"Return of the Living Dead 3" is another slice of Brian Yuzna badness...horrid acting, gore that looks like red Kool-Aid, weak script and even weaker characters. Now, I understand that Mr. Yuzna has an interesting approach to sequels (taking the bare bones of the predecessor and making something original of it), but this second follow-up to Dan O'Bannon's witty and gory "Return of the Living Dead" is nothing to crow about. A hopeful young drummer named Kurt (who is on his way to Seattle to be in a band...how ironic) gets into a motorcycle accident, killing his girlfriend (Mindy Clarke), and in a fit of passion, revives her with a chemical at a nearby military base; she comes back, with a taste for human flesh (you know the drill). Aside from her tendency to chew on people, the girl is the more rational-minded of the two, while Kurt spends most of the movie screaming hopelessly (a horror gender reversal...or just bad writing?). They're eventually pursued by a group of military men AND a gang of stereotyped Latinos in a sewer, of all places...unfortunately, Yuzna can't build suspense to save his life, and the bad acting here is always too sincerely straight to merit many laughs. Only a few minor elements impressed me: Clarke's body piercing 'suit' is imaginative, and the character of Riverman is over-the-top funny (intentionally, I think). But the zombies--this movie's bread and butter--are lame, unconvincing concoctions, and the ending seems to have lifted an idea or two from "Shock Waves" (zombies as the perfect weapon?).
To its credit, RotLD 3 is better than the first sequel, but that's not saying much.
2/10
To its credit, RotLD 3 is better than the first sequel, but that's not saying much.
2/10