Good concept, poorly executed.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Trying to find shelter for a comrade, a group of soldiers fighting in the middle of the war stumble upon a concentration camp officer hoping to spur the Nazis forward by turning the inhabitants into the living dead and must find a way to stop his nefarious plans.This one ended up being quite the enjoyable Nazi Zombie effort. One of the more impressive elements featured here is the incredibly strong atmosphere created showing their journey through the wilderness. The opening of this one carries them through the woods trying to reach the camp that has a gloomy ambiance that works nicely with the fact that this one mostly takes place inside the concentration camp which is a decided advantage. As that sense of oppression and gloom afforded by the setting leads into the action, that makes for a more realistic slant on the material at large since the zombies are given quite a more naturalistic slant here with the experimentations used to create them offers the film plenty to like. The encounters between the soldiers and the zombies are especially fun, from the first ambush in the ruins where they come shambling out of the walls in a surprise to the others when they emerge, the blazing gun-battle out in the middle of the compound where they encounter wave after wave of the creatures coming for them and the final burst where it shows the remaining soldiers and zombies battle it out in the outdoors surrounding the main camp which gives this a nice bit of thrills to go along with its graphic zombie makeup. These here do hold it up over it's few minor flaws, which extends mainly from the rather bland pacing here. There's not a whole lot of action that occurs throughout here as instead of getting plenty of encounters with the creatures, it tends to focus way too much on their exploits getting to the facility and trying to stay hidden that it manages to focus away from the zombie attacks for too long in such a brief effort. There's no reason for a movie like this at this length to feel dull so that it sticks out in any way here really gives itself away. As well, the ending is way too anticlimactic as instead of being a big showdown between the two forces, it devolves into a speech about the whole purpose for it all so it definitely ends on a whimper more than expected. With all the philosophical blather that it goes into about his history and mother figures being there, this one just doesn't really offer that great of an ending. Combined with the CGI blood-spray that occurs for many of the wounds, these here hold this one down.Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

Watching this film is a frustrating experience; it's a mixed bag. Powerful moments, direction, location, nicely restrained CGI effects and pacing are punctuated with some wooden acting (Aaron Stielstra as Sergeant Calhoun and Ally McLelland as Matt) and some dreadful dialogue. We are witnessing hard-bitten soldiers trapped in an unforgiving environment facing, as the title suggests, the living dead – so naturally every sentence should be comprised of macho cliché and relentless expletives so out of context, the profanities are unintentionally quite funny. As a result, we spend a lot of time with people it is impossible to like. We can't even long for their deaths, because their stilted delivery doesn't provide us with any personality.Only Andrew Mills as Will lends his role any pathos, sense of fear or even, dare I suggest, personality. That is why, in the scenes toward the end, when he is all but alone against the modest hordes of zombies, does the tension improve greatly. Luckily, the end credits supply us with character pictures to go with the actors, because it is hard to work out otherwise, who is who.To concentrate on the positives, the visuals are stunning. There is a bleak oppressive nature to the choice of location, and the soldiers' sense of isolation and hopelessness is expertly conveyed. The film has a slightly grainy took to it, which enhances the punishing conditions – and by that token, the occasional flashbacks to Will's sunny, carefree childhood, come across as tear-jerkingly wholesome and idyllic, which imbues the return to his present predicament with an even greater emotional impact.The ending is an enigma. Will is guided by a young woman to the sprawling run-down hospital run by Doktor Mengele, who is responsible for the creation of the undead hordes (another lunatic striving towards the perfect solider motif). The woman turns out to have been an hallucination. And yet, the end would suggest she is the spirit of Will's mother, which begs the question, why would she lead him to his doom – because that is exactly what Will's fate turns out to be. On top of that, a final scene suffused in the closing credits seems to indicate Will's entire experience has not been real at all, suggesting a 'dream ending' cop-out.Zombies during war-time is a theme that has been visited several times ('Frankenstein's Army', 'Dead Snow', 'Dead Mine' for example) and works rather well. With a little more effort made to give the leads personalities, this would have been so much more satisfying.

This movie might be watchable if the acting wasn't sooooo poor! I mean how some of these people call them selfs actors is beyond me, it like they are robots, i almost didn't make it through the movie. A lot of the movie doesn't make sense, like the random flash backs of a woman in a field with a sheet... And why a zombie would drag a dead guy onto some stairs to eat him?? And how all of a sudden he wants to go to the hospital, when the whole movie he's like we should get out of here! The zombies look good but that's as far as it goes, with zombie movies if they are slow there has to be a lot of them to make a good zombie movie. I would say there was 50 zombies at the most and over half get shot down at once.Just don't watch it, it will just annoy you in every way possible

Finally, a much-abused and disgraced genre is given some respect. And ZM2 creates effective suspense without compromising on shock value and copious, disgusting gore. Sturdy performances (especially Dan van Husen, Aaron Stielstra, and Andrew Harwood Mills) mark this a WWII horror-thriller which supplies more than screaming and unwatchable characters who behave with minimal logic. The moody, superb cinematography and production design only complement the project. A worthwhile effort which will please fans of gritty war drama and splattery spectacle alike. Directors Ristori and Boni deliver. Bullseye.