Top Apocalyptic Movies

Absolutely brilliant, but did you expect anything less from Pixar? This is one of my 3 favourite Pixar films, the other two being Ratatouille and Toy Story.
I'd say Toy Story is the best, but honestly, I'd have to rewatch it to give a fairer judgment on it. I recently saw Toy Story 2 and it wasn't as brilliant as I remembered it being (seeing as I saw it when I was 9 I think).
The animation in this film is incredible. Pixar achieved near-photo-realism on inanimate objects in Cars, and this is 2 films up from that. It's really quite special.
But of course, it's not about the animation, it's about the film itself and the plot is fantastic as well as a wonderful little satire about the world. Humanity is restored to the human race by a robot, something completely un-human.
It's funny, endearing and just pretty much perfection on film.
I don't think there's much I can say about this other than it's brilliant.

Personal enjoyment: 9/10
Actual quality as a film: 10/10

With the book being one of my absolute favourites, I was in a really odd position with this film.
When I first heard about it I was expecting it to absolutely rape the book. Thankfully it doesn't really rape it, it's more as though it shags it and never calls back.
Whilst I think alot of it was adapted nearly perfectly in terms of tone, more of it was nothing like the book at all. Ultimately, this is an incredibly glossy and very well made action movie but it lacks much of the depth contained within the novel and sadly falls victim to alot of Hollywood cheese.
It's sadly a real mish-mash of bits and feels like alot is missing from the final cut (including the original ending which sounds alot better, God damned American test-screen audiences).
It's a shame the Oscars wouldn't touch this type of film with a barge-pole for any proper awards because Will Smith really gives a nomination-worthy performance.
Ultimately, it's easily the best film adaptation of it yet, even if it's not as close to the book as "The Last Man on Earth", and I REALLY enjoyed it in spite of it's many flaws.

Forget the over-rated Cloverfield, THIS film is the "giant pussy that eats YOU out!".
Possibly the scariest film I have ever seen, certainly the most tense. I'm yet to find a film that properly scares me, but this one got my heart going for most of it's running time.
I couldn't give one about any of the characters if I'm honest. And unlike Cloverfield, that works here because the film doesn't seem too fussed about them either and they're realistic enough for me to feel for them simply as human beings in a crisis. Just because I don't care for them doesn't mean I want them to die, you know?
The zombie origins are handled brilliantly in a fairly original twist on the usual formula of zombie movies.
There's very little to separate this from the countless other zombie films out there, other than it makes such effective use of it's zombies. The film is all about jump-scares, and that's fine here. That's all the film is meant to be taken as, a wild-roller-coaster ride of a movie. And allmost all of the film's scares are incredibly obvious. You see them coming a mile-off, BUT they're still just as effective as a normal jump-scare, if not more effective because by making you wait for it, the film forces even more tension upon you.
That said, the film is far from perfect. There's a period of about 20 minutes where it just drags sort of after the middle. This is when the zombie crisis starts to kick off. It's just boring because all the characters seem to be doing is running in circles and shouting alot. However, it soon stabalises back into being fantastic for it's final moments (although the ending is abrupt and frankly a bit dissapointing).
The dragging moments would have lost this film a point, giving it 7/10, however I felt the need to give it an extra point for being the most tense movie I've ever encountered. As such...

Personal enjoyment: 8/10
Actual quality as a film: 7/10

I was expecting an awesome film and I was not dissapointed, although it's really only about equal to the 78 remake, not better as most claim.

It's been too long since a truly wonderful zombie movie came along. I say too long, I mean about a year, but still.

Awesome in most respects, and breath takingly shot, but it answers NONE of the questions. It's meant to make you think, but you have to draw the line somewhere, and that is why is just 7/10 instead of 8 or maybe even 9.

There's something so endearing about Hong Kong's sense of humour. This film, whilst no masterpiece, is a great bit of fun.
Almost every character is candidate for the most 2-dimensional character I have ever seen and some of the dialogue is awful, however, I have a sneaking suspicion this is due to the dub I watched as opposed the film itself (couldn't get a subtitled copy). Especially as some parts of the dialogue are great and really witty.
It's a very strangely structured film, starting off almost like if Stephen Chow had directed Mallrats and soon turning into a typical straight-to-video zombie film (except it's good) before moving on to a dark ending. But for some reason that works here. Zombie films are often weirdly structured after all.
Overall, it's incredibly enjoyable, but if you can, go for the subtitled option. The two main characters are very likeable and there's some great humour. Also, it's the first film or anything that I've ever seen suggest the notion of human sushi, which is in my opinion something for it to be proud of.

