ironhorse_iv Review of Juan of the Dead

Juan of the Dead (2011)

This is not a zombie movie, but a movie about Juan fighting C.I.A backed dissidents!

[6/10 · 24 March 2013]

I did get a kick out of the way the Zombies were being identified by the Cuban media government spokesman in the film as being 'dissidents' revolutionists, degenerates who were being funded by America to undermine Cuban society. I like zombie movies that think of cleaver ways of calling the undead. Juan of the Dead score some funny points off of U.S-Cuban relations, the Cuban culture, and human nature in general. Even though I'm not a Cuban I think I got the basics of some of the jokes they threw into the film. Juan (Alexis Diaz de Villegas) is a loser with no future in harsh life communist Havana. Down on his luck in a land that has little to offer, he's taken to doing odd jobs in order to make the occasional buck. However, what he wants most is to reconnect with his young daughter Camila. When the island would suddenly be overrun by zombies and his socialist world collapsing around him. What does he do? He goes for capitalism and establishes a business where killing zombies is their business for a price. Will this idea be a success, or will the job of killing a nation full of dissidents be too much for the task? The acting by Mr. de Villegas is awfully bad with all the deadpan delivery of lines but thank God, he surrounded with some of the most impressive assortment of goof balls that serve up a handful of respectable laughs. There is his friend Lazaro, a sick sex-craze borderline psychopath who tends to accidentally harpoon the living. He would be unlikeable if only the fact that what he does is just so outrageous funny. Then there is Vladi California, a laid back surfer dude who serves as Juan's daughter love interest. There is the huge, muscular guy Primo who faints at the sight of blood and so, has to be led around blindfolded so he doesn't faint at the sight of bloodied zombies, but he fights them off through the instructions of his flaming gay transgender lover La China. The choice of weapons for each character matched their personality, from the paddle that Juan use to the slingshot of La China that gives the character its own identify. Still, the movie suffers from deep silliness. The matrix type fighting was just bad. There is also a lot more of the film that veers toward slapstick, or at least broad comedy, which some viewers will appreciate and others won't. As a zombie picture, it's clearly flawed, but as a comedy it's probably worth the chuckles. The low budget special effects are laughably bad of helicopter and buses crashing. Special effects are about on par with an Asylum film production. In one scene, a zombie get taken out by a CGI shark that looks out of place. The editing is not that good. In one scene the characters were complaining about a building blocking out the sunset. Only to see that the government blow up the building a minute later. It fades to night, where the building is back on screen. The movie works best with English sub-titles, but sadly not all the version out there has it. Disappointed that English sub titles end when the Australian in film was talking. I couldn't understand a word, he was saying. Then it picks up, after that. Unfortunately, the ending isn't satisfying as well. Being Cuba's first real horror movie, Juan of The Dead comes as a Latin take on zombie comedy flicks, reminiscing Shaun of The Dead. The zombie slacker film pioneered by Simon Pegg in Shaun of the Dead was, in the beginning, a great twist on a concept starting to grow cold, but just a little, as this movie has its own unique dimension. Can't wait until they make a Chinese version, Wong of the Dead. There's nothing wrong with being a middle of the road horror comedy and, on that level alone, Juan won't win accolades but may win over its share of fans with its exotic setting and subtle geo-political satire along with its walking dead. Zombie junkies should check it out, but keep your expectations down.