Last Rites

In Los Angeles, a meteor bringing some sort of disease falls on a group of homeless and turns them into flesh eater zombies. Meanwhile, two rival gangs are dealing drugs with an intermediary in an old warehouse without knowing that there is a stakeout of the LAPD of the whole operation. When the policemen are ready to arrest the criminals, they are attacked by the hunger zombies in the beginning of a nightmarish night.

"Last Rites" is an awfully bad zombie movie. There is no originality in the story that is violent and never funny. In addition, no character is likable or charismatic; actually most of them are despicable. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "Cidade dos Mortos" ("City of the Dead")

I've watched so many modern day zombie films that have the same plot as Night of the Living Dead that I've produced a template we all can use.

Delete as necessary: A (meteor/satellite/witchdoctor/evil book/bad sandwich/particularly powerful fart) raises the dead, resulting in some (marines/drug dealers/teachers/dancers/elephants/British 70s TV entertainers) to barricade themselves in a (warehouse/farmhouse/underground bunker/hotel/shopping mall/portable toilet/suitcase) which results in much arguing. They are safe until one of them (gets bitten/tries to break out/tries to retrieve a dog/farts and the rest have to escape/tries to give a zombie a wedgie) until the cast is whittled down until (they all get killed/one escapes/they find the world overrun/start a break dancing contest with the zombies). Also features a cameo by (Bruce Campbell/Jeffrey Coombs/Reggie Bannister/Keith Chegwin/Peter Sutcliffe).

Also, it looks like the director of photography's watched Blade Runner and Battlefield Eart too often, judging by the lighting and camera angles. The acting's fairly dodgy and more people are killed by humans than zombies. This is a run of the mill zombie film and if you go in expecting that, you might like it. Or not. It is what it is.

Why in the world would anyone want to watch a remake of Dawn of the Dead, when you can watch the original? Not only is this a bad remake with Black and Latino gang members in Los Angeles locked in a warehouse to escape the zombies, it is racist to boot.

It has been a while since I have see Mantan Moreland yelling "Feets don't fail me now," but I certainly expected it to come out of the mouth of Dayana Jamine, who played the sister of one of the Black gang members like Moreland.

Noel Gugliemi played Caesar, the leader of the Latin gang in a obnoxious stereotype of all ultra macho Hispanic. It was pure racism.

The zombie action was good when you saw it, but that was sparse as most of the action took place in the warehouse.

Janine Foster was the best character in the movie, and I look for more of her in the future.

Neat ending, though.

Gangs of the Dead (2006)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Also known as LAST RITES, this film was re-titled and thrown on DVD and is yet another stab at the NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD line with some ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 thrown in for good measure. A group of homeless people are standing around when a meteor crashes on them and turns them into flesh eating zombies. A black gang and a Latino gang, rivals, take shelter in a warehouse with two white cops. The mixed group not only must battle the zombies but also each other. There's some nice stuff here but in the end I couldn't help but be bored by this because we've seen the zombie side of things so many times. I did think it was interesting seeing the two rival gangs having to deal with one another but this stuff didn't work as well as it could have because the screenplay mostly has them shouting things at one another and calling each other the "B" word. The performances aren't Oscar-worthy but all the actors fill their roles fine and deliver the type of performances you'd expect. The CGI effects are all rather obvious and that includes all the fake blood and guts being thrown around. Zombie fans might be attracted to the (new) title but they've pretty much seen everything here in much better movies.

So, initially I got this one thinking it might've been a 2rd entry to the 13 franchise. Of course, with the 2rd Hood of the Dead film now due for release in 2025, I learned that this wasn't an official sequel, but the title sort of gave that away as it didn't look like it was apart of the 13 franchise anyway.

In Los Angeles, a meteor bringing some sort of disease falls on a group of street gangs & turn them into flesh eater zombies. Meanwhile, black gangs are dealing drugs with an intermediary in an old house without knowing that there is a stake out of the LAPD of the whole operation. But just as the Police make a move, so do the zombies & from there it is all out carnage.

Hood of the Dead coming soon on 2025.