Dead Rising: Watchtower (2015)

Dead Rising: Watchtower is NOT a film about zombie Jehovah's witnesses, knocking on doors, handing out copies of their magazine before chowing down on unsuspecting homeowners. That would have made for a far more original movie than this, which is routine medium-budget zombie fare from start to finish.Inspired by the popular video game Dead Rising, Watchtower opens promisingly enough, with a fun 'drop the viewer in the middle of the action' scene in which online reporter Chase Carter outruns a zombie horde, battles a zombie cop, and comes face-to-face with an axe wielding zombie clown. Cut to a few days earlier, and we join Chase and his camerawoman at work, filming a story about a zombie suppressant called Zombrex, which prevents those bitten from 'turning'. While they are there, the drug suddenly loses its effectiveness, resulting in a new outbreak.What follows is a 'seen it all many times before' fight for survival against ravenous flesh eaters, Chase joining forces with a pretty infected woman (a user of Zombrex) and a bereaved mother (Virginia Madsen). Meanwhile, unscrupulous military types put into motion a plan to secretly control the populace. Yadda yadda yadda.The film boasts decent production values and a reasonable cast, and director Zach Lipovsky pulls off a couple of neat set-pieces (Chase mowing down zombies with a sledgehammer/rotary saw combo, and his tense escape from a forklift truck surrounded by the undead), but the film is hampered by its derivative plot, an over-reliance on CGI gore, and the fact that it is waaayyy too long at just two minutes short of two hours.5.5/10, rounded up to 6 for the zombie clown's 'death'.

Can someone tell the big bosses in Hollywood to stop making a game into a franchise. Seriously, tell me one that really works. I think I can count them on one hand. But still they do make them and with the zombie hype going on for years now they tried to make a franchise out of the much acclaimed DeadRising game. Nowadays DeadRising 3 is out only on Xbox One but it's got a big problem. Nobody really likes it. The story is weak and it's a bit of the same going on. Let that be exactly what they did with this flick. Weak story and clocking in at just under 2 hours it's way too long. Just go play Dying Light, it's scary and do has a lot going on. And again, that's what isn't happening here, sure, a lot is going on but it never is frightening or gory. What did make the game (the first entry) great was that you could make your own weapons. And you could recognise those here throughout the flick and that's what I did, searching what I did see in the game. But what did made it sometimes rather boring was the news studio, Frank West wasn't funny but annoying. For me it was way too long and rather a weak story and clearly made for teens wanting to watch the flick after the game. Gore 0,5/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 2,5/5 Story 2/5 Comedy O/5

In East Mission, Oregon, the Hit Point reporter Chase Carter (Jesse Metcalfe) and the camerawoman Jordan (Keegan Connor Tracy) are covering stories from the people in quarantine of a zombie outbreak. The FEZA is using the vaccine Zombrex to inoculate the victims and Chase tries to interview Crystal LaRourke (Meghan Ory) that is on the location. Out of the blue, the patients turn into zombies and Jordan flees with the Hit Point car, leaving Chase behind. He follows Crystal chased by zombies and she stumbles upon Maggie (Virginia Madsen), a woman in shock that has just lost her daughter. They seek shelter in a loan store while Jordan arrives in the border but is sent to quarantine. While the military under the command of General Lyons (Dennis Haysbert) want to bomb the city since Zombrex is ineffective, Chase, Crystal and Maggie fight to reach the border. Chase discovers a secret about Crystal while Jordan discloses the real intention of General Lyons. "Dead Rising: Watchtower" is a funny and entertaining zombie adventure based on a video game. Unfortunately there is no conclusion of the story and it seems that a sequel will be made. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): Not Available on Blu-Ray or DVD

I find too many people have too many expectations for films. When that happens they forget to watch something objectively and not mix in what they expect to see from a film exactly the way they want to see it. This can in all actuality never happen! Too many people are also far too often mistaken by the genre of the film. Like with this film here, many seem to expect to see an epic ultra high budget video game adaptation made as a super serious thriller. But this is clearly not what was intended here. This film is self conscious about its humor, storytelling, action, acting and its budget. Truth be told, I saw this film with a good friend just now and I have to say that we are very critical. But we both found this film very clear about what it was trying to do. This film is very entertaining and a lot of fun! They have done a great job at doing the best they can on a lower budget. Overall good acting, good directing and good writing! Also the technical side of the film is very pleasant. Good camera-work with a lot of creativity which keeps you interested. It all is put together with good editing. All in all, A lot of fun!