Dead Air (2009)

If you don't want to know what this film is about. Don't read any further.This film is an intelligent, and thought provoking drama, well paced and exciting. This film is not about Zombies, this is a just a small part of the crux of this film which deals with a serious issue.The main part is that I agreed entirely with every word spoken by the DJ, aside from what the terrorist wanted him to say over the air at gun point.When the Western World invades Middle East countries under the pretext of getting rid of their dictator's, when it's really all about oil, then we proceed to try and bring Western ideologically driven so-called democracy to the far East, what the hell can we expect ?, to be patted on the back ?????????? Both Britain and America have always played the World's police, whether the far East want us or not.And in Dead Air, we get a chance to see what might happen now or in the future, when a Terrorist manages through a type of gas, to turn locals into mad men and women, and then the terrorist hijacks a Radio Talk show.A simple premise that worked well, getting it's point home. But will we Westeners learn ?????????.

If you watch one movie with a radio station and an infection make it "Pontypool". If you want to watch more than one, this one is decent enough for you to watch it once. It's certainly refreshing to watch Bill Mosley in a different sort of role/character. While he's doing a good job, McHattie was just terrific and could not be matched (which of course is also a sign, that Pontypool has the better script and therefor also the better story).The effects are good enough for a small budget and the movie does do a decent job in getting the movie along. You have to excuse the movie for some stupid character behaviour of course (something that quite a few horror movies seem to be infected with). If you can do that, you will be able to enjoy it (or if you cut the movie quite some slack, you will even rate it higher than I did)

If it weren't for the ending, I would have given this film a full 9. The movie starts almost like Pontypool. Same controversial radio host, same woman boss, same feeling of weirdness from people that are at the same time isolated and in the center of attention of their listeners.The plot is about some middle eastern guys that plant a zombification virus in the major U.S. cities, so people just get really mad and start scratching at each other. Later on, the plot is revealed to be slightly more complex. I really liked the dialogue of Abir, although I may be a little biased there. At least I was glad to see a terrorist that is smart, idealistic and petty at the same time. It really gave dimensions to the character.One reviewer said that the zombies were ridiculous. What I find ridiculous are the films where infected people start acting like dumbed down superheroes, ripping arms and biting through necks. We're just human, damn it, with flat teeth and trimmed fingernails. From that standpoint, the movie was refreshing. Yeah, the extras were not professional zombies, I get it. Maybe that's why they call movies like this low budget. Like all zombie movies, it features a way for infected people to not attack each other, which for me seems the thing most hard to believe.Babylon 5's Patricia Tallman is still sexy, even at her age, but her role is supporting at best. That gets a little annoying when the entire movie has about six characters beside the zombies, and most of them secondary. Also the ending was really bad. The film was decent for a long time, clearly overcoming the financial shortcomings, but the last 10 minutes just ruined a lot of the buildup.Bottom line: it really was painfully low budget, but at the same time refreshing and showed a decent effort from both production and acting teams. It is a must see for a horror fan. Personally, I would get some more funding and redo the last 15 minutes, because they felt like a plane crash near the destination runway.

Far from combining the best bits of Pontypool and 28 days this managed to ignore them. Whilst shamelessly copying them. (if that makes sense?) Pontypool was different and got progressively tenser, this just stinks. The Radio DJ, "we must stay on air" spends effectively no time on air. He sits on his bottom and watches the TV for news. This is by far the worst excuse for a zombie movie ever. Is there a single person in the USA or indeed the world who doesn't know what a zombie is? Or ever heard of the word "zombie"? Well, by the 50th minute this bunch of misfits are still calling the zombies, "the infected ones" or the ones with "rabies'. The word "Zombie" might make a guest appearance later, I could care less. Maybe there's a copyright where you have to pay to use certain words? Like the Bluetooth earphone is called "the ear-thingy" I kid you not! To finish, no plot + no acting = no-one cares. A waste of time, a shameless, poorly executed rip-off.