I can taste the stink of how badly Dance of the Dead wanted to be Shaun of the Dead (2004). It's prom night and zombies are here to crash. What we have here is a very poorly-made zomcom. The movie really feels as though it was cobbled together with pieces of better zombie movies. There are so many problems here, but I think I'll start with the walking dead themselves: they are far too lucid... they run, they talk - well, one of them says "brains" once - they drive, they can operate a camera and other devices. A strange inclusion here is that the zombies like rock music, so much that they stop what they are doing while it's playing. On a positive note: when we get zombie fights, they are good. On to the acting: Uhm, not good. Some of the cast is better than others, but overall, it's pretty weak. Though, none of that actually matters because we have so many characters, yet none of them are set up well enough to care about what they do. Next we have the comedic moments. Remember, this is a comedy. None of the humor lands. The trouble with a comedy that repeatedly bombs is that it gives you time to notice all the other problems, and here there are many. Okay, one scene at the end got a single chuckle out of me. I can tell that the movie was funny on paper, so I do not fault the screenwriter for this mess. Who do I blame? 100% the director. Who told Scorsese here that it would be a good idea to shoot the entire movie handheld?! Finally, this has to be the only zombie movie I've seen where the characters, before heading out to kick zombie ass, take a moment to say a prayer. Not joking. I just don't get it. Dance of the Dead has the right idea, most of the time, but it fails to coalesce. With a competent director, and a better actor or two, this would be like Return of the Living Dead (1985) for millennials. As is, it's bad. I would recommend this to fans of Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse (2015), however that would be an insult to your taste. Just skip this and go watch that one instead.
Review by BronsonBlockedParent2024-03-29T06:29:31Z
I can taste the stink of how badly Dance of the Dead wanted to be Shaun of the Dead (2004).
It's prom night and zombies are here to crash. What we have here is a very poorly-made zomcom. The movie really feels as though it was cobbled together with pieces of better zombie movies. There are so many problems here, but I think I'll start with the walking dead themselves: they are far too lucid... they run, they talk - well, one of them says "brains" once - they drive, they can operate a camera and other devices. A strange inclusion here is that the zombies like rock music, so much that they stop what they are doing while it's playing. On a positive note: when we get zombie fights, they are good.
On to the acting: Uhm, not good. Some of the cast is better than others, but overall, it's pretty weak. Though, none of that actually matters because we have so many characters, yet none of them are set up well enough to care about what they do.
Next we have the comedic moments. Remember, this is a comedy. None of the humor lands. The trouble with a comedy that repeatedly bombs is that it gives you time to notice all the other problems, and here there are many. Okay, one scene at the end got a single chuckle out of me. I can tell that the movie was funny on paper, so I do not fault the screenwriter for this mess.
Who do I blame? 100% the director. Who told Scorsese here that it would be a good idea to shoot the entire movie handheld?!
Finally, this has to be the only zombie movie I've seen where the characters, before heading out to kick zombie ass, take a moment to say a prayer. Not joking. I just don't get it.
Dance of the Dead has the right idea, most of the time, but it fails to coalesce. With a competent director, and a better actor or two, this would be like Return of the Living Dead (1985) for millennials. As is, it's bad.
I would recommend this to fans of Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse (2015), however that would be an insult to your taste. Just skip this and go watch that one instead.