Review of Last of the Living (2009) by Mark B — 25 Aug 2010

There are movies about zombies and then there are zombie movies; "Last of the Living" is of the latter type. It's lifeless, stiff, lumbering and predictable. The story mindlessly wanders about with no apparent goal, decomposing along the way, until it ultimately disintegrates. This is a zombie movie.

Three 20-something men are surviving the zombie holocaust in an apartment in New Zealand. There's danger in the street, but they've got everything they need. They raid supermarkets and entertainment shops, take turns cooking and cleaning, watch TV and play video games. They're all stereotypical characters, a sort of odd trio: a rock-n-rolling wannabe tough guy, a womanizing slob and an overly-cautious, bookish nerd. The only thing they don't have is a woman, so when they meet a beautiful 20-something scientist, they decide to help her as she attempts to get a zombie blood sample to an island where other scientists are waiting to create a cure and turn the zombies back. They drive in a car, they fly a plane, they beat on zombies with a baseball bat, but mostly they deliver lame lines that fail to be funny and try to look scared of the nondescript zombies. There's a complete lack of imagination throughout, and it's hard not to be annoyed by all of the characters. Everything's completely predictable, and the ending seems calculated more to leave room for a sequel than to resolve a story. In fact, it isn't really an ending at all.

"Last of the Living" misses on both humor and horror. If you're looking for a good zombie flick from New Zealand, get hold of Peter Jackson's "Dead Alive" and leave "Last of the Living" to molder.