RE-KILL (2015) ** ½

Re-Kill is the most popular reality show in the future post-zombie outbreak America.  The show revolves around a camera crew following a SWAT team on patrol as they clear the streets of “Re-An’s”.  So, basically, it’s Cops, but with zombies instead of criminals.  

Just when I thought I didn’t want to see another Found Footage zombie movie, along comes one that manages to breathe a little life into the tired genre.  It’s consistently better than you’d expect (although to be honest, I wasn’t expecting much), and I was surprised by just how clever the film was.  By “clever”, of course, I mean, it more or less rips off Starship Troopers.  Throughout the movie, there are several commercial breaks filled with futuristic ads and overt government propaganda (and like Starship Troopers, there’s even a coed shower scene).  The commercials promoting repopulation (they look like something out of a Skinamax movie) and the cigarette ads are the most amusing.

This is a Found Footage zombie movie after all, so unfortunately, you’re stuck with a lot of irritating shaky-cam camerawork and rapid-fire editing.  It would’ve been headache-inducing had it not been for the commercial breaks, which offer a welcome respite from all the shaky-cam nonsense.  The crappy camerawork and editing also means that the gore scenes are cut to ribbons.  What gore there was looked pretty good, but it’s hard to say for sure when you can barely get a glimpse of it.  

The reality show gimmick doesn’t always work, but it certainly has its moments.  The filmmakers stick pretty close to the Cops formula, which garners a few laughs.  It’s nice to know that in the future, criminals will still have their face blurred out when they’re being arrested on television.

I’m not going to lie, the only reason I watched this was because Scott Adkins was in it.  Sadly, he doesn’t get to show off his impressive martial arts skills.  While I would’ve loved seeing him Kung Fu some zombies, he still manages to show his acting range playing the loudmouth asshole of the team.