Post by Mr.HoRrOr on Jun 12, 2005 0:43:10 GMT -5
Plot: During a Day of the Dead celebration, the dead come to life to prey upon the living.
Cast:
Laz Alonso
Alicia Barena
Danielle Burgio
Guy Chapman
Jeffrey Combs
Ellie Cornell
Alex Dale
David Figlioli
Laura Harring
Nichole Hiltz
Danny Trejo
My Thoughts: Disappointing zombie film.
My Review: "All Souls Day" for it's cast which includes the likes of a bunch of talented actors such as Danny Trejo, Laura Harring, Ellie Cornell, and Jeffrey Combs, should've been way better than it was. It starts off nicely though with a pretty cool confrontation scene between Trejos character, and a guy whos crossed him.
Danny Trejos character is yet another bad ass type, although nothing in comparison to his characters in "From Dusk Till Dawn" or "The Replacement Killers". The story deals with the entire town of Santa Bonita being betrayed due to the greed of Trejos character Vargas Diaz. Diaz booby traps a mine sealing them all inside forever. Thus they now return as undead zombies to feast on human flesh every November 1st, which is the Dia de los Muertos (The day of the dead) celebration unless a sacrifice is given to the goddess of the dead. If you're looking for Combs and Cornell to play a huge role in this film, well they don't. Both play husband and wife with 2 kids, who come across the town of Santa Bonita on November 1st many years later, to be the first people in the film disposed of by the zombies. When the movie finally skips ahead to present day where a young couple enters the town, and nearly mow down a woman whos had her tongue cut out.This is pretty much where the film goes down hill. This moment of intrigue only lasts up until the point where the main guy visits the town sheriffs office to tell him about the tongueless girl. The sheriff really doesn't seem to give too much of a damn which pretty much gives away that he had a hand in what happened to her. The film just drones on from this point and Laura Harrings character shows up a few moments later to do her best acting job and convince us that shes somehow involved in all of this mischief. The problem with this movie is that it doesn't really head anywhere like ever. It takes up time with pointless dialogue that doesn't really give any information about anything. The town sheriff finally reveals himself as the wacko we all knew he was, and attempts to sacrfice the lead girl but has his attempt thwarted by her boyfriend,enabling the zombies to rise from their graves since no sacrifice was made. When the zombies finally do show up, they take the entire movie to reach the motel that the couple and their best friends who show up later on in the film, have barricaded themselves in.I'm not kidding, they take the ENTIRE MOVIE to get from point A to point B which is odd since the zombies seemed to have risen from their graves and trekked to town very quickly. Yet somehow making it a few feet from the church to the motel takes all movie long. In between all of this zombie chaos, the main characters manage to run in and out of the hotel to get more ammo and weapons magically without being acosted by the zombies at all. To add insult to injury, it just so happens that the lead girls best friend is a cheerleader, thus she uses her cheerleading skills to do a bit of acrobatics and kung fu on the flesh-craving undead strolling about outside. After the couples friends are devoured by the zombies, Laura Harring steps in to finally put the nail in this movies coffin by explaining to the lead girl the story of Vargas Diaz and during this explanation we get some western styled flashbacks with old fashioned mexican standoffs and such. When she reveals the only way to defeat the undead strolling around outside, it then becomes a question of, had you said that an hour ago, half of the cast wouldn't be dead nowwould they? I was truly shocked at how bad this film turned out when it was all over. Especially since it had a good thing going for it in the beginning. I would mention an even more ridiculous act that takes place at the very end but why bother. This movie achieved an extremely high level of ridiculousness long before it ever reached the end.
Pros: One nice scene in the sheriffs station where the lead guy has it out with the tongueless girl who had turned zombie at that point in the film.Nice looking women in the film. The scenes with Jeffrey Combs, Ellie Cornell, and family in the motel were about the only entertaining thing in this film.
Cons: Bad acting by everyone else, except Combs,Cornell,Trejo and Harring.A story that never goes anywhere. The most pathetic zombies I've ever seen. and The revelation of how to stop the approaching zombies was a total contradiction.
Overall: I wouldn't waste my time with this one.