Just from the opening scene with Bill Murray and Adam Driver in The Dead Don't Die, I could already feel that this was going to be an extremely dry, slow burning effort from a director that I'm pretty sure I've never seen any of his other films from. The attitude and nonchalance from Cliff and Ronnie (Murray and Driver) doesn't lend any sense of depth or urgency really to anything that takes place in this zombie flick, especially later on when they start coming upon people who have already been eaten or dismembered in some way. They make a stale joke that really doesn't land, shrug the discovery off and kind of just move on like this shit is normal somehow. It's kind of bothersome and just made the film drag even more than it really should have. There are a few funny moments that actually caught me off guard and made me laugh like the scene towards the beginning with Steve Buscemi wearing a "keep america white again" baseball hat (which we all know what double meanings there are there) in which the waitress asks him if he wants some coffee and he responds with "I can't drink that stuff anymore. It's too black for me" with Danny Glover sitting right next time him. It's a stupid racist joke, but it made me laugh because I didn't expect it for some reason. Beyond random little scenes like that and the zombie make-up and cinematography, there really isn't a lot to find here that's entertaining zits and zombies. A lot of setups with side characters go nowhere and I kind of just felt like all of these people were stuffed into the first half to have reasons for the second half of the movie to exist-which, of course, is the zombies coming to life and eating people. Because of the arctic poles being thrown off and making the earth come off it's axis I guess.
Bill Murray is looking old.
Hermit Bob likes raw chicken.
Daylight savings always messes up the time. I can't stand it.
Those are some pretty big ant hills.
Did they... just break the fourth wall or am I going insane?
What's worse-"keep america white again" or "make america great again". You decide.
Tasty, tasty toadstools.
Ah, the days of gun racks in your living room.
Of course the new undertaker is Tilda Swinton. Why am I not surprised.
Even zombies love coffee.
How shitty does an energy drink called "energy drink" really taste?
I never realized that Selena Gomez had such a great ass.
Your first clue are the graves with the gigantic holes in front of them.
There isn't really anything left for me to touch on in terms of The Dead Don't Die. There is a strange sub-plot where Zelda (Swinton) is Scottish and she's also some crazy master swordsman who can behead anyone or anything with ease. And she gets picked up by a ufo right in the middle of a huge group of zombies and it zips away. No explanation, no results of this happening-nothing. She just gets picked up and Murray says "I always knew there was something weird about her". And that's it. Move on to the next scene. Zits and zombies, if you need a zombie flick to quench your thirst, The Dead Don't Die will leave you high and dry because it's parched itself. With a massive cast like what this thing has, you would think this would have been a pinnacle in at least some sort of horror comedy, but it isn't. It falls very short and very flat, and I can't really say anything beyond it being a purgatory movie. Once is enough. Now I need to practice my Buddha-samurai sword skills so maybe a ufo can come grab me off of this rock.
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