James Robinson

Holy smoke! Where do I begin?! As far as originality goes, this film falls really short. As a viewer, I kept waiting for something of note to occur throughout the movie. Spoiler alert: I never found it. The storyline is more about teenagers seeking safe spaces. As a tenured college instructor, I get the ongoing references about how challenging life can be. Once the struggles have been shared, move onto some action! The film felt very disjointed, and though some of the actors did well with what they had to work with, it was still not enough to spare the viewer. This film to me is a firm 1 on a scale of 10!

Ever get the sad feeling that one of your all-time favorite actor/directors has performed beyond their shelf life? In this contrived buddy film, you’ll see every cliche scenes one can conger. The relationship between Mike, played adequately by Clint Eastwood, and an adolescent boy is too easily adjoined. Of course they stay one step ahead of the “Federalis” throughout the film. It was very difficult to continue watching since you can predict everything that’s going to happen. If you’re super bored and have a choice between watching paint dry and this movie, you should still flip a coin.

This is one of the best films I’ve ever seen. It is steeped in character development, so you actually care when something good, or bad happens along the way. Korean films really hit the mark on so many subtle aspects that American film miss. Without spoiling this film for others, I will tell you that much of the storyline is difficult to watch, especially when the children are on the screen. In American films, there often a suggestion of what occurred due to the sensors imbedded by the Motion Picture Association. These filters don’t really seem to exist for foreign films. There’s nothing gratuitous, as in Sam Peckinpaw’s movies, but there’s enough graphic violence to allow viewers to fill in the void, as they say. The leading character in this movie should’ve won the highest award available in Korea, as he was so believable in this role.

“Army of the Dead” is typical of today’s over-the-top approach to film-making. It fails to develop most of the characters, so when they parish one by one, you don’t flinch or have any emotional involvement whatsoever. It’s an absurd plot, with an absurd cast of unbelievable characters that leads to a real sub-mediocre film. You can see things well before they happen, as the director makes no attempt to harbor what’s coming next. There are a couple of jump scares, but other than that, you may consider something else to “eat up” your time. If you don’t mind absurdity wrapped in predictably, smothered in sameness, then by all means watch this film. Like so many others that claim the same, you’ve been warned.