Stylish but barely mediocre overall

Let's be realistic.

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

I laughed til I cried. I paused it so I wouldn't miss anything while laughing so hard. I wasn't sure at first if it was deliberately bad, but now I'm undecided whether it's deliberately awesomely bad or awesomely deliberately bad. EVERY horror movie cliché is included and indelicately skewered, and no detail is missed in showing the love the filmmakers have for bad horror movies. Their craft is evident, particularly in the most over-the-top, seemingly careless bits. They say that they were inspired by George Romero, but if Ed Wood was making films today, THIS would be the ultimate spoof tribute of them. *** Spoilers *** The best bits all (to my mind) come under the heading of Spoilers - not that I think they'll hurt your enjoyment, but if you've already decided to watch it, then skip this. Otherwise, hopefully these will convince you. My favorite part was when the Zombie Fetus (4 months along, incredibly cheesy... with teeth) uses it's attached umbilical cord like a lariat. Then the dichotomy throughout between top-of-the-genre effects and ones that belonged in Godzilla or an Ed Wood film. I loved the fact that they deliberately showed the plastic sheeting covering the floor in the house rented as a set and how every stereotype was milked. There's the self-obsessed Pop-Star ("If you help me, I'll let you do me."), her sycophantic attendants, the Yakuza, the adulterer and his pregnant blackmailing girlfriend, the ineffective military, the UFO and the Tamagotchie alien, the ancient Samurai warrior, the secret Cyborg, and Mt. Fuji. There's even a tip-of-the-hat to MJ's Thriller. But wait! There's more! Too much to list - this movie, from start to finish is not just funny, it's F^%#$ing Funny.

Remember Todd Sheets? no? well... the zombie bloodbath trilogy? Never heard of it...OK. Well, Todd sheets was(is?) a bottom of the barrel zombie movie maker, his movies were cheap, shot on video, with lots of gore, no plot and stupid jokes. This is like a Japanesse version of those movies, improved because this was made 20 years after those movies so we have better camera equipment and better fx, but the soul of this is similar to those. We have some awful cgi(some blood looks like it was made with paintbrush...thats the worst of the worst) and the space ships and all the cgi is horrible, but the non-cgi fx is cool, good zombie make up and gore. The movie is entertaining for the fans of no budget pictures like me.

A flying saucer crashes on our planet and the radiation turns dead people into hungry zombies. Which is quite a problem for the gangsters who have to get rid of a corpse that just won't die again, or the hotel owner who wants to kill his former lover, since she blackmails him. "Zombie Self-Defense Force" is a gory, very gory comedy with a couple of good jokes, but in the end not professional enough especially in the camera and lights department to deserve the comparison with "Shaun of the Dead" in the tag-line. It never looks better than straight-to-video. I liked some characters, such as the killer baby with "Ghoulies" teeth (and the same anarchic attitude!), the hairdresser zombie who still has vague memories of her former job (similar to "Land of the Dead"), even the totally over-the-top "protect me, please" silly schoolgirl. "Zombie Self-Defense Force" demonstrates the Japanese zombie fighting style touch: when you have no more bullets, continue with the samurai sword! So, this is a cheap no-brainer, but if you don't expect more than that, fun to watch.

Surely not the best zombie movie we have seen, but at the end i think this one is OK! First of all, this is no comedy! At least i can't find something really funny, but thats often the problem for a European guy watching a Japanese movie. Also you have here the usual Asian overacting, extremely in the first 15 minutes (maybe this should be the comedy part??!;)) And this is no shaun of the dead, despite what the cover may say! But what you have here is an nonstop bloody zombie movie. From minute 5 on there is good splatter and amounts of blood and brain. Of course this one is not as good as the old classics from romero,fulci or jackson. also it has not the look of the newer zombie flicks like the dawn remake or 28dayslater...its just 80 minutes of bloody fun:) it has some good special effects (when they are handmade) and some not that good (cgi effects). It has no or at least a kinda silly story, but that you don't even notice because of all that blood, the brains and the zombie action! And sometimes i don't look for nothing more in a zombie movie ;)