Many years ago, when I was still in college, I worked nights and went to school in the daylight hours. My off nights I usually spent watching junk movies on late night television. I learned that there is a hierarchy of junk movies ranging from poor quality junk to high quality junk. The genre didn't seem to matter. They could be drama, comedy, horror, SF, cowboy, you-name-it. This film, Battle of the Dead, is definitely in the high quality junk category. In fact, I even hesitate to call it junk. I only do so because it meets many of the criteria. It was made by non-mainstream film makers, way, way outside of Hollywood or western Europe. The actors are people you've never seen or heard of before. It stars Dolph Lundgren. Now, I have seen Lundgren turn in good performances, given the right material and decent direction, but by and large, he has made film choices based on making the money and getting out quickly. It may very well be that that's why he chose to do this film, but if so, he was scammed into making a film with an interesting concept, a sufficiently competent and professional script and crew, and a director with some imagination. This film, on the surface, sounds like junk. It's a zombie movie with killer robot soldiers. Then, after you find out they are not really zombies, and therefore can be put down rather easily, and the robots usually kill only when they have good reason, you begin to realize that a certain amount of thought has gone into this project. Granted the characters are pretty two-dimensional and the reasons behind why everything is happening are only lightly sketched in, but the action moves right along, there are a number of interesting visuals, and the film is for the most part believable, if you accept certain basic science fiction tenets that run through most post-apocalyptic films. One last word about Dolph Lundgren. He doesn't do much more than stand around and look menacing, but that's why he was hired, and he does the best with what he was given. Basically, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Review of Battle of the Damned
