Home Media Magazine - May 4-10, 2008 - (Page 15)

REVIEWS Edited by John Latchem www.homemediamagazine.com a new storyline. A young Ronald Reagan even makes a cameo as a fighter pilot. Military Intelligence and You! is short on laugh-out-loud moments but high on wit. The masterstroke of Kutzera’s technique is that the movie serves equally well as a straight parody of the war-film genre. The plot involves the efforts of Maj. Reed (Muldoon of Starship Troopers) to find a hidden German airbase used to launch missions against American bombers in 1944. Reed has an idea about the base’s location, but without solid intelligence, his superiors won’t attack. Reed clashes with a former lover, Lt. Tasty (Bennett), who notices he’s grown angry and bitter, like America in the wake of 12/7 (a reference to the Pearl Harbor attack of Dec. 7, 1941, and a perfect 9/11 stand-in). She can’t understand why so many people hate America and its attempts to spread “the Christian love of our secular democracy.” Maj. Dunning (Astin of The Mating Habits of the Earthbound Human) provides the perfect answer: “It’s not our fault we’re better and smarter than everybody else. It’s just the way God made things.” – John Latchem I MILITARY INTELLIGENCE AND YOU! Street 5/6 Echo Bridge, Comedy, B.O. $0.01 million, $14.99 DVD, NR. Stars Patrick Muldoon, Elizabeth Bennett, John Rixley Moore, Eric Jungmann, Mackenzie Astin. “A ttacking without complete intelligence is the kind of bold, decisive action Americans are known for. Knowing we may invade any place at any time strikes fear in the hearts of our enemies and allies alike.” Such is one of many biting quotes from Military Intelligence and You!, writer-director Dale Kutzera’s sardonic parody of a World War II training film that serves double-duty as a commentary on the War on Terror. The film plays like a feature-length version of a segment that might be seen on “The Daily Show,” skewering neocon jingoism and the kind of gung ho spirit associated with war. Kutzera uses the heavy-handed patriotism of WWII movies to present a thinly veiled allegory for the invasion of Iraq. In a wry comic twist, half the movie consists of actual clips from classic WWII films, seamlessly blended with fresh footage to create I ZA: ZOMBIES ANONYMOUS Street 5/6 Well Go USA, Horror, $19.98 DVD, NR. Stars Gina Ramsden, Joshua Nelson, Christa McNamee. I PURPLE HEART for his TV and film acting career, which included playing opposite Al Pacino in Sea of Love, or for his stint in the heavy metal band New York’s Finest. Feeling alone and confused, Angela finds a “Zombies Anonymous” group to help her cope with her new afterlife and, more importantly, stay safe from the growing population of the living who are out to eradicate the zombies before they take over the world. One of the leading anti-zombie groups is led by a gung-ho woman known only as the Commandant (McNamee), who is determined to use her band of thugs, which includes Josh, to save the world by terminating the entire zombie population. But Josh is still in love with Angela, which makes for a great conflict throughout the film. Zombies Anonymous is an entertaining romp that offers its own unique twist on the zombie genre: the living out to kill the dead. With a good balance of blood and humor, what really brings the film to life is its strong character development and a solid storyline that easily lends itself to a sequel. Add in a handful of deleted scenes, and this DVD deserves a place on the shelves next to betterknown zombie flicks. – Matt Miller Street 5/6 Indican, Drama, $24.99 DVD, NR. Stars William Sadler, Mel Harris, Ed Lauter, Demetrius Navarro. he great thing about zombie films is that, for the most part, they thrive on having underfunded budgets and over-thetop acting. Zombies Anonymous falls right into this category as a highly entertaining film filled with cheesy makeup and effects — giving it a very 1970s look and feel — and a new, friendlier breed of zombies. The film opens with a series of TV newscasts that sets the scene for an unknown, widespread virus that is turning people into zombies when they die. But this isn’t your typical “Living Dead” scenario. These zombies are just “mortally challenged” people trying to carry on everyday lives by holding jobs and using special products, such as “Look Alive” makeup, to cover up any signs of rigor mortis. The focus of Zombies Anonymous is a young woman named Angela (Ramsden) who is thrown into the world of the undead when she is shot in the head by her jealous boyfriend, Josh (Nelson). Viewers might recognize Nelson T irector Bill Birrell’s Purple Heart, which Birrell co-wrote with Russell Gannon, seeks to examines the cost of war on those sent to fight it. The film begins with a soldier named Oscar Padilla (Demetrius Navarro) in therapy describing a mission in Iraq in which he was captured and tortured. Oscar is a sniper with an elite specialforces unit given secret orders to assassinate Saddam Hussein before the U.S.-led invasion of 2003. Oscar soon disappears, sending his superiors into a panic over the prospect of an unstable military-trained killer on the loose. Col. Allen (Sadler) shows up at the office of the therapist, Maj. Harrison (Harris), looking for clues while remaining evasive about his true motives. Oscar’s whereabouts aren’t too hard to figure out. His mother just died and a newspaper photo places him at the funeral. Allen is off to apprehend his man, which will probably lead to Oscar being locked in a psychiatric ward for the rest of his life despite the objections of Harrison. The setup and payoff are pretty onenote, but the film compels when Sadler and Navarro are finally put alone in a room together. Oscar now thinks his hometown is Iraq, and he’s hunting the men he thinks tortured him. The D slightest similarities are enough to set him off, creating a palpable tension. The movie isn’t so much concerned with the successes or failures of the Iraq occupation as it is with the ramifications of certain training methods employed by the U.S. military. While the idea of a psychotic super soldier secretly lurking among an innocent populace is a scary one, it’s hard to accept some of the extremes put forth in the film. The plot also employs some political machinations the script seems illequipped to develop properly. Making a Defense Department undersecretary a pompous blowhard may seem like a popular sentiment, but it’s an obvious copout and creates an extraneous subplot that wastes time better spent rounding out the other characters. – John Latchem May 4–10, 2008 Home Media Magazine 15 http://www.homemediamagazine.com

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Home Media Magazine - May 4-10, 2008

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