Zomblog 6: Pure Kino

          

  Overlord is the story of a group of American paratroopers in Vichy France trying to destroy a German Radio Tower on the eve of D-Day. The lead, a young African-American Private named Edward Boyce uncovers a strange experiment being performed by the Nazis. From there, the film is a beautiful descent into madness.I saw this film on a Saturday afternoon, alone. There was barely anyone else in the theater. I ate a big bag of popcorn and grinned ear to ear for the film’s entire run time.

            So much about this film is excellent. For one thing, it mostly stars relatively unknown actors. Grey Worm from Game of Thrones is in it briefly, and Kurt Russell’s son Wyatt is one of the leads, but there’s no major star power on-screen. The only name recognition the film has is J.J. Abrams, who apparently decided to stop making the cinematic equivalents of a Wikipedia-based, poorly-cited essay you drunkenly try to write the night before its due while your roommate and his girlfriend distractingly make-out in the corner and instead actually attach his name to something good. He produced the film, which is probably what he should stick to doing.

What a nice smile.

            For another thing, it’s 1000% unabashed about what it wants to be. It feels like schlock but is well directed. It feels so much like a weirdly-delicious smoothie made from bullets, Tarantino Movies, the Del Toro Hellboy films, and old pre-code EC Comics. A review in Variety described it as being akin to Castle Wolfenstein or Aliens, both of which I feel are extremely apt.

            Oh yeah, this is about Zombies. Well, this movie certainly has Zombies. I think. I would say they’re zombies. They’re also kind of mutant super soldiers. Still, it very much feels like a really fun multiplayer game of Call of Duty: Nazi Zombies. One review I saw a while ago described it as being the best Nazi Zombie movie ever. I would have to agree, based on what I’ve seen.

           

Hey yeah so can Mathilde Ollivier's character please marry me?

Surprisingly, this film was very well received by critics. It’s certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes at an 81%, and 20th century fox that they recruited its director, Julius Avery, to direct a Flash Gordon reboot (nice). The general consensus was that it was far and away better than it has any right to be, and some even found it surprisingly deep. I don't know about that, but it is certainly an absurd, gore-filled masterpiece of a thrill ride. It was no box office hit, but made more than it cost to create.

            Wait. Why are you still reading this? Go watch Overlord, dude.