Skunkyrate
Gripping story with well-crafted characters
Pluskylang
Great Film overall
Dirtylogy
It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.
Geraldine
The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
Paul Andrews
Undead or Alive is set in the Old Wild West & starts as US army deserter Elmer Winslow (James Denton) rides into a small town, after getting into a fight with a Cowboy named Luke Rudd (Chris Kattan) the two are thrown in jail by a corrupt Sheriff who also steal all their money. Elmer manages to pick the jail door lock & escapes with Luke who then both rob the Sheriff in order to get their money back & a bit of compensation. Meanwhile a local man named Ben (Brian Posehn) has been turned into a brain eating zombie & starts spreading the virus turning the rest of the town into brain eating zombies, now infected the zombie Sheriff, his Deputy & a posse of men head after Elmer & Luke spreading the zombie plague wherever they go...Also known as Undead or Alive: A Zomedy this awful comedy horror Western was written & directed by Glasgow Phillips & is a stark reminder to me that I really should stop watching low budget straight to video horror, or at least choose my films a little better. Right, the problems with Undead or Alive are numerous but as a horror comedy it falls way short on both counts & as a Western it does nothing other than to set it's story in the Old Wild West. I found Undead or Alive spectacularly funny, the opening scene where various pieces of text explain some background & one reads 'for those who don't like reading it's nearly over' or something like that is just plain insulting & is a film that feels absolutely desperate for laughs before it's even started. Then a sequence in which a zombie wanders around & steps into a bucket & on a rake which bizarrely only comes up to his knee is some incredibly unfunny zombie slapstick routine. As I see comments here on the IMDb describing Undead or Alive as funny I would honestly like someone to name one funny sequence in this laugh free film, just one. The one-liners are awful, the slapstick three Stooges routines are awful, the visual gags are awful & I just can't think of one even slightly amusing moment in this misfire of a horror comedy. The character's are awful, a sheepish idiotic Cowboy who keeps a picture of his Horse in a locket & a army deserter, an evil Sheriff & his dumb comedy relief Deputy & a town of faceless idiots who get about two minutes of screen time. The only bright spark is Sue the native Indian girl who has at least some personality & is quite attractive to look at but the pluses stop there. The pacing & plotting are terrible & it's as predictable as they come.Considering that Robert Kurtzman was the special make-up effect producer, just look at some of his other credits, the make-up here is surprisingly tatty. The zombies look awful & despite what you may read the gore is limited to a few blood splatters & some irritating machine gun edited flesh biting where you can barely see anything anyway because it's edited so quickly. Undead or Alive is just a spectacular misfire on all fronts from the lame humour & jokes to the shoddy make-up & badly edited gory bits. I really am trying to understand why Undead or Alive has any positive comments for it on the IMDb but I just can't, I really can't. Like a lot of modern films there's a bit of CGI here at the end when a fort blows up & it looks terrible, this is the sort of computer effect you expect in a computer game.Apparently filmed in Santa Fe in New Mexico the films looks quite nice shot on location the production values are alright as far as the sets & costumes go but if I wanted that sort of thing I'd watch a proper Western, wouldn't I? Like much of everything else the acting sucks, the two leads in particular are annoying.Undead or Alive is a horror comedy that fails to deliver on either front in a big way, totally unfunny & with surprisingly poor make-up effects I just don't see what this has going for it. Every joke & gag is bottom of the barrel stuff & the horror is reduced to silly slapstick that just looks terrible.
FlashCallahan
Army deserter Elmer Winslow and local cowboy Luke Budd are on the run after robbing the evil Sheriff Claypool, stealing his money and fleeing the town, they find themselves with an angry posse on their trail.Joining Elmer and Luke is an Apache warrior, who's out to wreak vengeance on behalf of her decimated people; her plan is to attack the U.S. Army wherever she can find it, and she takes Elmer up on his offer to go with her to the nearest Army outpost he knows.Their plans become complicated when they discover that, as a result of the great Apache Geronimo's curse on the white man, all the people of the surrounding areas have turned into zombies.While watching the opening credits for the film 'A Zombedy' pops up into the title segment, informing viewers that this will be a comedy.As soon as i saw that, i knew this was going to be a stinker. I just didn't know how much of a stinker it was going to be.The story is dire, the performances are not too bad, but given the material they have been given to use, they look embarrassed, and come the end of the film, it all feels like 'Ghosts of Mars'.They have tried to make it seem original by setting it in the Wild West, but it's all too obvious they are trying to cash in on 'Shaun of the Dead'.More yawn of the dead.
blzbozo
I liked this movie. I say it was typically good because it satisfied any expectations I had. I don't get the bad reviews posted. It says in the beginning it's a "Zombedy" and it stars Chris Kattan...and Brian Posehn is in it too. I really don't need to say anything else after that. That's like a "get out of jail free" card. Instead it's a "if you take yourself too seriously and try to seriously critique this type of film, you're a fool" card. I've never seen a "Zombie" movie that didn't have some camp or dark humor. This is obviously more the traditional camp, but if you can't find the little things funny then you'll probably need to go out a get a new sense of humor. You're taking yourself too seriously, especially when it comes to reviewing a "Zombie Western". See it kids! It's definitely worth watching.
madrobotstudios
I've seen bad films, and I mean BAD films. I fully expected this movie to suck like an event horizon, but... It really wasn't as bad as all that.It's a zombie flick, set out west with supernatural zombies. Geronimo puts a curse on the white man, and when they're bitten by the undead, they too become zombified.The acting is good in this, nobody's phoning it in, and the only thing that was kind of iffy on this thing was the story itself. Had they played this as either serious, or as a straight comedy, it would have been good. I think they were trying for a balance of both, but that's the only thing that kind of suffers. Chris Kattan is a funny guy, and has some good lines in this, as well as James Denton, and the female lead. There are some plot holes that are small, but when you pare it all away, it's still better than Diary Of The Dead, and well worth a rental.