Apocalypse L.A. (2014) Reviews

• Low budget Zombie film opens promisingly and quickly runs out steam.

  epic-42014-09-28

  "Disaster LA" ('14) one of a seemingly endless barrage of zombies on the rampage features opens well enough with some impressive digital effects but rapidly declines from there. After a heavy night of partying a group of friends wake up to find random meteor strikes decimating large portions of LA. Via newscasts we find out that these "ice meteors" carry spores which when inhaled turn one into a zombie. Shot largely at night in empty garages our cast races around LA trying desperately to get out of Dodge. Nothing new here, it's been done before (and better). Cast contains the usual stereotypes (nerds, jocks, spoiled rich kid) and to be honest I wasn't rooting for any of them. Makeup which is so important for a picture like this ranges from fair to embarrassing with the balance of the production values just OK for a low budget quickie like this. Just for the record for for a feature that promises hordes of zombies I think there were just under a dozen, tops. Steer clear of "Disaster LA". It's a disaster all right. JK

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• Meh

  arfdawg-12014-10-29

  The Plot: After a meteor shower strikes Los Angeles, toxic smoke is released across the city causing people to physically change and become violent. A small group of survivors plans to vacate the city by heading to the coast. Isn't that always the way? The REALLY good news regarding this movie is that it's not one of those first person cam films that are so played out. However, much, if not all of it is filmed with a shaky cam which I so hate. The first quarter of the movie is well done. It's a good build to the disaster and the special effects are not cringe worthy, so it's cool. The move to finding out about the "zombies" happens slowly leading to a build in tension. But then comes the first zombie attack and you start to think things are about to go south. Everyone is way too calm in the face of the flesh eater. So roughly a third into the film your thinking this is going to start sucking. And you start realizing the acting isn't all that great. And it isn't. Things rapidly go down hill. Could have been a really good movie with some extra thought.

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• Not THAT bad...

  viciouslollipop2014-10-19

  This was actually fairly decent for a movie done by pretty much one guy-Turner Clay- doing all of the directing/producing/effects/score...it had a decent enough, if overly used, plot and passable low-budget effects...the characters, who make some really questionable decisions, were decently drawn out enough for me to want to see how they ended up...I'd put it on par with a well-done SyFy flick pulled off with maybe less budget...all in all I had fun with it and appreciated the effort put forth by the director and cast...being a big fan of Zombie flicks and "B" movies I have sat thru some REALLY bad stuff and this doesn't even begin to reach that level of despair-if you're just looking for a fun little Friday/Sat. night popcorn horror/sci-fi type movie you could do much, much worse than this little film:)

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• Half of the movie title sums up what this movie was like...

  paul_haakonsen2015-12-20

  I do enjoy zombie movies, but unfortunately most of the zombie movies that flood the market are just not worth the effort. I bought "Disaster L.A." from Amazon based on the praise and rating it had received. However, this movie was nowhere near my expectations. Let's start with the good things; zombies. Yes, anything with zombies is good. And there was a consistent and coherent flow to the movie. The best part of it all would have to be the music, though. Sadly, the bad parts far outweigh the good parts. First of all, you see maybe ten zombies throughout the entire movie. Seriously? In a zombie outbreak taking place in Los Angeles and you see ten infected individuals, no, no, no... It just reeks of low budget. And while we are on the topic of zombies, then they succumbed to the classic error of low budget zombie movies; putting make-up on the face only and forgetting about the rest of exposed flesh on the zombie actor. It was just so bad. And those contact lenses, seriously? The story was also flawed. Especially with the fact that the US military bombing Los Angeles without having exhausted all other possible options. It was just stupid. What I hated the most about "Disaster L.A." was the awful camera-work. The frame was constantly in motion, swaying back and forth, which was a major nuisance. Had they opted to use proper camera rigging, there would have been such a better production value to the movie. "Disaster L.A." is a zombie movie that came and went without even leaving the smallest of dents, except for a small one on my wallet.

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• Worst zombie flick in a long time - wanted them to all die

  stettlerbrad2014-10-15

  This is by far the worst zombie movie we've reviewed in some time. Though the movie comes with a halfway decent budget with stable acting the creativity of the movie went in the trash. The Zombies are far and few in between, the concept of what creates a zombie was all over the board and simply annoying. If they took one more break in the movie to reflect on what they should do next and discuss their feelings I was going to lose it. Honestly after 20 minutes of the movie all I wanted was to see the entire cast turned into a zombie smorgasbord. Many zombie movies are dumping onto the scene, many new concepts are also arising - Disaster LA is simply that, a DISASTER! Don't waste your time with this one.

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