An action-packed slog

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Although I am not a big fan of "Zom-Coms" (Zombie-Comedies) after seeing the high rating on IMDb I decided to give this one a try. Needless to say I found it to be more than a little disappointing for several reasons. First, it is my opinion that this particular sub-genre is a very difficult undertaking to begin with due to the simple fact that zombies are not typically "funny" and any comedy at their expense risks lessening their overall value--and subsequently that of the movie as a whole. Therefore, I believe that it is extremely important to have the audience invested in the main characters as their welfare or predicament is quite often the key to the entire film. Unfortunately, in this particular case the two main characters named "Woody Invincible" (Jordan Chan) and "Crazy Bee" (Sam Lee) were hardly worth any concern or sympathy as they were nothing more than mere street thugs. Perhaps if they had been "adorable losers" it might have changed things but as it was I certainly didn't care for them one way or the other. As a matter of fact, if anything the only characters of any interest was a mugging victim named "Rolls" (Angela Tong) and an abused wife named "Mrs. Kui" (Dorothy Elias-Fahn) due in part because of their unfortunate circumstances but also because but they both lent some nice scenery to an otherwise drab atmosphere. And then there was the awful decision to give ridiculous names to the characters like "Jelly" (Suk Yin Lai) and the aforementioned "Rolls". Quite frankly, I found this action to be both cheap and childish. Ditto the entire movie. Below average.

The first Hong Kong zombie movie I have ever seen, and it won't be my last, that's for sure! Two slackers, Woody Invincible(!) and Crazy Bee inadvertently run someone over who happens to have a bottle of Lucozade in his briefcase that has been developed by the Iraqi's as a chemical weapon that turns anyone who drinks it into a slavering zombie. The guy tries to warn them, but they think he is asking for the drink, and feed it to him, pile him in their boot, and drive to a shopping mall. I'm not making this up, honest! Inevitably, the infected undead guy wakes up, escapes, bites another hapless fool, and from then all hell breaks loose. The first hour is more comedy based, but the last half hour is excellent, cranking up the gore to great effect. There's a nice homage to Dawn of the Dead when one character slides down an escalator divider, and the whole thing smacks of Romero HK style. Great fun, and with a superb final sequence, this is one for zombie buffs to thoroughly enjoy. Would have got 5 stars I think had I watched the original subtitled version, but the dubbing actors were so poor in the version I watched I felt compelled to knock off an evil skull.Get the subtitled version if you can.

When you watch Bio Zombie its pretty damn obvious that Asian horror filmmakers are just as infatuated with Romeros zombie creations as we are.The movie is about these two slacker looser types who work in a video store down at the local mall. While they are driving their bosses car from the auto shop they hit a strange man with a suit case containing a liquid that when ingested will turn anyone into raving flesh eating zombies. They mistake the liquid for a soda bottle, some one drinks it and the zombie fun begins.The first half is just getting to know the characters so the actual zombie action doesn't begin right away, but the funny dialog and characters will keep you interested until the undead starts to roll in. The first half kind of feels like Mallrats with all these crazy young characters who's life depends on being in the mall for 95% of their lives. I mean we get to losers as leads (kind of like Jay and Silent Bob) we get the asshole who treats his girl like crap (like Ben Afflecks character in Mallrats), lets face it the influences from Kevin Smiths films on this one are also blatantly obvious.The second half of the movie is when the zombies start to roll in. This half of the movie reminded me a lot of Romeros Dawn of the Dead and hey there's no denying that Romeros film was an obvious inspiration for this here flick. You know, zombies in a mall, people running and hiding from them in the stores. You know the drill.What disappointed me a bit about this movie was its obvious lack of gore! I was expecting a blood bath, but no, surprisingly the movie showed a lot of restraint in this department. Could it have been because of its small budget? Or where there other reasons for the lack of the red stuff? I don't know, but after a while I was feeling a bit cheated. Not only that but the actual zombie make up wasn't all that great, sometimes you could see that it was just appliances glued to the actors faces...and that really really sucked for me. In fact its the worst part of the film. Hey! If your making a zombie movie, at least make the undead look cool! But the movie manages to award us with something else instead. We might not have cool looking zombies or buckets of blood and guts (the camera actually shys away from showing us the blood and guts on many occasions) but we get great characters! Woody and Bee are funny guys, they are lovable slackers and you'll be entertained by their funny situations and hilarious dialog.The direction was inventive as well, there were some really cool shots in there that caught me off guard. Like for example, there were some visual references to the house of the Dead video game! Now before you go saying something about how Uwe Boll did it and it sucked (and you'd be right!), this director actually did it right! You have to see it to understand but it was very original. There were many other cool shots in the film that showed the director was creative with his shots.All in all a fun zombie movie with great characters, but not enough gore. Think of it as Mallrats meats Dawn of the Dead and you'll have an idea of what your going to see! Rating: 3 out 5

This comic remake of "Dawn of the Dead" has all the right elements in place to be a venerable genre classic, dragged down a notch only by a weak ending. Favorable comparisons to "Shaun of the Dead" aren't out of the question, just remember that this came first.The hokey plot involves two slacker mall employees who get caught up in a hit and run. Unknown to them, the person they hit is actually a government type carrying a liquid that turns people into zombies. Of course the liquid get ingested and zombies start running amok. The unlikely heroes are forced to put a halt on their plans to get laid and make a quick buck so that they can escape the now zombie infested mall.The movie is obviously meant to be comedy, given the long lead-in to the zombie outbreak and the constant spattering of jokes, but there is some serious horror movie stuff in here as well. Severed limbs, decapitations, grisly bites and assorted other gory bits remind you this is still a zombie movie, no matter how joke filled it is. On that note, the humor almost always works and the two main characters have a great (though a tad over cynical) repartee going on.Everything moves along rather well until the movie enters the home stretch. A sudden and unpleasant tone shift brings the fun to a grinding halt and makes watching the film to it's conclusion much more a chore than it should be.Weak final bit aside, "Bio Zombie" is a gory, funny good time that hits most all the right notes for genre fans.8/10