Personal enjoyment: 7/10
Actual quality as a film: 6/10

You know those 80s horror-comedy, B-movie homages? This is one of the good ones. It's fantastic fun.
The characters are all quite bland with the exception of the absolutely fantastic police chief who whilst a massive stereotype is a wonderful massive stereotype and really likeable.
The concept is fairly original (or at least it was back in 1986, it's almost identical to countless films now, most obviously Slither). I mean, there's only so much you can do with zombie movies, but the idea of a slug-brain parasite was fairly unique back in '86.
The film has a good few unexpected minor plot points (though the majority is textbook zombie movie), some decent special effects given the obvious lack of budget, competent everything and some genuinely creepy moments. As already said, it's great fun.

Personal enjoyment: 7/10
Actual quality as a film: 7/10

Suprisingly good. It's really dark and gritty apart from the happy ending where everyone is alive. I actually really enjoyed it, even despite it starring Tom Cruise.

A very good zombie movie. And yes it bloody well is a zombie movie. PS. Funniest movie ending ever.

A fairly atmospheric (though Shaun of the Dead did a better job with the same style) and well made low-budget film.

Good cheesey fun.

More early Cronenberg.

A fairly interesting and entertaining piece of work.

Brilliant in aspects and easily the best Italian zombie movie I've ever seen. Great atmosphere above everything else.

What we have here is an unfortunate mish mash of things that work brilliantly, things that don't work at all and things that are inbetween.

It is at very least, MILES better than Cloverfield.


Romero has some great ideas lying away in this movie and some of the set-piece moments are great, it's just a shame that our main characters and their main quest isn't as interesting. It's also a shame that Romero runs his context into the ground. He seems to have forgotten the idea of subtlety.


In all honesty, I think this is actually the worst Dead film so far. Land of the Dead was far from a bad movie, it just wasn't great. Unfortunately, this is slightly weaker than it, but hey, it's still way better than most horror we get nowadays.


I had no real beef with the acting like I've seen in some reviews. All that got me was how formularic this film was. It was oh, so predictable, and unfortunately didn't bring enough to table to justify it. Romero's social commentary was far too heavy handed and in your face for my liking, and I've never had a problem with his unsubtle nature before.


This review might seem like a bit of a mess, but that's kind of how the film itself turned out, so it's fitting. Also, I REALLY wanted to adore this movie. It's Romero and it's been getting good reviews unlike Land which I actually quite enjoyed. I was hoping for a return to form for the zombie master, but this is just 'above average' at best.


Personal enjoyment: 7/10 (would be 6/10 if it weren't for the extra 'clips of footage downloaded off the net')

Actual quality as a film: 6/10

Before you read this you should be aware that
1. I like The Blair Witch Project and I think it is both a legitimately good film and incredibly smart
and 2. the original 50s Godzilla (or Gojira) is one of my favourite films of all time, so I have absolutely nothing against either hand-held films or giant monster movies, but honestly, this was mediocre. There's no other word for it.

There is no originality at all in this film other than the fact that it's been shot in a style that probably less than 10 movies so far have. Other than that, it's just all round cliche. The characters are boring and mostly unlikeable whilst the acting is nothing special. But what really got me was how many liberties this film took with basic reality. I mean, it would be fine with me in most movies, but this film was striving for "This is real! This is found footage!" and so every scientific impossibility just made me sit even further back from what was happening. Basically, I couldn't get 'involved' with what was happening at all, and ultimately I didn't care if the characters died.
They were pretty damn indestructable characters too surviving God knows how many attacks and woundings without more than a slight limp for the next few scenes before forgetting about it.

The film pretends to be about the humans and that the monster is just a backdrop for their story just like in the original Godzilla but frankly that is bullshit. This film is ALL about the monster. You can tell that's all that the people behind it care about and that would be okay if they weren't trying to kid themselves into thinking otherwise.

The monster itself is a pretty cool one although again, it's 100% scientifically impossible given it's explanation for being there -it would have been better left up to our imaginations.

The other annoying thing was the camerawork. I'm fine with the idea of someone being taken over by a desire to document a disaster like this because it pretty much justifies the experience to them and allows them to cope with what's happening for the time being. But if you're going to document something, at least TRY and keep the camera steady. Hell, upright would do for me. I can understand the camera being all over the place when you're running or being attacked by monsters, but when you're trying to film someone you're talking to or a location, shoot it properly. Especially when you've shown you're capable of doing so with your filming of 'goodbyes' at the start of the film.

I DID marginally enjoy watching it but I'd struggle to sit through it again.
Personal enjoyment: 7/10 (and that's extremely generous, if I gave half points it would be 6.5)
As a film: 5/10