The zom com has been riding a high of late. Gone is your traditional slow moving scare em shoot em up zombie horror. It's been replaced by parodying self aware zombie comedies of late. So Zombies of Mass Destruction enters the fray into this subgenre. Is it as good as the Zombieland or Shaun of the Dead?
C'mon now. Of course not. But it's a damn fun ride.
ZMD is a zombie mockumentary on the pro American George W. Bush era insanity. In a zany twist, our homeland security protectors from the zombie plague in the small town of Port Gamble are Frida an Iranian-American who has to survive not just zombies but the town's right wing conservatism. As the zombie plague hits, a white blue collar family are brainwashed that terrorists have unleashed this virus and hold Frida hostage which leads to a humorous interrogation of all that is Americana.
Our other heroes are a gay couple Tom and Lance who've come back to the island town so Tom can come out of the closet. Their ordeal has a few mommy zombie issues and they eventually end up trapped in a church chock full of self righteous Christians who see the Armageddon to further their political standing.
The jokes are zingers to say the least. Some are LOLs but a few miss their targets badly. It could be this new Obama nation we now live in but ZMD felt dated and as much as terrorist jokes and ambiguous gay duo one liners are aimed at us for laughs, the irony is flat. That's not to say ZMD doesn't work. The gore and splatter are top notch, reaching gorehound's delight with zombie munching, an ocular snack and some solid gunshots to the head.
But that's not enough to propel ZMD to A-level zom com status. With my gore, I need a few scenes that can be Interweb viral and quotey quotables that stick in a loop in your head. ZMD is a decent zombie comedy...if we had seen it a few years post 9/11. In 2010, we're all a little tolerant of each other and even pro-zombie at times.
Sorry, I mean Undead American.
