Sign up to add this to your collection
|
Sign up to add this to your favorites
|
|
38%
Overall Rating
|
|
Ranked #10,472
...out of 20,875 movies
|
Sign up to check in!
|
A group of rough 'n tumble marines led by Captain Jurgens are sent by the powerful company Tyler Inc. to investigate reports of a zombie outbreak on a remote pacific island where a series of secret scientific experiments are being conducted. Dr. Sharon Dimao, who's the traumatized lone survivor of a previous zombie rampage, accompanies the team on their desperate rescue mission.
--IMDb
|
|
Review by Chad
Added: June 27, 2011
Just before his passing in 2007, cult trash director Bruno Mattei returned to his roots with a pair of zombie movies. Island Of The Living Dead was the first of them, and after sitting through that one, I was saddened when I couldn't say that he went out on a high note: it was a forgettable film with only a few bright spots, and as much as I may respect the man, I simply couldn't recommend it. Zombies: The Beginning is the sequel to that film, and to say that I was looking forward to this one would be a stretch... but I decided to take one for the team and pop it in if for no other reason that to give one final "Thanks" to the man for all of the trash he released over the years. It's certainly a Mattei film, and shockingly, it was actually pretty damned good.
Remember how Sharon (Yvette Yzon) died and turned into a zombie at the end of the previous film? Well, ignore that. She was actually taken to a hospital and nursed back to health, and although she is now physically fine, she is plagued with nightmares of the events on that island. Nobody believes her story though, and she eventually turns to religion to soothe her soul... until, that is, a research company approaches her and tells her that they believe her story. You see, this corporation found the island and they saw the zombies for themselves, and not only that, but they captured some of them for research purposes. They were taken to another island where a crew of scientists would perform their experiments and whatnot, and then... nothing. The company has lost contact with the island, and they plan to send in a military team on a search and rescue mission. Oh, and they want Sharon to tag along as a consultant.
Upon their arrival, the team immediately notices that the island is deserted. There appear to be no survivors, and every now and then, they stumble across a puddle of blood or a dismembered limb. No human survivors on an island where zombie experiments took place and gore everywhere; gee, I wonder what could have happened here? If you guessed correctly, then you may realize what is in store for this military team, but if not, it involves a huge horde of flesh-hungry zombies and lots of soldiers who will soon join the undead ranks. Throw in a company representative who wants to save the zombies for research purposes, zombie babies being implanted into human women, a killer gorilla, and a giant brain in a huge jar and you have the storyline for Mattei's final film.
Bruno Mattei is commonly known as a rip-off director, and this film was no exception. The overall storyline is a nearly scene-for-scene rehash of Aliens (only, with zombies instead of aliens and zombie babies instead of face-huggers), there are a handful of stock-shots ripped from Crimson Tide, and hell, even Bill Goldberg's WCW theme music is thrown in a couple of times. This is to say nothing of the recycling of shots from Island Of The Living Dead, as courtesy of Sharon's nightmares, we get to see all of the good parts from that movie one more time during the first forty minutes. This may turn off some viewers, but this was nothing new for Mattei, and it actually didn't hurt the movie. I mean, if you're going to rip off a storyline, you might as well rip off a good one, right?
You see, with all that aside, this is actually an entertaining movie. It's slow going for the first half hour or so, true, but once they get to the island, it picks up and never slows down again. There are tons of zombies, the makeup effects on them are damned nice, there's plenty of disposable characters to ensure a steady supply of gore, and thanks to the rip-off of Aliens, there's a good storyline to keep it all moving along at a nice pace. It's a little silly at times, I'll go ahead and throw that out there (zombie babies and a killer gorilla that shows up for one scene and is never mentioned again) but you can never accuse it of being dull. Besides, how can you bitch about zombie babies when they are covered in gore and tearing people apart? How can you complain about a giant gorilla when it shows up, literally rips somebody in half, and then disappears without a single mention? It's cheesy, but it's fun.
Really, if you can accept everything that I mentioned in the previous paragraph, you're going to love this one. It's a rehash and it's cheesy at times, but yes, it is also damned entertaining. The only real negative, in my opinion, is the dubbing problem that I mentioned in my review of the previous film. This was originally shot in Italian and dubbed to English, and as far as I can tell, you can not get your hands on a copy the original language version with subtitles. The dubbing wasn't quite as bad this time around and you'll eventually learn to ignore it, but it's definitely noticeable.
Overall, Bruno Mattei's final film is one of his finer works, and yes, I can say that he went out with a bang. The effects are great, there is plenty of gore to keep the gorehounds interested, the storyline is classic Mattei trash (I mean that in a good way), and the overall film is as sleazy as anything he released back in the eighties. 8/10 - Rest In Peace.
|
|
#1:
Ace Brewer
- added June 27, 2011 at 12:25pm
Definitly better than part 1!!
|
|
|
#2:
Ace Brewer
- added June 27, 2011 at 12:27pm
Also the way it was filmed is distracting. It is
filmedand has the look like a soap opera.
|
|
Rate Movie? 
