Undead or Alive DVD Review

Undead or Alive, A Zombedy

Everything about this film screams comedy, from the full title “Undead or Alive, A Zomedy” through to a few funny written lines at the beginning telling us we won’t have to read for much longer. So genre wise it would be more like Shaun of the Dead than Day of the Dead but also has the added originality of being a comedy zombie film set in the old Wild West. The film lasts for about 80 minutes, but was it a scream or a squib?

Apparently the last act that the famous Indian Geronimo performed was to create a curse for the white man, this curse gives them a hunger for human flesh and the curse can be transferred by a bite. A farmer called Ben (Brian Posehn) is in jail waiting to be hanged after eating his family. Elmer (James Denton) who is an Army deserter and Luke (Chris Kattan) who is a broken hearted cowboy are in jail themselves after getting into a fight although it isn’t long before they escape locking the deputy in the cell next to Ben. From there it seems that everyone gets bitten whilst Luke and Elmer flee town. Ben bites the Deputy, who bites the sheriff and the both of them bite the posse that has been formed to track the fugitives. Meanwhile Elmer and Luke meet Sue (Navi Rawat) Geronimo’s niece and they try to escape the zombified posse that are tracking them.

I must admit I didn’t think that I would enjoy this film; I thought it would be one of those really low budget films with gallons of gore, and little real entertainment value. But I am glad to say that I was pleasantly wrong. The story itself isn’t that original with it really just being a chase movie with our three people trying to get away from a posse, what is original though, at least to me, was the fact that it was set in the wild west and although not side splittingly funny it had some good gags.

Acting wise things are ok, Denton comes across well as the straight guy, good with a gun and coming up with most of the ideas, he is the overly sensible one, Kattan is there for the laughs and whilst sometimes I just thought his lines were a bit silly he thankfully didn’t really go for full on slapstick and most of his gags raised a smile, although little else. Rawat was good in her role, she is a beautiful woman and her part Indian heritage definitely helped her come across as being as authentic as she could in the film, in terms of looks at least. Chris Coppola played Cletus the deputy, he was the main comedy element of the Zombie side; he reminded me a bit like Nick Frost’s Ed in Shaun of the Dead only nowhere near as funny. Lastly Matt Besser was the evil Sheriff Claypool bent on revenge after Luke and Elmer steal his retirement money; he came across as a nasty piece of work even when he wasn’t a zombie even if he did look like a cross between Charles Bronson and Charlie Chan.

It certainly isn’t a film to be taken seriously, Rawat’s character spurts out dialogue that as an Indian she just wouldn’t know and language is used throughout that probably was not used in that time, but it’s doesn’t really matter as no one watching this movie is really going to expect historical accuracy when dealing with a comedy zombie film. However all three of the “good guys” seem to have good onscreen chemistry and come the end of the movie I felt that I had been entertained and it was an ok film.

Sound
Its a Dolby Digital 5.1 track which came across as clear and level regardless of loud noises or dialogue, surrounds were used to some degree but I would liked to have heard more from the rears.

Picture
For a budget film this has an excellent trnsfer, nice natural colours show off the landscape very well.

Extras
There are three extras on the disc, an audio commentary with Director Glasgow Phillips although it also has James Denton and Navi Rawat in on the chat. It is quite a light hearted talk through the film and worth a watch although it seems that James and Navi are sitting at the back of the room with the microphone being at front, Chris Kattan actually comes in on the commentary a few minutes in. From South Park to the Wild Wild West is a documentary where Glasgow Phillips talks about the whole concept and production of the film, I got the impression that he really felt out of his depth when making it and I have to give him credit for coming up with a film that was quite entertaining. Geronimonsters, the zombies that walked the west looks into the make-up that went into making the zombies in the film.

Overall
Not the best film you’re going to see, but a light hearted, fun comedy film that has good entertainment value for its relatively short running time.

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