended Zack Snyder's direction and called it a "downright stunning display of zombie mayhem and carnage."

 

 

The reactions for Army of the Dead aren't completely positive across the board. While Brandon Katz from Observer enjoyed the humor and commends Snyder for the awesome opening credits (man, I can't wait to see those), he noted that the thriller is still pretty familiar. He said the movie sets up a "potentially interesting wrinkle with zombie culture" but then does absolutely nothing with it, and he wanted more.

 

 

 

[Bosco685]

IndieWire reviewer enjoyed a Zack Snyder production??!! 

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The best part of Zack Snyder’s uneven but largely enjoyable undead epic is the mini-movie rolled into its opening credits, and it’s worth a mini-review of its own. “Army of the Dead” opens as a brawny reanimated corpse bursts out of military captivity and infects the entire city of Las Vegas. Ever the maximalist ringmaster, Snyder unleashes a rollicking slo-mo montage of zombified revelers enacting a bloody takedown of Sin City as not one but two covers of “Viva Las Vegas” follow the action in an operatic swell of chaos that shifts from dark comedy to wartime pandemonium. Self-serious mythologizing made Snyder’s four-hour “Justice League” cut a slog; here, he gives way to a zanier style in tune with the material at hand.

 

Macabre, funny, and even a touch sad, this concise prelude is Snyder’s most satisfying piece of filmmaking in the 17 years since he made his directorial debut with a remake of “Dawn of the Dead.” Alas, nothing in the ensuing two-plus-hours rises to that same level of payoff — but Snyder sure goes for it, and “Army of the Dead” makes it fun to watch him chase that goofball energy.

 

Discerning viewers may have more than a few questions as the movie heads toward a cliffhanger that promises the franchise around the corner, but the bulk of “Army of the Dead” is self-explanatory. It’s a blockbuster that funnels the appeal of big-budget action and horror with an almost sacred reverence for the material. That’s absurd, but Snyder’s a true believer in go-for-broke escapism and at its best, the mayhem in “Army of the Dead” is an infectious zombie bite of its own.

 

Grade: B

 

[paperheart]

the Hack is back

https://www.metacritic.com/movie/army-of-the-dead/critic-reviews

[▫️]

14 minutes ago, paperheart said:

the Hack is back

https://www.metacritic.com/movie/army-of-the-dead/critic-reviews

I loved his remake of Dawn of the Dead so I’m excited for this.  Considering Dawn of the Dead got 75% on RT and his follow up is at 79% it shouldn’t be bad. 

[▫️]

After seeing all those glowing reviews Bosco posted I am even more excited. I shouldn’t be based on reviews but I am. I thought the reception would be luke warm with only horror enthusiasts giving the thumbs up. I just wish I could watch this in the theater. 
What’s unusual is that it’s appealing to RT’s top critics so far and even the bad review is good comparing it to a watered down Aliens. I’ll take it!

[Bosco685]

1 hour ago, paperheart said:

the Hack is back

https://www.metacritic.com/movie/army-of-the-dead/critic-reviews

I do remember your greatest hits track of "Joker's Gonna Bomb Tonight". Legendary!

 

[Bosco685]

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In a Screen Rant exclusive interview, Army of the Dead star, Ana de la Reguera, praised Snyder for his enthusiasm and the relationship he’s built with his fans. “He is just like a kid enjoying his work,” Reguera said. “And there's nothing nicer than seeing someone that loves what he does.”

 

She then commented on what a unique filmmaker Snyder is, addressing the fans directly:

"He does also think about the fans a lot. You guys are the core of what [he does]. I couldn't believe it when I was looking at the trailer. I was looking at the comments on YouTube channels, what they say about it, and you guys just look into every single detail. You don't take anything for granted, and he doesn't either."

 

"I think it's kind of like a collaboration between you guys. That's what I felt. And I've never been in this situation, where the fans adore this filmmaker so much. I think he knows it, and he feeds this, and he just wants you guys to be happy. I don't know; it's very interesting to watch."

