Zombie Planet (2004)

Directed by George Bonilla

Movie Review by Al Fleshrot

Summary
The setting for this movie is a post-zombie-holocaust world where the wealthy are walled away in fortified "safe zones" and the common people are left to fend for themselves by banding together in groups. Despite being excluded, the government still monitors the outlying populations and will send in "death squads" if anyone displays rebellious tendencies. Shockingly, despite the fact that there are zombies running amok, the citizens are not allowed to carry firearms! To make matters worse, a gang of sadistic bullies called The Upper Class is responsible for distributing the rations to the other groups. The leader of this group, Adams, is in league with one of the military commanders and essentially is using all the poor people to collect treasure for the wealthy people in the safe zones.

The natural order is disrupted when loner and certified zombie ass kicker T. K. Kane arrives in the dead of night to the headquarters of a group called the Dregs. During his stay we are treated to a detailed story describing the cause of the zombie outbreak: a pharmaceutical company develops a miracle weight loss drug that eliminates the desire for carbohydrates but later the drug causes an insatiable urge for protein and ultimately human flesh.

Adams and the Upper Class would like nothing better than to kill Kane, but they fear he might be an under cover operative for a government agency. But just as a plan is set in motion to eliminate him, the tables are inexplicably turned and Adams is killed by his partner. The movie ends on this note, with Kane setting off to unknown parts and the credits inform us a sequel is coming soon!

Review
A good actor can look like an amateur when speaking bad lines...so what happens when a bad actor has bad lines? The answer is Zombie Planet. Let's not beat around the bush - for the most part this is a bad movie. Amateur actors delivering cheesy lines with sub par special effects. At times it literally feels like your watching somebody's home video shot with a camcorder. Now obviously this movie was made on a small budget, but still that's no excuse for the acting!

Having established the overall stench of this movie, the single redeeming feature is the story. It's actually a neat idea. You have small bands of survivors establishing their own communities and spend the day trying to eke out a living and at night staying holed up so the nocturnal zombies don't have them for supper. The "government", run by people living luxuriously in fortified safe zones (that we never see in the film) monitors these camps, provides rations, and commands obedience using a local gang of thugs. The survivors outside have become like feudal serfs providing resources for the overlords. It's too bad every other aspect of the film was trash!

I wager most people would turn this one off before it ends. Despite the promising back story I cannot in good conscience rate this higher than one zombie head. Someone should create a Sci-Fi Channel miniseries based on it, then it would be pretty cool.

Best Zombie Kill
Kane winds up in a special duel with one of Adam's thugs to provide the evening entertainment. It's a fight to the death, only the loser doesn't die at the hands of his opponent. When Kane emerges victorious, the thug is dragged into a cage where his hands are bound to the bars and his gut is sliced open with a knife. Then a group of zombies are herded into the room and locked inside the cage with the hapless loser. What comes next is plainly obvious!

Memorable Scene
The opening scene of the movie is the cool - Kane walks cautiously through the seemingly deserted city in the deep of night and suddenly there are zombies coming out of the woodwork. But they are no match for Kane's arsenal of kicks, punches, and sword. And when he is backed against a wall he rips out a power line and gives the zombies a nice dose of high voltage.

Al Fleshrot wants your brains