Code Red (2013)
4/10
Not so impressive
16 February 2014
Warning: Spoilers
I have watched a lot of zombie movies and this is not a great one. Don't get me wrong makeup and scenes were decent, acting acceptable, but the accent and storyline was just off putting.

Scene during WW2 was awesome, real hook and the 9/10 scene, rest of the movie 3, maybe 4.

First thing that comes to mind is how everyone speaks English, even old lady answering the door. It's just annoying through most of the movie. There is no reason that Bulgarians should speak English amongst themselves. I remember only one expression said in Bulgarian throughout the whole movie and I can't imagine why, since the more important scenes don't have a single word said in native language. At the explosion scene there is alarm and guy in perfect English explaining the danger to 99% Bulgarians in that town.

Scenes are fine, but the characters are not. Lady doctor Anna is unconvincing to say the least. She talks as she's uncertain if she should say her lines or not. At the first scene she describes a dead soldier coming to life with same intonation as she's telling a story from a day in shopping mall. Also I am certain that they could've found someone more authentic to play American doctor, but that's just me. Lead character John is only good as blurted one liners and some macho dialog.

Screenwriter did terrible job, as he was writing dialogs and story as they went through the shoot. Lead character doesn't do anything, at all, just dies at the end, also he doesn't help explain the plot. Doctor Anna is all over the place. First thing we see is that she lets her small daughter open the door while she sleeps in apartment in slums of a foreign country, then she takes her clothes off in front of a complete stranger, and last but not least she drags her daughter by hand so they can get separated in the entrance of a bunker for some unknown reason, because in a later scene we saw that they had plenty of room. But it further advanced the plot, so we'll let it slide. And in the end she drags her daughter by hand over the corpse when she falls and mother of the year lets go of her once more so she gets bitten.

Also story plot is unclear. US doctor gets suspended by Bulgarian colonel which makes no sense cause US army is her employer. Also at some point Bulgarian colonel says that he's going to be in charge of weapon warehouses after the transition. This also doesn't make sense since those warehouses are property of military bases and as such will be handed as well. And even if that is the case there is no reason for him to blow it up, as no one can make him show the true inventory on paper. There is also a scene when Bulgarians capture John sneaking around the base and kill their own guards so there wouldn't be any witnesses, but not him. Why? He was the only witness now who could incriminate any of them.

Ending is forced, where big bad American general comes and tells: "You don't know what are you dealing with", but they most certainly do at this point. There is no conclusion to this story just end as some point, which leaves a viewer wondering if there ever was a script or plan during the filming or just improvisation after the WW2 scene.

There is no story about soldier from the first scene and how he escaped, just a line that he killed himself at some point, no explanation how and why the zombie gas was hidden in Bulgaria and why was it forgotten. There was no sex scene and romance development after the pseudo naked scene, no explanation how the poison spreads and why didn't it affect all the people, not even all injured people. No one was trying to find a cure and no one was saved, even a little girl was killed off along with two people that died trying to save her.

Conclusion is that this is not worth watching. Story is forced and illogical, character unconvincing and ending and plot don't make sense what so ever.
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