Sounds like a real evil director that deserves all the hate.

[Bosco685]

Managing editor at Fandango.

 

[Bosco685]

 

[Bosco685]

From a THR reviewer that even refers to himself as a 'Snyder skeptic'.

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The opening 14 minutes of Zack Snyder’s deliriously enjoyable return to zombie mayhem, Army of the Dead, are a marvel of swift exposition. The pre-credits sequence lays the foundations for prequels to come by revealing the escape just outside Las Vegas of an undead super-specimen, a zombie “patient zero” who appears to be the result of military experimentation. Then, over main titles in dazzling neon pink, Sin City is ravaged by marauding zombies, their onslaught eventually curbed by hardass civilian characters who pause for photo portraits.

 

The soundtrack? Elvis, of course, beginning with “Suspicious Minds” before segueing into a slowed-down, swinging cover of — what else? — “Viva Las Vegas.” The whole thing is a blast that hooked even this Snyder skeptic.

 

While Bautista carries the film on his ample shoulders and the father-daughter reconciliation provides the emotional core, Julie Berghoff’s production design deserves its own star billing. The centerpiece is the interiors shot in a now-closed Atlantic City casino, while the ghost town version of the Vegas Strip was built in New Mexico, a mix of rubble and surviving structural features, with Marcus Taormina’s ace VFX team penciling in the skyline and assorted details. It’s like a war-torn theme park, the ideal setting for chaos, killing and narrow escapes. The energy and inventiveness on display at all levels here — not to mention the sly humor — make Army of the Dead an -kicking epic franchise debut.

 

[Bosco685]

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Few things make our fear-circuits fizz like a human body moving in ways that it shouldn’t. For as long as the zombie movie has been up and shuffling, this has always been its signature scare – the rickety, limb-twisting gait of its rotting antagonists, that makes us feel, perhaps on some evolutionarily implanted level, that something elementally wrong is afoot. 

 

Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead must be among the most bombastic and grandiose zombie films ever made. At two and a half hours, it’s also one of the longest – albeit still 94 minutes shorter than his recent director’s cut of Justice League. Yet it always remembers that horror, like magic, is an art form that does its best work at close quarters. The Cirque du Soleil-like contortions of its gnashing corpses have a showmanship that befits the Las Vegas setting, but they’re also unnerving on the flesh-and-blood level over which studio-made horror films so often glide.

 

As for the zombies themselves, the horde of old has now evolved into a rudimentary society of which the “shamblers” – i.e. the mindless multitudes, seen hibernating in one of the film’s most conceptually unnerving sequences – merely comprise the bottom tier. Above them pounce and skitter the muscular “alphas”, who are led in turn by a royal couple, presiding over their subjects from a hotel pointedly called the Olympus. As is the Snyder way, myth crunches into pulp at every turn: note also that the vault itself, designed by a chap called Wagner, is named Götterdämmerung.

 

The result is true operatic pulp – the kind of film in which the sudden appearance of a zombie tiger, formerly of Siegfried and Roy’s famous Vegas menagerie, can simultaneously serve as flesh-creeping horror spectacle and an outrageous bad-taste joke. “That’s crossing the line,” tuts one character, with reason, when puss initially lumbers into view. But that’s the idea, of course, and Army of the Dead does so with an extravagant, lurching panache.

 

Overall: 4.0/5

 

[Bosco685]

The Army of the Dead production journey

 

[theCapraAegagrus]

I'm not really into zombie movies, since the genre of zombies and vampires have become such a fad, but I'll have to give this a watch.

[Bosco685]

 

[Bosco685]

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As the Snyders launch a new franchise with Army of the Dead, they may have said goodbye to another with Zack Snyder’s Justice League. The four-hour film hit HBO Max in March and restored the director’s intention for the 2017 film he left following a family tragedy. So far, there’s been no public indication from WarnerMedia that more SnyderVerse is forthcoming.

