There's
a good film lurking somewhere within Zack Snyder's Army of the Dead (at
Prytania Canal Place from May 14 before premiering on Netflix May 21). The
premise of a team of thieves breaking into a casino vault in a quarantined,
zombie-filled Las Vegas could make for a nifty thriller, something an
in-their-primes George Romero or John Carpenter could have knocked out of the
park. However, Army of the Dead is a frustrating film with flashes of
potential.
A former special forces soldier (Dave
Bautista), struggling as a chef at a diner, is approached by a billionaire
casino owner (Hiroyuki Sanada) to steal $200 million from his casino's vault
before the U.S. government destroys Vegas with a nuke. The casino owner has
already gotten his $200 million back from insurance, so this would be bonus
money for all involved.
Like any heist movie, Bautista puts his
team together and they take on the impossible job. Bautista's daughter (Ella
Purnell) tags along to look for a friend who's gone missing. Inside, some of
the zombies are smarter, faster, and more organized than their shambling
counterparts.
Army of the Dead has a few
moments of genuine imagination. There's a clever scene where the thieves use
zombies to set off booby traps on the way to the vault. But the film's tone
varies wildly from scene to scene. There are scenes of goofy, snarky dialogue
juxtaposed against scenes of children being killed, rape threats, and all sorts
of ugliness. A ho-hum subplot involving a military plan to weaponize the
zombies is lifted straight from Alien and Aliens without adding
anything new or interesting to that idea.
Last but not least, Army of the Dead
clocks in at a whopping 148 minutes. Much like the dumber zombies in the
film, it rambles on and on and on. A 100-to-110-minute thriller with this plot
might have been a good movie. But Army is a case where the trailer is
better than the finished product.
