For his sixth zombie story, “Survival of the Dead,” George A. Romero departs from his usual mainland locales by setting most of this one off the coast of Delaware, and shooting all of it in Ontario. “It’d become an us-versus-them world,” voice-overs Sarge (Alan Van Sprang), a well-armed AWOL survivor briefly seen in “Diary of the Dead” (2008). “All we were looking for was a place where there was no them.” Romero writes a wrongheaded variant on his formula of the living fleeing the flesh-eating: Sarge and his band land on Plum island where two long-feuding clans continue feuding. The O’Flynns exterminate zombies on sight. The Muldoons chain their undead kinfolk out of biting range and conduct experiments by trying to feed them squirrels, piglets and horses so they’ll lose their taste for human flesh. They figure an affordable cure will come someday, though don’t do the math on feeding a world after all the dead turn into the living. For exploding-head yuks, Romero comes up with a few new ways to neutralize zombies. But there’s an unusual lack of suspense or shock about the infection of the living and their defection to the other side. And Romero forsakes the social commentary found in his earlier “Dead” films. Neither the 49th Parallel, the Rio Grande, the Mason-Dixon Line, nor Red States and Blue States are on the map. “Survival of the Dead” is hardly a gore-allegory about unwelcome immigrants, non-human rights, civil war, euthanasia or vegans. If that’s your taste in zombie fare, take a bite out of Grace Lee’s “American Zombie” or Andrew Currie’s “Fido.” With Kenneth Welsh, Richard Fitzpatrick, Kathleen Munroe, Athena Karkanis, Devon Bostick. 90m. (Bill Stamets)
Heart: A Review of Soul The real world is soulful, too, in Pixar's bountiful life of the mind.
Seeing The Elephant: A Review Of Babylon The boisterous, brawling yet melancholy "Babylon," is a variation on film history, but more drawing for drama. It's gaudy and mean, celebratory and sorrowful.
Fine Line: A Review Of Shortcomings It's a season for the comeuppance of a curmudgeon in Randall Park's smart, biting "Shortcomings," adapted by Adrian Tomine from his graphic novel of the same name.
For his sixth zombie story, “Survival of the Dead,” George A. Romero departs from his usual mainland locales by setting most of this one off the coast of Delaware, and shooting all of it in Ontario. “It’d become an us-versus-them world,” voice-overs Sarge (Alan Van Sprang), a well-armed AWOL survivor briefly seen in “Diary of the Dead” (2008). “All we were looking for was a place where there was no them.” Romero writes a wrongheaded variant on his formula of the living fleeing the flesh-eating: Sarge and his band land on Plum island where two long-feuding clans continue feuding. The O’Flynns exterminate zombies on sight. The Muldoons chain their undead kinfolk out of biting range and conduct experiments by trying to feed them squirrels, piglets and horses so they’ll lose their taste for human flesh. They figure an affordable cure will come someday, though don’t do the math on feeding a world after all the dead turn into the living. For exploding-head yuks, Romero comes up with a few new ways to neutralize zombies. But there’s an unusual lack of suspense or shock about the infection of the living and their defection to the other side. And Romero forsakes the social commentary found in his earlier “Dead” films. Neither the 49th Parallel, the Rio Grande, the Mason-Dixon Line, nor Red States and Blue States are on the map. “Survival of the Dead” is hardly a gore-allegory about unwelcome immigrants, non-human rights, civil war, euthanasia or vegans. If that’s your taste in zombie fare, take a bite out of Grace Lee’s “American Zombie” or Andrew Currie’s “Fido.” With Kenneth Welsh, Richard Fitzpatrick, Kathleen Munroe, Athena Karkanis, Devon Bostick. 90m. (Bill Stamets)
