Army of the Dead

Last night I took my nephew Sean to see Army of the Dead (Sean is a huge fan of Zack Snyder) and we both had so much fun watching this epic mash up of the zombie and heist genres.  The movie begins with a heavily armed military convoy transporting an unknown, but dangerous, payload.  When the convoy is involved in a head-on collision on a Nevada highway, the container opens to reveal a zombie who infects all of the soldiers before wreaking havoc on the city of Las Vegas in an awesome opening credits sequence (that rivals the one in Deadpool) with a cover of "Viva Las Vegas" underneath it.  A group of heroic soldiers, Ward (Dave Bautista), Cruz (Ana de la Reguera), and Vanderohe (Omari Hardwick), are responsible for saving many lives and helping to contain the city behind a wall of shipping containers.  However, they are now back to their low paying dead-end jobs until a wealthy casino owner (Hiroyuki Sanada) approaches Ward with a proposition.  The government has decided to detonate a nuclear bomb over Las Vegas to wipe out all remaining zombies and Tanaka wants the $200 million located in an almost impenetrable safe in his casino.  He asks Ward to assemble a team and offers $50 million as a reward to infiltrate the city and get the money.  He recruits Cruz and Vanderohe along with a helicopter pilot (Tig Notaro), a safecracker (Matthias Schweighofer, who steals every scene he is in), a coyote who knows the best route into the city (Nora Arnezeder), and a viral personality famous for killing zombies (Raul Castillo).  Tanaka insists that his head of security (Garret Dillahunt) accompany them and Ward's estranged daughter (Ella Purnell) infiltrates the group to locate a friend who has gone missing in the city.  They must contend with the undead (who are pretty terrifying) as well as a traitor in their midst while racing against the clock.  Will any of them survive?  The action sequences are so much fun (but are extremely gruesome) and I especially loved the scenes where they trick the undead into springing all of the booby traps to get to the safe and when one of Siegfried & Roy's undead tigers gets revenge on a bad guy!  Along with all of the action, there is also quite a bit of humor and pathos (I laughed at just about everything Schweighofer says and does until he made cry).  Bautista gives a surprisingly affecting performance in between all of the battles, especially in a touching scene with his daughter.  Sean and I both really enjoyed this movie and I recommend seeing it on the biggest possible screen with the biggest possible crowd and the biggest possible tub of popcorn.  It is the perfect summer blockbuster!

Note:  It is incredibly violent.  At one point I covered Sean's eyes and said that his parents would be horrified that I took him to this movie (I had permission).  He giggled and replied, "My Dad will love this movie!"