Invaderbank
The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.
Mandeep Tyson
The acting in this movie is really good.
Rosie Searle
It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.
BA_Harrison
Dead Rising: Watchtower is NOT a film about zombie Jehovah's witnesses, knocking on doors, handing out copies of their magazine before chowing down on unsuspecting homeowners. That would have made for a far more original movie than this, which is routine medium-budget zombie fare from start to finish.Inspired by the popular video game Dead Rising, Watchtower opens promisingly enough, with a fun 'drop the viewer in the middle of the action' scene in which online reporter Chase Carter outruns a zombie horde, battles a zombie cop, and comes face-to-face with an axe wielding zombie clown. Cut to a few days earlier, and we join Chase and his camerawoman at work, filming a story about a zombie suppressant called Zombrex, which prevents those bitten from 'turning'. While they are there, the drug suddenly loses its effectiveness, resulting in a new outbreak.What follows is a 'seen it all many times before' fight for survival against ravenous flesh eaters, Chase joining forces with a pretty infected woman (a user of Zombrex) and a bereaved mother (Virginia Madsen). Meanwhile, unscrupulous military types put into motion a plan to secretly control the populace. Yadda yadda yadda.The film boasts decent production values and a reasonable cast, and director Zach Lipovsky pulls off a couple of neat set-pieces (Chase mowing down zombies with a sledgehammer/rotary saw combo, and his tense escape from a forklift truck surrounded by the undead), but the film is hampered by its derivative plot, an over-reliance on CGI gore, and the fact that it is waaayyy too long at just two minutes short of two hours.5.5/10, rounded up to 6 for the zombie clown's 'death'.
Lars Bear
The opening scene gave the impression that this was going to be a satire like 'Shaun of the Dead' or an outright comedy like 'Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse.' The 2/10 I rate the movie is for this opening scene. After that, it's downhill all the way.Zombie comedies work because the idea of a zombie apocalypse is so utterly absurd. Non-comedy zombie offerings like 'The Walking Dead' work because the drama and human tragedy is sufficient for us to suspend disbelief in the outrageous premise. To make a zombie movie, or book, or TV show work, film-makers have to slap us in the face with comedy, or punch us in the kidneys with drama; there can be no half-measures.Unfortunately, Watchtower is a half-measure and, beyond that first scene, has nothing to recommend it, unless you're a serious glutton for zombie schlock.
skybrick736
Dead Rising: Watchtower was quite the surprise having little faith in a film based off of a video game. It's relevant to say as the viewer there was no understanding of the video game or background, just went in open-minded. The notion of government aided shots to diminish the zombie side effects is a brilliant conception. Also, Dead Rising did a fantastic job portraying the despicableness of the United States media and the sneakiness of the government to strengthen our national security. The casting efforts should be applauded for a film that was most likely going to be direct-to-video (instead it was released by Crackle). Jesse Metcalfe and Meghan Ory looked and played the part very well and it was cool to see Virginia Madsen take a role that she can do perfectly. There was always an anticipation for myself of the next news scene between Rob Riggle and Carrie Genzel, having some extremely funny moments. Dead Rising is another bright spot of 2015 horror movies, which turned out to be a great year of non-mainstream horror.
Rando Lull
I find too many people have too many expectations for films. When that happens they forget to watch something objectively and not mix in what they expect to see from a film exactly the way they want to see it. This can in all actuality never happen! Too many people are also far too often mistaken by the genre of the film. Like with this film here, many seem to expect to see an epic ultra high budget video game adaptation made as a super serious thriller. But this is clearly not what was intended here. This film is self conscious about its humor, storytelling, action, acting and its budget. Truth be told, I saw this film with a good friend just now and I have to say that we are very critical. But we both found this film very clear about what it was trying to do. This film is very entertaining and a lot of fun! They have done a great job at doing the best they can on a lower budget. Overall good acting, good directing and good writing! Also the technical side of the film is very pleasant. Good camera-work with a lot of creativity which keeps you interested. It all is put together with good editing. All in all, A lot of fun!
