Great Film overall

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Driving through the countryside, a doctor traveling with his family decides to stop off in a small town during a big town celebration where they notice they're the only survivors of a weird plague that has turned all of the locals into raving zombies and must try to get out of town alive.This is one of the greatest zombie comedies of the genre. One of the greatest attributes here is the fact that this one manages to both mix the serious zombie action with the humorous comedy which makes for plenty of enjoyment. The film gets some rather great jabs with comedy in here, including plenty of silly gags and physical pratfalls that always works well based on their complete unfamiliarity with the situation. The hilarious wordplay between everyone is also worthy of a few laughs, especially the argument on the doorstep as well as the ensuing one in the barn as they try to figure out what's going on and a later one with the characters standing around discussing whether or not they're dealing with zombies or just really sick people. Just as good is the segment where the zombies strike at the diner, which unleashes a torrent of gags including a dance sequence disguised as a fight to a jukebox playing an appropriate song for such a scene. The seriousness is made up with the graphic zombie attacks, which here are actually threatening to the others where the laughs are played more in trying to get away from them, not the zombies themselves, so they remain a fearsome threat. There's some rather nice gore to this in the multitude of attacks in the form of some rather big action scenes where they attack in the diner, which leads to some really big parts later which are just as good. The film also has a frenetic pace, able to incorporate a lot of good stuff into it from the zombies to the gags to a couple of really fun moments that make it even more of a blast to watch. This here was a thoroughly entertaining film since this here doesn't have a whole lot really wrong, and the few flaws aren't that bad at all. The main one is that the zombies here aren't that well done, looking really cheaply and without a whole lot to really make them memorable. The design is to slap on contact lenses and a few blood marks over the face and it's considered a zombie when all it does is really make the film look cheaper and is very hard to take seriously because of it. The other one is the fact that the storyline about the tainted farm's meat is a little too convoluted. First, it's mentioned that they're cows were sick, which became a big scandal, then used an experimental treatment to make them better, which no one knew about to make them healthy then gave it back to all of the locals. It's a little tough to understand and doesn't really make much sense. These here are what really strike the film down.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language and mild drug use.

A Mad Cow disease causes those who eat meat infected by it to turn into flesh eating zombies, ruining the vacation of a dysfunctional family. Zom com places major emphasis on laughs which are few and far between. Billy Zane plays his doctor straight-faced all the way through, never changing expression, with this dead-pan delivery an attempt at forced comedy. Shaun of the Dead, as good a movie as it was, has encouraged an innumerable amount of imitators which fail to capture the same kind of balance of (funny)humor and horror as it did. For instance, there's this entire comedy bit where father Zane and daughter Maggie Castle bicker over the name of the farm which provided the bad meat which started the zombie mad cow plague..it falls as flat as possible and desperate. There's plenty of "goremedy" using violence as a means to seek giggles, failing miserably. I think it takes entirely too long to get going and by the time the zombies are unleashed, I reckon many fans of the genre would have laboured in vain. There's heavy focus on the family dynamic and how the disconnect between father and daughter regains momentum as they encounter danger. Eventually they decide to take the SUV of a couple torn apart by zombies, confronting the father-son farmers whose "medicine" for their cattle caused the zombie disease infecting the meat. If anything, Castle in Daisy Duke attire and pig-tails should leave an impression even though the humor fails to do so. Shauna MacDonald is the woman that almost comes between Zane and Castle, Evan Charles Flock, the daughter's beau who doesn't fare well when all is said done. You could call this a treatise on the dangers of eating meat, celebrating vegetarianism, but I wouldn't dare submit such a theory for a movie this painfully unfunny. When you see Zane and Castle disputing with farmer Sutter over whether "strange" or "strangely" applies to the behavior of mad cows, then you know a film's struggling mightily to belly-laugh their audience into a stooper.

What in hells teeth is going on with this film ? Billy zane's career is plummeting faster than the comet in Armageddon. Now i am a 35 year old horror fan, i can appreciate the finer detail in most horror films, and i have one weakness, zombies...they genuinely scare the holy outa me..i know ...sad. But i have no idea of what they were trying to do with this film. I mean did i just not get the point! Zane's reaction to the zombies is bizarre, his expression doesn't change, the tone of his voice or anything. People getting eaten around him and he just looks bored, or again, was that the point. The zombies are awful, the effects were special needs rather than special effects. I kinda got the impression the director wants to be early Peter Jackson, bad taste, braindead, but he has completely missed the point, no humour, no acting, no plot. I just realised that it was 90 minutes of my life i will never get back. Avoid at all costs

In the increasingly popular movie genre of zombie comedies, The Mad is an excellent entry. I saw the premiere of this film at the Canadian Filmmaker's Festival last week and it was a bucket of fun.The film stars Billy Zane (Dr. Hunt) and Maggie Castle (his daughter Amy) as they attempt to navigate the usually rocky terrain of a family road trip, complete with Amy's boyfriend and the Doc's girlfriend (played to bitchy perfection by Shauna MacDonald).I can't say too much without giving the premise away, but suffice it to say, when the zombies appear, there's a pleasant amount of blood and gibbets of flesh to go around.Zane does well in a comedic role, and the supporting performances are strong.This movie does exactly what it's supposed to do: makes you laugh, frightens you, and leaves you feeling satisfyingly entertained.One additional thing I have to mention: saw the cover art for the upcoming DVD and it doesn't really speak to what the movie's about: this is a zombie comedy, not a purely gruesome horror flick. Just my opinion.