Reviews

Although this is essentially X-Men (the twenty-something years) I was a big fan of the show up until the last 3 episodes of Series 4 when it started to go dramatically downhill. The first 3 1/2 series had superb humour, twists that'd genuinely surprise you and some of the best acting by a cast you'd never heard of before. And I'd never seen anything like it...

It also included two of the funniest characters ever created in Nathan and Rudy. Why Nathan wasn't brought back to give S5 a massive boost in the last episode I'll never know but it would have been great seeing him with Rudy. The closest we got was a telephone call between them in the webisode 'Vegas Baby'.

But anyway - onto S4 and in getting rid of Simon, Alisha and Kelly it just lost that spark it had and the final 2 episodes of Curtis seemed rushed and unfair. His character was only 3 episodes away from the end of the series after all. Couldn't series creator Howard Overman have let him carry on so we wouldn't have to suffer the idiot himbo Alex and the tediously dippy and unfunny Abbey in this series???

So I like to pretend that series 5 never happened as it was so awful, lazy and frequently unfunny - and a bit gross. I don't really want to have to think about tortoise shagging or who Abbey really is? Who cares? Both Alex and Abbey added precious few funny lines and seemed surplus to requirements. It was left to Rudy and Finn to try and be funny with occasional help from Jess.

And whilst I liked Jess and Finn, they weren't a match for the characters we'd lost. I found them funnier in S4 to be fair. And the final misguided story lines in S5 of Jess and Rudy getting together (like that'd really happen after she said in S4 it never would and she found him disgusting) and the rival evil 'supervillians' which were about as threatening as soggy pop tarts? Utter letdowns!

I think Overman was getting bored in the last series to be honest and that's why he farmed some episodes out to the mysterious Jon Brown (who didn't seem to appear in interviews). And his writing wasn't half as good or funny as the Misfits creator's was sadly.

All in all if you're a fan of the first few series of Misfits it's probably best you do what I did and just buy the first 4 series box set and try and shut out the pain of series 5. Just like I did with ignoring 'Teachers' last series which was equally bad without Kurt and Brian! But saying that - my mark of a low 8 would have been a 9 without the horror of woeful S5. But I can't be too harsh with the series on the whole because not liking it for one series would be the same as kicking a naughty, yet funny puppy - i.e. just plain wrong!

I saw this movie on sale in a shop, thought it intriguing but didn't buy it because I had other DVD purchases to make that day, but I decided to watch it on a well known film-watching site sometime later. I wish I hadn't bothered. It seems puzzling that quite a lot of people actually LIKE this movie on the message board!

I'm glad raters have so far given this 5.8 though (currently) which is a true reflection of how bad this film really is. I watched this film literally last night with some friends and we all have patience with zombie films, as that's our favourite horror sub-genre. But this was sadly one of the worst zombie movies I've ever seen. And I've seen a lot! Even Zombie Lake was better than this and that's saying something!

The movie started off well and mysteriously, but things went badly after the plane crash. I think it was a major mistake to not give the hero Murphy any fellow survivors to travel with and talk to for a quarter of the film.

And even when he meets the African soldier NEITHER of them asks the obvious question 'WHO ARE YOU?'. So we don't even know their names until 3/4 of the way through. This bothered me as you obviously need to know your travelling partner's name in order to warn them quickly of impending attacks. 'Hey random white guy watch out a zombie's going to attack you' obviously takes too long and won't work! Not only that but the film had a really tedious plot pattern of - drive along, stop for some reason, zombies attack, escape, drive along, stop for some reason, zombies attack, escape, repeat 10 more times - for most of the movie. There was NO tension in any of the attacks as you could see them coming each time.

It's the sort of film you can do something else whilst it's on and just look up occasionally. It severely tests the patience and doesn't entertain AT ALL. Slow zombie movies (SZM - as in the zombies move slowly not the pacing) are so old-school and passé. Don't get me wrong I like classics 'SZM', but 'FZM' (fast zombie movies) are were it's at nowadays I'm afraid. There's no threat, no menace, characters only die through stupidity, tiredness, lack of ammo, being crept up on or overwhelming odds. Fast zombie films like 28 Days Later really up the horror of zombie attacks because you literally have to run for your life. This film you can just dodge them easily with minimal effort. The only 'slow zombie movies' which work are Shaun of the Dead and Zombie Flesh Eaters and the original Night of the Living Dead (of course), and that's only because of the skill of their talented directors in building tension and menace. The Ford Brothers just don't cut it sadly.

In the end I actually felt guilty for urging us all to watch this for the novelty of an African-set Zombie film as it was so long and tedious and none of us deserved to have to go through the boredom of having to watch it. 1h45 felt like 3hrs. Indeed, one of my friends even started wrapping Christmas presents halfway through it was going that badly!

If you're planning on watching this film then don't bother. Watch an entertaining zombie film like Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland, (REC), Dead Snow, 28 Weeks Later, Dawn of the Dead (the remake) or Zombie Flesh Eaters. DO NOT WATCH THIS FOR ENTERTAINMENT. You'll be disappointed. When the only positives I could come up with for this film are novelty value (and thus my 1 point score) and realistic CGI blood splatters you know this movie should just return to the grave - and stay there!