Bong of the Dead

This is again a hard one to review. The director, Thomas Newman, did most of the job himself, he edited this flick on Mac and used Protools for sound editing. He also shot the movie himself with one camera using around 350 shots. For that part alone I would give him a big cheer. He also wrote the script and that wasn't that good. Let me explain. I can understand that when you make a low budget flick you have to watch out for special effects because they use a lot of the budget. But this one clocks in at 98 minutes and if he should have made it a bit shorter then it would have been much better. It starts of so promising but after the old couple has turned into zombies and we move 6 months further we start to know the leading actors. It's supposed to be funny but it's so cheap to laugh with a fart. But I'm not into American humour. Most of the comedies coming out there weren't for me funny.

Let's say that almost 60 minutes of this flick is about joking and smoking pot and having fun and meeting a chick and again having fun and having beer and pot and talking much, way too much. After a while you have seen it all about the talking that you eager to see the zombies.

Once the zombies are out it's gore galore and indeed, the red stuff flows and all parts and heads of the zombies are flying around. The way they have been attacked by or friends did remind me of Peter Jackson's Braindead. But there again, some shots do have the latex and syrup but other effects are CGI and you can easily spot that.

But at the end of the day zombiegeeks will love it due the bloody and messy shots but for me the beginning was okay, then too much drivel to end with gory shots. Just watch until the end, in between the end credits there is a surprise.

Gore 3/5 Nudity 0,5/5 Story 2/5 Effects 3/5 Comedy 1/5

It looked and sounded bad. Painfully unimaginative. The only bit I enjoyed was the montage of them getting drunk after getting stoned. This gives stoner films a bad name. They could have done something great with it by taking it way over-the-top but they didn't, they made it dull.

This movie has a happy slapstick feel to it, Cheech and Chong meet the undead. It was funny, it was heartwarming (sometimes a little too much)-- and it had an awesome ending that included perhaps one of the most awesome killing machines in recent zombie-killing history.

The two stoner leads (Edwin and Tommy) were perfect boneheads-- but boneheads with a mission. There is also one of the hottest chicks since Tomb Raider (wait 'til she gets all gussied up in leathers)... and it is pure and simple entertainment.

I understand the film was produced for $5000, and that in itself is reason enough to watch it-- but don't watch it for that! Watch it because its funny and clever and the zombie effects are first rate (by veteran Mike Fields). The final climactic scene is awesome... oh, and watch past the trailers for a taste of things to come.

Zombie movie fans need to watch this. Sure the acting and dialogue is pretty terrible, but I found it to be highly entertaining. It's unbelievable to me that this movie was made for a mere $15,000. The special effects and zombie makeup are great considering the low budget, and Thomas Newman introduces some new ideas (at least ones I've never seen in zombie entertainment) that I found to be quite inventive. I thought that the "stoner" aspect would end up ruling this flick a bit more, but it was secondary to zombies, which I enjoyed as well. If you do take the time to check it out, make sure you watch it through the credits for even more fun.

I bought this movie after its release on DVD and well, you get what you get, if some dudes smoke brains of the undead to get high and higher ;)

This movie is not a B class movie but imo a C type but got some merits: lots of fun, some funny and weird ideas, some nice gore and the acting and production is not of that kind of "some buddies with a Canon digi-cam and a funny idea make a movie and the buddy who happens to be a designer makes a nice movie poster".

But, can I, or dare I really to recommend the Bong to you!?

Yes, but only if:

a) you like trash, and lots of it b) you like zombies c) you like some more zombies d) you like zombie comedies e) you find Cheech und Chong still funny.

Good, if Bong of the Dead hits your "neural fun-system", unwatchable if it does not, I guess...