Digital Dismemberment: Cockneys vs. Zombies Blu-Ray Review
Director– Matthias Hoene
Producer– Mark Birmingham, Andrew Boswell, Will Clarke, Simon Crowe, James Harris, Matthias Hoene, Matthew Joynes, Mark Lane and Susie Liggat
Special FX– Sally Alcott, Stuart Conran and Emma Slater
Cast– Rasmus Hardiker, Harry Treadaway, Michelle Ryan, Jack Doolan, Georgia King, Ashley Thomas, Tony Gardner, Richard Briers, Natalie Walter, Georgina Hale and Honor Blackman
Released By– Shout!/Scream Factory
Release Date– 09/03/2013
The Premise: When some down-on-their-luck old-timers are at risk of losing their home to developers, a group of young, inept criminals decide to take matters into their own hands. The only thing standing in their way? A zombie outbreak in London! Now, it’s up to a bunch of east-enders to fight their way out of the zombie-infested city, led by an unlikely gang of amateur bank robbers and foul-mouthed, plucky pensioners.
Starring Michelle Ryan (Bionic Women, 2007), Honor Blackman (Goldfinger), Harry Treadaway (?The Lone Ranger, 2013), Richard Briers (Much Ado About Nothing) and Alan Ford (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels), this “funny, likeable [and] gory zombie comedy delivers… it’s a laugh riot” (Time Out)!
One thing must be made clear before you sit down and watch this film:Throw out any pre-conceived notions that you may have about comparing this and Shaun of the Dead! While both films have comedic elements and are British, the films are totally different. Mattias Hoene shot the film with a steady hand and had a great eye for locations. Some of the characters are over the top, like Ashley Thomas’ Mickey Mental, but the characters and the story call for it. Every single member of the cast filled their rolls to the max, with special nods to Alan Ford, Richard Briers, Dudley Sutton and Honor Blackman for their portrayals of the senior citizens. Some people may see the humor as too over the top or have trouble with the character accents, but those are minor oversights at best. The FX work is quite good, but the only thing that caught my eye was the use of digital effects in several of the scenes, in particular blood spray. Great as a double feature with any zombie film that has comedy!
We see a beautiful set of apartments until the camera pans up and we see a construction site being worked on. A crane operator digs up what looks like a crypt in the middle of the site. Out of curiosity, two of the workers go down into it and discover it is a crypt. Thinking at first they are going to find treasures, they are quickly dispatched by a couple of zombies that have been in tomb. We cut to Terry and Andy trying to start a van and talking about their plans. They head off to take food to their Grandfather and his friends at the nursing home they stay at, but while they are there, the building inspector is in the home measuring the house for destruction, and we see the rapport that the older people in the house have with one another…
Terry and Andy leave the home and discuss their plans to knock off a bank with their friends so that they can save their Grandfather. After picking up Davey and Katy, they pick up Mental Mickey, who supplies them with guns. They dress up as construction workers and are mistaken as pick up men for a company and wind up stealing 2.5 million euros from them. The police are waiting for them outside and a shoot out occurs between the police and Mickey Mental. After retreating back into the bank and taking hostages, they go back outside to find the zombie apocalypse has happened. They head to their meet up point to decide what to do. Meanwhile, the zombies overrun the nursing home, forcing several of the inhabitants (including Terry and Andy’s Grandfather) to defend themselves and shelter themselves in the kitchen…
After Mickey gets bitten and turned into a zombie, the robbers have to kill him to save the hostages and to get their car keys. Davey and one of the hostages gets killed in the process, and they agree that they need to get to their Grandfather and save him. After going back to Mickey’s and arming themselves to the teeth, they head out to the home and manage to get inside and arm the senior citizens. After shooting their way out of the house and onto a bus, they try to get out of the city until the bus breaks down. In another amazing shootout, they make it to the docks where there is an empty boat, but in their attempt to get away, they forget to let loose the anchor. Do they all escape or do the zombies overtake them? Is this the end of London and the world? You are going to have to watch the film to find out!
Bonus Features:
Audio Commentary Audio 1: Director Mattias Hoene
Audio 2: Writer James Moran
Cockneys Vs. Zombies Original Look Behind the Scenes
The Maguire Brothers– (Run time of 4 minutes, 30 seconds) Rasmus Hardiker and Harry Treadaway talk about their characters, their motivations in the film and what it was like on set with the conditions and the crew.
The Bank Robbery– (Run time of 3 minutes, 30 seconds) Michelle Ryan, Ashley Thomas and Matthias Hoene break down the bank robbery scene and show us what happened outside of the bank when the zombies showed up.
The Care Home– (Run time of 3 minutes) Honor Blackman and Michelle Ryan discuss the zombie attack on the Care Home and the action that took place during the filming of those sequences.
At The Docks– (Run time of 3 minutes) Alan Ford and Michelle Ryan talk about the film in general including the script, how many zombies they killed and the director, all while extra footage of the dock scene is shown.
Special Effects– (Run time of 4 minutes) Paul Hyatt, Georgina Hale and Dudley Sutton talk in detail about the zombie make-up, featured zombies and how the characters dealt with the situation.
The Film Makers– (Run time of 5 minutes) Matthias Hoene, Mark Lane, James Harris and James Moran discuss the different ideas that went into the film, the cast and the crew and how they all became involved in the project.
Andy TV– (Run time of 2 minutes) Harry Treadaway as his chracter Andy running around with a camera interviewing various zombies and the cast and crew in between takes.
Zombie School– (Run time of 5 minutes) Short how to film on how to be a zombie that the extras had to watch before going on set.
Deleted Scenes– There are 9 deleted scenes with separate commentaries by Matthias Hoene and James Moran
Trailer
Discs: 1
Format: NTSC
Color: Color
Rating: NR
Aspect Ratio: 1080p High-Definition Widescreen (2.35:1)
Language: English
Once again, Shout!/Scream Factory has brought us something new to DVD, another original film! A nice bit of attention went into the behind the scenes feature, which really highlights a lot of footage not shown in the film, and plenty of attention is given to the cast and crew to talk about how they got involved with the project. It was also nice to get commentary on the deleted scenes as well. The color and sound are razor sharp as always. Nit picking here, but I thought a music video or something along those lines would have been nice (as he music is quite catchy and entertaining). Other than that, another very strong effort on bringing us original content and another beautiful disc!
Movie Rating: 3.5 out of 5
DVD Rating: 8 out of 10
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