Movie Review: Gangsters, Guns & Zombies (2012)

The movie stars Vincent Jerome, Huggy Leaver, Cassandra Orhan, Fabrizio Santino and Charlie Rawes.

My wife and I are huge zombie movie fans and rarely pass up an opportunity to watch one. This is why, even though I had my doubts about the film Gangsters, Guns and Zombies, I decided to watch it with her. As it turns out, while it definitely wasn't the best zombie apocalypse film we've ever watched, it was surprisingly better than expected.

Granted, the overall plot of the film isn't the best, mostly because, regardless of the explanations the gangsters themselves gave for doing it, robbing a bank when the world is coming to an end really doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Sure, the police, in theory at least, are going to be distracted by the living dead. But, it's not like that money is going to have much value once the governments of the world collapse.

The thing that really helps this movie, however, is the way it never takes itself too seriously. This allows the writers to take some things to an extreme you don't normally see in zombie films. In other words, they weren't just fighting zombies. They were fighting zombie medieval re-enactors wearing full suits of armor or zombie soccer players that were much stronger and faster than they are and, yes, even zombie clowns. That, combined with a variety of scenes in the background (such as a groom being attacked by his zombie bride) kept the movie fun to watch.

Also helping this movie was the fact the gangsters themselves had a variety of interesting personalities. Q (Jerome), for example, was the one who always managed to keep a cool head but, at the same time, he also seemed like he didn't belong in the van with the rest of the group. Crazy Steve (Santino) lived up to his moniker and provided some of the funnier moments while Muscles (Rawes) proved to have a much deeper personality than originally described. This is something many other zombie films fail to do properly and it's important because it does make you care if they get killed.

As I mentioned before, the main storyline is a little weak. However, the character development and the variety of zombie-related challenges the group faces while on their journey does make the film much more entertaining than expected and my wife and I did, ultimately, enjoy watching it.

My Grade: B