The first must-see film of the year.

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

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

This movie is so awful 3.8 is overrating it. This is a 2. This movie has an awful story line. Some of the acting pretty bad to. It is not scary. The first movie of House of the dead is very scary. And this is a big let down. Do not waste your time. And do not waste your money. Do not see this movie. It is a an awful movie. Do not see it. It is a big pile of pooh. This movie is pooh pooh. It is not a good movie. It is a pooh pooh movie. A pooh pooh, pooh pooh. It so stinky it stinks. See the first movie of House of the dead. Do not see this. It is a big pile of pooh that is really stinky.

A college campus becomes infested with zombies due to an experiment gone awry and professional zombie killers descend on the campus to take care of the problem. It's basically a teenage boy movie. There's the generous use of the "f" word, the countless bad sex jokes and many naked boobs. Oh yea, there's also zombies. Much poor dialogue, silly scenarios, boring plot line. As far as the zombie genre goes, it's certainly no "The Walking Dead" or even "Shaun of the Dead" (it makes lame attempts at humor).I'm pretty tolerant of various bad movies but this is one of the few where I really wish I could have the 1 1/2 hours of my life back. You really needant bother with this one.

A clandestine experiment at a university campus causes a zombie outbreak. 29 days later, a squad of Special Forces soldiers & government scientists are sent to the campus to find the original zombie in order to develop a vaccine from its blood. But their mission is jeopardized by a soldier's plans to sell the blood sample to a biotech firm, as well as the zombies, who are tougher than the team expected."House of the Dead 2" is the second of two film adaptations of the popular video game. The original HOUSE OF THE DEAD was lambasted by almost all reviewers as being one of the worst zombie films ever made. The only connection this film has with the original is the screenwriter, Mark A. Altman, a genre fan who co-wrote the script for the first film.After viewing the first film, which was a third-rate spin off from a second-rate game, I set my expectations low before sitting to review this sequel. I was slightly impressed with the film.Given the film industry's penchant for making films from older films, films made by other countries & videogames, "House of the Dead 2" works surprisingly well but is let down by a number of factors. First, the source material, in this case a video game, does not lend itself too readily for filmwork. The game is nothing more than a cheap attempt to rip-off the massively successful RESIDENT EVIL games, with the zombies being nothing more than targets for the player's guns (as well as the fact that the zombies act very un-zombie like, jumping, wielding weapons & not feeding on flesh). The original film, for all its faults, actually was pretty faithful to the game, with the exception of the setting. HOTD 2 again uses a different setting to that of the original but unless you count a college campus as a house, the title is a stretch at best.Despite being derived from the game, the zombies here are a marked improvement over their game counterparts. They stick to the Romero mould, unlike the creatures in the first film, which were nothing more than undead thugs. The film tries a new idea – that of scientists trying to locate the original zombie in order to find a cure from its blood – which is perhaps its saving grace. That & the fact that the actors giving some good performances, as well as some clever characterizations. But while these elevate the film to a higher level than the original film, it still suffers from a poorly developed script. With the recent spate of comedies which derived their humour from film references, HOTD 2 throws in a few genre film references (one character mentions "Alone in the Dark"; the film is set 29 days after the experiment, after the British zombie film 28 DAYS LATER; the campus is named Cuesta Verde after the housing development in POLTERGEIST) which don't work too well.

Having never seen the original, I found this sequel to be a competent little B-movie in its own right. Of course it has its flaws: it doesn't really bring anything new to the zombie sub-genre, there is a lack of genuine scares, and the script screws up the timeline near the end (before going to the university for the second time, the three leads say they only have 10 minutes before the government blasts the whole place with missiles, but they take A LOT more time to go in there and get the blood sample they need). But it still has enough suspense, humor and gore to please those who know what they're getting into. The casting is solid: I particularly liked Emmanuelle Vaugier, who not only looks like a perfect video game heroine in her uniform and ponytail, but also handles her guns in a very confident, no-nonsense manner - like an extension of herself. And Victoria Pratt is certainly one of the most convincing actresses you can cast as a female soldier, body-wise at least. The film is made with a certain wit (the "Shhhhhh" in the library, Sticky Fingaz's death scene - "No, no, I'm not infected - growl!"), and the downbeat ending cleverly piques the curiosity (even of people who may not have liked this movie) for a possible third chapter. (**)