Code Red (2013)

Best movie of this year hands down!

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

CODE RED is a cheap, dark, zombie war movie shot in Bulgaria although financed in the US. It lacks a proper cast and any proper name actors, but it features a wealth of low rent military action if that's your cup of tea; there's hell of a lot of shaky cam work here, sitting alongside mild gore scenes, shoot-outs, executions and more besides.The plotting isn't very complex and half of it is delivered in amateurish exposition scenes of guys sitting around smoking cigars in offices - that kind of thing. To put it simply, a biological weapon has the power to turn people into zombies, and now a squad of soldiers must escape a war zone filled with a very different kind of enemy. CODE RED is all very low rent and lacking even the most basic characterisation, but a fast pace means I suppose it passes the time quickly if you're in the mood for trash.

I'm not gonna say that this one is a low budget movie done right, nor am I gonna praise it and recommend it to everybody, but I will say that I was relatively impressed. Why? It doesn't look cheap, doesn't act like that either, the make-up is acceptable, the story works, not too thin, not too complex, and the acting, except the main character, is OK. Not much to say about "Code Red", a simple, and maybe, effective zombie movie, does not act like a tryhard, and most definitely not like a gore fest. It is an OK movie, one of the few that actually managed to make a positive impression, so, will I recommend it? Well it's not as bad as "Zombex" but not quite as good as "Outpost: Rise of the Spetsnaz", somewhere in between, therefore, you have a reference point, so you'll know what you'll be up against.Overall, "Code Red" shows that an effort was put into it, and that somebody wanted to make something, a zombie movie, with a small budget, that won't be a laughing stock as so many are. I say it succeed!

The story was solid to start with until it brought you from WWII to present day. The US was taking over an old Bulgarian/Soviet ammunition site and a special force person was sent in to investigate an odd event on base. Firstly, he goes to the Bulgarian home of a US Bio-research Doctor and the old woman that lives at the end of the hall is speaking English to him. Doubt that. Secondly, the Doctor who is female and obviously a single mother, as the very young daughter answers the door. I found this strange, as she is very young and answers the door in a slum by herself, without waking her mother. Once in there the third amazing thing happens. The Doctor explains that she was fired from the base by the Bulgarian Captain. She was obviously brought there by the US, not the Bulgarians, so technically how could he fire her? Also, this Doctor is not a very good mother and drags her daughter to a bomb shelter by hand and gets separated from her. A small girl like that should be carried easily by her. If it was my child, I would have easily carried her. This happens again towards the end where she is carrying her and puts her down because she wants her stuffed bunny and the little girl gets bitten by one of the infected. I just shook my head in disbelief that this idiot mother did it again. You think she would have learned the first time. The infected looked like bloodied elephant men and some had no eyes, but seemed to be able to see people just fine. There were many other moments where the characters seemed dumb to the point, that you just wanted to scream "Wake Up Dumb Dumb". It took a lot to keep watching to the end and was overly predictable. If you can't find anything to watch and have had way too much coffee, you might want to give it a try.

Code Red is one of the best of a Call of Duty/Resident Evil Zombie B movie mash up with an awesome production value and sets. The prologue scenes depict a Nazi soldier fighting desperately against Russian soldiers when a gas is released and zombie chaos ensures. Jumping to present day where American soldier (Paul Logan) is briefed on that event and is sent to recover some of this gas which is in a Bulgarian bunker. The bunker is in a city, cue Resident Evil outbreak. Unfortunately, the film suffers from a jumpy ending and a typical 'horror monster jumps at the screen' closing shot. Worth a watch to see the production value and the Bulgarian pimp who looks like a thin Quentin Tarantino!