Una de zombis (2003) Reviews

• Mediocre horror comedy with a horde of hideous zombies stalking a couple of botcher filmmakers

  ma-cortes2015-05-17

  A low budget horror comedy with splatter and slapdash elements . This is a slapstick terror/humor picture with blood and guts instead of custard pies . The screenplay concerns two "losers", two genial blokes : Aijón (co-scriptwriter Miguel Ángel Aijón who plays this geeky role) and Caspas (Miguel Angel Aparicio) , who decide to make a pustulant zombie film but slowly find their film coming to life around them . In itself, the movie does sort of follow that basic premise, but the filmmakers are much too convinced of their cleverness and as a result regurgitate one hell of a train wreck of a cinematic accident . They attempt to write a script starred by themselves in which they combat an army of zombies and then it appears a band of anti-Christ followers led by Entrecot (Santiago Segura) . Later on , they meet Carla (Mayte Navales) but she is willing to drop everything whenever she hears the script . She reveals her natural charms and falls in love for Caspas . As the starring have a confusing rumination on inspiration and their creative process is couched within the framework of a zombie film . They are besieged by a bunch of zombie mobsters with a craving for human flesh . At the end comes the exciting siege , at Santiago Segura's headquarter with the surviving couple getting into the swing of their desperate last stand . Sunken eyed Zombies are murderers , brain dead are armed and the grave bores them to death but ultimately the freak couple reduce the horde of flesh-eaters . This slacker romp has thrills , chills , shambling , gormless , guts , gore and blood but such scenes are padded by so much extraneously and strenuously narrative confusion . There are some nice jokes in the film and the cast makes a cosy fit , but also contains a lot of flaws and gaps . The patter is still sitcom snappy adding a terror genre . ¨Una De Zombies¨ takes a simple conceit , think George A Romero blends early Kevin Smith and goofs off with something rotten ; however of the dramaturgical confusion is also almost headache inducing and the gore interludes , though creepy , are relatively sparse . But then , the flick is actually less a zombie movie than a long comedy about the realization a strange film . This has a Tarantinoesque narrative that interweaves and moves across time frames and realities . ¨Una De Zombies¨ is probably one of the least satisfying efforts to come out of Spain in a long time, light-years from being anywhere as good as 1993's ¨Acción Mutante¨ by Alex De La Iglesia which , by the way, had a substantially low budget but much better used . The yarn packs some cameos of famous people , familiar faces such as Pepe Navarro , Florentino Fernández and Gabino Diego . And , of course , special appearance by Santiago Segura in a triple role as Padre Pelayo / Entrecot / Himself , in fact , in the final scene, Aijón offers his script to the famous Spanish producer Santiago Segura played by himself ; in Segura's office there are posters of the saga of Torrente, even there are posters of non-filmed sequels . Actually, results to be patently unfunny , there are some "funny" stuff but even this stuff that works almost fails . Una De Zombies is not a film worth watching and, in turn, is not really amusing . The motion picture was regularly directed by Miguel Angel La Mata who subsequently shot : Tensión Sexual no Resuelta and Isi & Disi, Alto Voltaje . Neither the filmmaker nor his screen-writer have a solid grasp of either filmmaking nor scriptwriting , which are two fatal mangles to have if one wants to attempt a sympathetic low-budget . Rating : Average : 4.5/10 .

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• Great Z-series movie

  dcldan2006-01-22

  First of all: This is a Z-series movie. This means, done with few money, with zombies and monsters and this kind of stuff. Surprisingly, the film results quite entertaining, although the actors don't play a good part, the story is so absurd that this is not necessary. In addition the screen play is very well done (the best of all the film), which makes the story amusing. Special effects are not bad, neither good. The film is good, but remember, you will see lots of free violence in a Spanish "cutre" (impossible to translate) way, with a very dark sense of humour and of course, lots of lots of blood and internal organs of human bodies. If you are a little exigent about the films you see, it is very possible that you hate this film, if you are more open-minded and you can watch something offensive without losing your nerves, you will like this film. In few time it will be considered a cult movie, in the same way as "toxic avenger", bad, very bad but funny, very funny.

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• Kevin Smith meets Joel Silver

  sakleb2004-06-19

  Well, I can't believe Ikerb's review on Una de Zombis. I had the wildest ride in ten years with this movie. Of course, it's low budget, politically incorrect and makes fun of a lot of things nobody should laugh at. But, what the hell, that's what I love the early Kevin Smith's work. And Una de Zombis' filmmakers also want to give the best action and adventure fun that their budget can buy. You know what? They made it! I know, I know... I'm a complete freak. But I also happen to enjoy classic Woody Allen or Neil Simon films, and the dialogues, characters and comedy situations in Una de Zombis made me think of them (I suppose that's not a problem for Zombis' filmmakers). So I recommend people to watch it. Because I'm sure this is about to be one hell of a cult movie and, if they keep working hard, actors and director will be stars soon. That's the feeling I had the first time I saw "Clerks", although these guys obviously want to make mainstream movies. After all, Una de Zombis is a tribute to Joel Silver or Jerry Bruckheimer, who will be soon hiring these Spanish crazy mavericks for sure. Did I mention that I loved Una de Zombis?

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• Interesting, different, Zombie gangster movie

  Sic Coyote2004-11-07

  I saw this last night (or this morning) at an all nighter horror movie marathon, It was the last one I managed to stay awake for. I thought it was really quite good and am tempted to buy it on DVD if/when it comes out. It's very crude in language and humour, it's got loads of violence in it, and still a pretty good plot, if you aren't looking for a totally sensible one in a Zombie movie. If you like to see films that are different and aren't just the standard mainstream and you can stand the blood and constant references to fisting, you'd probably come out of it well pleased. 8/10

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• It's not that bad. It's worse

  ikerb2004-02-07

  I saw this film one month ago and I still regret to waste my money and my time in that way. It is supposed to be a movie about a guy who is writing the script of a movie and he is in the movie. So the movie is about the story of the movie. Such a mess with no structure, script, gags, actors (good actors), brain, etc. The director thinks he is making a Tarantino's movie (with lot of blood, flash-back ...); what he gets is awful. The only good thing in the movie are the last 5 minutes with Santiago Segura as himself; maybe you can smile then.

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