As far as I know this movie wasn't available until a few days ago on Netflix. Bill Murray doesn't get involved in many projects outside of bit roles here and there to spice things up a bit. Some of his roles in the past decade or so are uncredited and he clearly isn't in it for the money anymore. I guess he budgeted pretty well over the years.
So when A movie pops up on Netflix that has Bill listed first it isn't something you pass by. Then, when the opening credits roll and you see that Adam Driver, Tilda Swinton, Steve Buscemi, and Carol Kane are also in this film, you get seriously excited for a perhaps twice in a lifetime film of epic proportions!
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That is of course until you get about 20 minutes into the film and still don't get it. You can't really figure out what they are going for here... are they going for comedy, are they going for drama, are they going for horror, are they going for all three? Because it is my opinion that the missed the mark on all counts! This movie is NOT good and it did terribly at the box office despite the cast and that they spent millions on promoting it.
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For starters, i will admit that I might be a bit extra-critical of this film because it is a zombie film and I am simply sick to death of zombie films - these genre has been done in so many ways that I really can not imagine anyone being able to find a unique way of presenting it. Just like in almost all other zombie films, the people who are being told by the officers, who have already seen the zombies do not believe them, and therefore do not make the necessary precautions.
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This could all be forgiven if we were presented with some sort of evidence that this is an alternate world where no one has ever encountered zombies or even knows what they might be but at multiple points in the film people mention that they have seen a "ton of zombie films" and if that is the case, why is everyone so hesitant to believe that this is what is happening, especially after the zombies clearly behave like every zombie that has ever existed in films... Slow moving, have a desire to consume human flesh, and can only be killed by head trauma.
Perhaps that is what director Jim Jarmusch was going for. Perhaps he was trying to make fun of humanity and how they will not follow simple instructions nor will they believe an evident situation despite the fact that they have witnessed this exact thing over and over again.
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Because I thought that I might miss some interesting twist or magic moment in the film, I still kept it on and suffered all the way through and I would imagine that many other people feel compelled to do the same thing despite the fact that the film drags, it isn't funny outside of a few moments and even this incredibly stacked cast (how did they pull that off?) can't save this really tired genre with a very boring script.
Should I watch it?
I think it should be fairly evident at this point that the answer to that is NO. I did it anyway because i figured with a cast so deep there is no way that the film can be bad, but it is bad, even in a tired and overused plotline like zombie apocalypse this one is particularly bad. Critics were kind to it as you would expect.... I suppose because no one ever wants to say anything bad about anything Bill Murray is involved in, but because it premiered at the artsy Cannes Film Festival the world is, I guess, obligated to try to find nice things about it and for the most part that is exactly what most professional critics did. The movie is nearly 2 hours long of mostly nonsensical and idiotic dialogue, only one plot twist, and a talented cast playing the roles of people too stupid to figure out how to save themselves from a slow and very vulnerable enemy.
It's frustrating to watch because of these people and by the time I had suffered through all 105 minutes of this turd, I found myself actually angry at me for watching the film, and angry at the film for existing. You know how it is going to end right when it starts and the film's one and only plot twist is so stupid that you don't care. It also has no impact on the outcome of the film whatsoever. I'm not gonna tell you what it is but it is so out of place in the rest of the film that it isn't even interesting but more of a WHY? moment.
They do not disclose how much this film cost to make but I would be willing to bet that it was far more than the less-than $16 million box-office take. Do not waste your time on this.
I love me some Adam Driver, even though is bad I might even still watch it.
I thought the same thing when I started it... go ahead and see for yourself... I bet you turn it off before it is finished. Adam has a few moments in the film but it just isn't enough IMO to make this worth watching.