Le Retour des morts vivants II

I saw this on the Sci-Fi Channel yesterday, and I was meaning to rent it for a while, so I was glad I'd get a chance to see it. And despite how amazingly mindless this was, it was so entertaining, and kept my interest the whole duration of the film.

Young Jesse is going to be initiated into some club, led by bully and tough-guy Billy. They find a drum of toxic gas at the graveyard, and open it up, only for Billy to be covered in the stuff, and Jesse locked in the mortuary. Meanwhile, teenaged Johnny is leaving his ditzy girlfriend Brenda for a night to help out Ed, who needs to get the heads of some buried bodies for some museum or science lab, I don't remember. They find Jesse, who then escapes home, where his older teenage sister Lucy berates him for being out, and locks him in the room when the cable guy, teenaged Tom, shows up. This is all just the setup of characters when the gas from the drum escapes out into the graveyard, and even comes in contact with Ed and Johnny. Soon, zombies are rising up for fresh brains, and after the town is evacuated (except for the select few, who don't get away) and sealed off by the army, all hell breaks loose. With the help of Doc, next door to Jesse and Lucy, the handful of likable characters fights to escape and survive, all up to the surprisingly suspenseful climax.

This is by far one of the most brainless horror movies, seeing as that it has more comedy than horror, but my God, I could not get over how entertaining this really was. I mean, from start to finish, my interest was held. I liked all the characters, I laughed a few times, I was scared a few times, and really liked this. I recommend this, without a doubt, for anyone looking to just watch something fun and exciting, and not think, for about ninety minutes. Definitely rent, buy, or look out for this on TV. It's a great movie!

In what's essentially a loose remake of the original, a barrel with a zombie inside falls out of a truck and is discovered by some kids. They open it, toxic fumes are unleashed, they get sick, and start craving brains. Soon enough, zombies are coming out of the ground with the same cravings for brains.

Return of the Living Dead Part II is a much sillier film than the original, which is saying a lot because the original could get pretty silly at times, too. James Karen and Thom Matthews return as different characters, but these characters are far more shrill, whiny, and annoying than the ones they played in the original. Even worse, there's a girlfriend character who only adds to the shrillness.

There are a couple of funny gags throughout the film, but it can't hold a candle to the original.

...I hate to say it, but this movie is nothing compared to the original, seriously. Thom Mathews and James Karen are back, playing different roles of course, as grave robbers, and there are also a bunch of young middle school kids, a teenage girl and another guy fleeing in terror from more brain-munching zombies, resurrected from their peaceful slumber yet again by the weird chemical from the original. This is missing the great punk/rock/metal soundtrack, humor, punk rock characters, and gore from the original, so basically it falls flat and never goes anywhere. I was getting really bored. If you want a rehash, this is your dish I guess, but otherwise this movie flat out blows. Watch the first one again.

Disappointing experience. First of all, it's supposed to be a sequel but two of the main characters from the first movie come back in totally different roles and that was very distracting: I've spent the first 15 minutes wondering whether it was really a sequel or maybe some sort of weird reboot, a la Evil Dead 2. But the main problem is another one, and much much worse. The problem is that they took away everything that made The Return of the Living Dead great (witty dialogues among well-written characters, convincing zombies, splatter & gore...) and the result is an ordinary and quite boring movie about whining and unpleasant human characters constantly crying and yelling while a bunch of suddenly stultified undead chase them around. Yawn.

In this sequel to 'The Return of the Living Dead', three neighborhood kids stumble upon one of those army drums and accidently release the gas that revives the dead. What follows is basically the same horror mayhem as its predecessor. Zombies rise from the graveyard and remarkably manage to eat the brains of everyone except for the few people within which the movie revolves around. The two movies are pretty much similar in terms of content, but what is lacking this time around is freshness.

The first movie took a satirical approach to George Romero's 'Night of the Living Dead', and it worked in terms of humor and creepy fun. In this film, which is basically a carbon copy of the first, it is not quite as much fun. Rather, it seems to be more silly than funny. The script strains for humor throughout the movie, particularly in a scene in which the movie mocks Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' video. But its flaws don't really matter because this is not the kind of movie to be taken seriously. I guess that it can be a decent movie to watch on a Halloween night.

Rating: (5/10)