I have always been a fan of the zombie movies, from the classics like “Dawn of the Dead” to “World War Z” and “Zombieland”. Unfortunately, there have also been some films in the genre that should have not even been made. Regardless, when I see a new zombie film comes out, it gets my attention, especially when it has a top-notch cast, but the question is, should have it been made, or had the idea stay buried.
“The Dead Don’t Die” is directed by Jim Jarmusch (Peterson) and stars Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Tom Waits, Chloe Sevigny, Tilda Swinton, Steve Buscemi, and Danny Glover. It takes place in Centerville, Pennsylvania, where police chief Cliff Robertson (Murray) and his partner Officer Ronnie Peterson (Driver) monitor the streets. When arctic drilling messes with the Earth’s rotation, the dead start coming back to life, and what follows is the chief and the townsfolk trying to deal with the very uncommon crisis.
I did enjoy the look of this film, which is done right. When it comes to the acting, there an incredible cast, and I was expecting more than what I got. There were some great comic one-liners, but not enough but not enough to overcome how most of the cast acted like they were literally on Ritalin. If a person is being attacked by zombie, they should not have the mindset as if they are about to go to sleep. It was like “Oh look, someone over there is being killed by a zombie, oh OK, that is nice, let’s just keep on driving and act like we are going to take a nap”. Plain and simple, I just did not get it.
For a zombie movie, this moves at a snail’s or zombie’s pace, with the first forty-five minutes just dragging and dragging. When the zombie attack actually happens, it was just like “hey, we are being invaded, oh that is nice”. This film was so un-like what is normally the reaction of what a police force would do in this situation. There was also a theme that runs through the theme that would have been fine once or twice, but doing it over and over again got old real fast. I had high expectations, and this movie was a slow moving flop, with some good comedy (and bad) that was not able to save it. Plain and simple, I will never watch this film again or even recommend it.