Zombies: The Beginning (2007)

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Rescued at sea from her predicament, the sole survivor of the island massacre reluctantly agrees to return to the island with a group of officers to investigate what happened and find themselves against the same creatures as she was forcing her to lead them out.Overall this one was quite a fun if somewhat problematic effort. One of the best features here is the fact that by being so obvious and unrepentant about its status as a true full-fledged rip-off it allows for the same kind of fun as before. As the whole first half is an abbreviated run-through of the same movie, it gives the same sense of fun here in rolling through the same main scenes which gives this the creepy dreams that brings her along, the transport to the island coming off the same way as before and the group undergoing the same positions and group formations as they advance and overtake the area. Once inside, it gets even more fun with the locator beacons of the facility, the motion detectors and even the fire-fight against the one creature they come across which leads into the all-out fun of the storage locker confrontation. Taking off on it's own delirious tangent as the still- alive body gives birth to another creature which in turns leads to one of the wildest shootouts possible where the entire room is filled with creatures and brings an endless stream of gunfire, blasting limbs and bullet wounds that results in massive carnage along the way and is an extraordinary highlight, especially leading into the gunfights required to escape as it shows the group running into the creatures in every corner of the building picking them off one-by-one. Though the film does go back into the rip-off realm afterwards again, it does so with flair as the numerous encounters with the zombies means there's plenty of action featured here with the big escape from the lab here allowing for the group splitting up as the first ones get knocked off leading to the numerous firefights and confrontations throughout here as the group falls under constant attack in plain rip-off sequences of these scenes only done in excessively graphic, over-the-top carnage fashion. Again, this one changes nicely from the other material when it gets to the finale as the real source for all the rampage creatures is such a bizarre and otherworldly concept while still tying in somewhat to what happened in the original that it becomes all the more mindbogglingly cheesy to see this one as the chosen scenario here which still adds a lot of great action dealing with the new-found creatures responsible as this simply adds to the utterly deranged atmosphere here. Still featuring the same great gore and special effects work for the most part, these here hold this up nicely against the film's flaw. Again, since there's so much here that's ripped off from other movies, especially in how it goes play-by-play at times, it can be seen as unnecessary to watch this one instead of the source movie based on how much it does follow that route. It's cheap-looking at times, but these flaws here are more individual-preference than anything to do with the film itself.Rated Unrated/R: Extreme Graphic Violence, Graphic Language and Nudity.

Bruno Mattei's final film picks up directly after ISLAND OF THE LIVING DEAD with Sharon (Yvette Yzon), the lone survivor, being rescued at sea. Back on the mainland, Sharon is having nightmares and execs at Tyler, Inc. don't buy her story on how the ship and crew disappeared. Six months later, Sharon is a monk but is contacted by Tyler, Inc. to participate in a rescue mission after contact with a colony on a nearby island is lost. Sound familiar? Yup, ol' Bruno gets his James Cameron on in his pumped up sequel. Actually, I should say Mattei is getting his James Cameron on again as this is his second film to rip off ALIENS nearly scene-for-scene (after 1990's equally amazing SHOCKING DARK).This is truly a high note for Bruno to go out in for his long career of xerox cinema. Why? Is it a technical masterpiece? Does it contain amazing acting? Hell no! It is because Bruno has the gall to lift tons of scenes from CRIMSON TIDE and shamelessly steal the TERMINATOR 2 theme. There is also stolen footage of an oil plant blowing up, but I couldn't place it. I was equally disappointed and impressed that Mattei didn't steal anything in the previous ISLAND, so this was a welcome return. Plus, you have to love a direct sequel titled ZOMBIES: THE BEGINNING. What? The mimicking of the plot of ALIENS, 21 years after the fact, is just hilarious. Every major scene is here, just with 1/50th of the budget. Yzon gets all tough like Sigourney Weaver's Ripley and the film's bloody finale has her in a big breeding chamber where there is a huge talking brain (no, it is never explained).In terms of entertainment, I would rate this one above ISLAND, for the sheer ripoff factor. But they both need to be seen together. I did them back-to-back and that might be the best way as you feel like you are getting a 3-hour zombie mini-series. The flick ends with a short clip of Bruno saying something on the set and the words, "Ciao Bruno..." on screen. Indeed, many thanks for all of your fine films. And also many thanks to Cameron, Romero, Stallone, Spielberg and all of the other director's who have given Mattei "inspiration" over the years.

Unless you live in another planet, people that watch this type of movies have seen Alien II This story line and progression of the movie, it's that other way better movie.I like low, low, low budget movies, and I think this one actually had a few dollars, just to bad they forgot to pay the writer some money to come up with something original.Asian Zombies, I'm cool with that, but please, better dub would not have hurt.The movie in not even worth renting, but it was fun to see this people's version of the space marines.

Mattei's final film is truly amazing. It is bizarre, disgusting, and incredibly cheesy. The plot is basically just the movie Aliens(1986), except with zombies as the enemy instead of the xenomorphs.The zombies have excellent makeup, they look much more like rotting corpses then much of Mattei's earlier work. The acting is hilariously terrible. Even though this was filmed in English, Mattei used the old Italian trick of dubbing all the dialog. This has predicable results, with the actors putting emphasis on the wrong syllables and words, and having far less emotion when delivering their lines. This helps the movie out tremendously ,however, as most dialogue scenes are chocked full of potential quotes for bad movie lovers.The gore is good, it is not as explicit as some of his previous movies but it is still very entertaining. The rest of the special effects are more laughable then anything else. But what do you expect from a Mattei production? All in all, its a great movie, filled with quotes and moments that exploitation fans will love. It is sad ,though, that such an entertaining filmmaker died before he got the respect he deserved. Ciao Bruno.