Review of I Sell the Dead (2008) by Todd S — 02 Jan 2013

In this dark, 18th century comedy, Dominic Monaghan stars as a grave robber and accused murderer, who by his own admission, is not a great guy. The plot of this film is absolutely brilliant and they could have done so much with it, but quickly it turned from the improbably to the ridiculously stupid.

In the beginning, Arthur Blake (Monaghan), sits down with a priest to tell his story and give a voice his last words. Blake starts to tell his story about how at a young age, his mother forced him into this line of work.

That part of the movie is great, and if they would have continued along those lines, this film would have been amazing, unfortunately, Blake grows up, and that's when things start getting weird. First, they find a zombie, a twist in the story I suspected might be coming.

It was pretty lame, but was done in a humorous way, which made it a little easier to swallow. From that point on, the film gets ridiculous, as the pair has run-ins with rival gangs of grave robbers and even aliens.

What started out as a very imaginative film turned into a big confusing mess. The story just goes off in so many different directions and gets so far away from the original plot, that it quickly becomes almost unwatchable.

Monaghan is terrific and continues to be an extremely underrated actor. We all know him from Lost and Lord of The Rings, but only as an ancillary character, but in I Sell The Dead, Monaghan shows that he is far too good to spend his career as a sidekick.

I loved the idea and I really wanted to like this film, but the truth is I didn't. After the first half-hour, there really isn't anything worth watching.