Enjoy this Monday with Mildred!
This is a Zombie World Tour post!
KL Zombie
KL is known generally as shorthand for the capitol city of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. It can also cleverly substitute for the word “kill”, so score! As Southeast Asian zombie movies go, this wasn’t horrible, especially if you’re fond of smarmy salesmen in Porphyrophobic suits, loads of pidgin English and Drano expectorating zombies.
A slow start on a beautiful night at an overlook showcasing the capitol city introduces our main characters as they lounge around their cars trading crushing (not really) insults with each other. The slacker, the limo driver, the schoolmarm, the diva, and the aspiring pop star loosely recreate the Mel’s Diner scene in American Grafitti. The next day they’re all running for their lives from the poodle bite zombie virus sweeping the city. The much quicker pace keeps the interest up for the viewer, but what is already a loosely plotted story devolves into ridiculous slapstick that gets as tedious as the insult-fest at the start. I’m not sure if the filmmakers did this on purpose, but the hero does a lot of pointless wandering around the city, much as zombies shambling the streets.
With better than average cinematography for this part of the world, the viewer is treated to scooter wars, a frog in labor, and a lot of familiar “karate sounds” with the zombie kills. Obvious nods to many Western films include zombies going about their human tasks as in Fido or Land of the Dead, a pretty good supermarket sequence that will remind you of Zombieland, and one of the (truly horrible) child actors saying, “Follow me if you want to live.” I had never considered The Terminator as a zombie flick but maybe a case could be made.
There are clever moments sprinkled throughout the movie, I especially liked the little girl who learned to kick ass from watching movies, and the very clever camera work during the scooter challenge sequence. I’m still trying to get over the cure for zombieism, and have not quite gotten the scenes of super soakers spraying thick white liquid over everyone’s face.
The actor are pretty, the scenery is often interesting, and the movie teeters on the verge of overdoing the snarky attitude without going way, way over, as Sars Wars did. Overall I found it to be good fun in some spots with some really draggy parts. Watch this is you want to make a drinking game out of how many times you hear or spot the word “Bro” in a movie.
LINKS:
kl zombie trailer
Chick Flicking Reviews 