Army of the Dead on Netflix: Zack Snyder bets on brainless zombie flick – CNET [CNET]

A Zack Snyder zombie movie set in Las Vegas. Sounds like big dumb fun, right? You can bet on it. Army of the Dead streams on Netflix this Friday, May 21 and this lengthy splatterfest is every bit as subtle as it sounds.

After Vegas falls to flesh-eating monsters, hulking but surprisingly sensitive action star Dave Bautista leads a squad of mercs tasked with fighting their way along the strip and into a casino. They’re looking to win big by busting open a vault and escaping in a helicopter. Sounds simple, right? Except the locals have swapped slot machines in favor of chomping human flesh. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but it doesn’t stay dead.

Director Zack Snyder fully leans into the Las Vegas setting, mining both Sin City’s infamous iconography and its tacky tone. Army of the Dead opens with blood-dripping Vegas showgirls tearing high rollers apart in slo-mo under giant neon pink credits, while a jazzy cover version of Viva Las Vegas plays. Because of course. 

Our heroes are a multiracial multiskilled motley crew of tough nuts, in the style of ’80s combat crews from Predator or Aliens. There’s even a sketchy tag-along corporate spook. OK, so this is the kind of flick where characters are introduced by the type of weapon they use to explode zombies into gory chunks, but the film actually puts a bit of effort into making them real and relatable.

The charm of the cast has to do a lot of heavy lifting. Omari Hardwick and Ana de la Reguera provide the amiable muscle, while the squad is rounded out by a zombie-blasting YouTuber, a Kohl-eyed icy blonde and a nervous safecracker. Hilarious Matthias Schweighöfer steals every scene playing the kooky kid with the knowledge to open the vault, although he’s given a run for his money by Tig Notaro‘s stogie-chomping chopper pilot. And following films like Blade Runner 2049, man-mountain Dave Bautista once again delivers a winningly vulnerable turn as the conflicted veteran.

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