Screen Gems
2016 Color
108 Mins.
Horror/Romance/Comedy
Lily James, Douglas Booth, Matt Smith, Jack Huston, Charles Dance Lena Headey and Sam Riley star
Written and Directed by Burr Steers
Based on the noel by Seth Grahme-Smith
Rated PG13 violence and gore
It's been a long journey to the big screen for PPZ. Smith's inspired take on the material is served well here in this bombastic, creative and overly entertaining Period romantic horror comedy. The film of course centers on the Bennett sisters as they search for husbands out of love and to secure their father's estate. It just so happens to be set in an alternative world where a zombie plague has ripped through the country and is threatening world domination. And in addition to being trained in the fine arts young ladies are sent to Japan and China to master martial arts so they may defend their families and their loved ones. The film delicately plays with social classes and sexual politics as the original novel but as they are performing the dialogue they are mostly locked in hand to hand combat. The film is filled with such glorious moments where it's execution fully lives up to it's premise. The film begins questionably with a seemingly sloppy selection of half based sequences but the moment the sisters arrive on the dance floor armed for battle there is no question that this is awesome. The performances are solid all around with Lily James, Sam Riley and Matt Smith as the standouts. Sam Riley is perfectly grumpy as our Mr. Darcy and has perfect chemistry with Lily James who was so demure in last year's Cinderella and is feisty and believable as the lead. But the standout performance goes to Matt Smith doing a spin on his Doctor character of sorts. He's charming, whackey and hilarious and he steals all of his scenes. Only Huston is mediocre not giving much depth to his character and Headey is severely under used. The execution by Burr Steers leaving behind a slate of generic teen fodder such as Charlie St. Cloud and 17 again feels more confident here and his approach is always almost successful. Also impressive are the gory, creatie practical effects like the zombie mother and baby. The one thing severely lacking in the film is the cinematography there are some solid moments here and there but most of the time it feels a little messy and expected. There are moments when the film feels a little amateur and looses it's flair momentarily. That being said PPZ is a fun, clever, sexy, surprisingly creepy, bad ass zombie flick which delivers on it's promise. The film is truly an inspired genre mashup which is equal parts romantic, funny and scary. ****.25/5
No comments:
Post a Comment