 

While streaming services do not share ratings, they sometimes perform victory laps after the debut of a big project. HBO Max noted after the Dec. 25 release of Wonder Woman 1984 that nearly half of its retail subscribers had watched the movie on its premiere day. With Zack Snyder’s Justice League, there was no such announcement from the WarnerMedia-owned streamer.

 

While Snyder acknowledges she was hoping for a press release touting numbers, she maintains that in the end, the film was about giving fans closure on Justice League and the universe Zack Snyder had spent nearly a decade building.

 

This movie has been in the works for a long time and yet has a pretty irresistible logline. Are you surprised it took so long to get made?

Zack came up with the idea right after Dawn. The -script was originally written by Joby Harold. It was a great -script, but it was developed with the eye that another director was going to be doing it. At the time, a lot of these movies were made for a lower budget. Or you had a movie like World War Z, which had so much spectacle. The original -script fell in between. Oddly enough, Warner Bros. said it was too much money. They didn’t want to spend it. Legendary said, “We’ll pay the extra money,” and we said no. Which is interesting, producers saying, “Yeah maybe this isn’t the right time.” We felt the movie was not a lower-budget movie and it didn’t have the spectacle to compete with something like a World War Z. So we just put a pin in it, always thinking we’d come back to it.

 

Then after spending all these years playing with superheroes, we were talking about, “What do we do next?” And Zack was like, “I always loved that idea, but the way the -script was, I didn’t spend as much time developing it with an eye toward directing it, so I’d love to rewrite it.” We found this amazing writer, Shay Hatton, and Zack and he clicked and they wrote it together. The movie had such big scope and scale, but Zack wanted it to be very intimate in terms of how he shot it. The DC movies got bigger and bigger and the feeling was you couldn’t move because it had to be this big, gargantuan machine. Zack wanted the flexibility to be spontaneous and also the intimacy of being close to the camera.

 

Netflix has doubled down on this, with an anime series and a prequel feature.  We don’t know when the prequel comes out, but you’ve already wrapped, so it will be at some point not too far off, I imagine?

I think they were loving what they saw, but it was a bold move to develop these other projects. Everyone talks about doing those things, but you don’t want it to be four years later when they come out.

 

I don’t know when [the prequel] is coming out either, but we are in post and we are getting pretty close. We have some work to do that will continue into the summer, but what’s interesting about that film is it takes place in our world. The zombie pandemic is happening in America, and it’s causing instability in the banking and financial institutions so they are consolidating some of the money and this team goes together. It’s a heist movie, with very few zombies in it. It’s really a romantic comedy, heist movie, which is super fun.

What a difference in treatment between WB and Netflix.

[Bosco685]

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Netflix has released the first 15 minutes of Army of the Dead online, revealing the start of Zack Snyder’s new zombie apocalypse. The film stars an ensemble cast led by Dave Bautista and featuring Ella Purnell, Omari Hardwick, Ana de la Reguera, Theo Rossi, Matthias Schweighöfer, Nora Arnezeder, Hiroyuki Sanada, and Tig Notaro, among others. Army of the Dead releases in theaters on May 14 and on Netflix for streaming on May 21.

 

Set during the events of an escalating zombie apocalypse, Army of the Dead follows a group of elite commandos who attempt to rob a Las Vegas casino vault while the city is overrun by the undead. Early reviews have praised the movie’s style, cast, and absurdist zombie world, though some critics have complained of pacing issues and a story that doesn’t stay exciting all the way through. Army of the Dead is Zack Snyder’s first return to the world of zombies since his 2004 breakout remake of Dawn of the Dead.

 

The film’s first 15 minutes have been officially released ahead of the theatrical premiere, giving fans a look at all the undead-slaying action to come in the full film. Snyder has created a curious, lore-filled zombie world, which is on full display in the movie’s opening scenes. 

 

[Bosco685]

 

[Bosco685]