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Zombie Fight Club
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Shout! Factory Review written by and copyright: Anthony Arrigo (23rd February 2016). |
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The Film
 This is low-hanging fruit, but it’s still going to get picked… The first rule of “Zombie Fight Club” (2014) is you do not watch “Zombie Fight Club”. The second rule of “Zombie Fight Club” is YOU DO NOT WATCH “ZOMBIE FIGHT CLUB”. I have gotten to a point in my life as a horror fan where I loathe the thought of watching another zombie movie. So few of them bring anything new or valuable to the fray that you have to wonder why they are even getting made in the first place. Even foreign films, usually a bastion of creative ideas as compared to their American brethren, have been coming up short with regard to the undead. It is a well that has long since run dry. “Zombie Fight Club” pretends to utilize a novel premise – humans fighting zombies in gladiator-style combat – but it’s really just another rote undead outbreak story for the first hour before finally getting to the titular combat. And, as you might’ve guessed, by that point most viewers will have long since checked out. Opening thirty minutes before the world zombie pandemic begins the film follows a group of drug dealers living in a high-rise building. They like to party and screw chicks with big knockers and torture their rivals. The zombie crisis begins during a sex romp, with the girls turning into flesh eaters. And yes, some poor sap does get his penis bitten off. Soon after, the cops raid the building and a massive fire fight/zombie attack occurs. I guess you could say this is sort of like “The Raid” (2011) with zombies, but that would set an expectation for this film that is far too high. Plenty of characters die, buckets of blood are shed and it’s a full hour before we receive a title card which explains humans are now forced to live underground post-zombie outbreak, being led by a vicious thug who forces survivors to participate in the eponymous zombie fight club. If grisly deeds and big tits are enough to sate you as a viewer, maybe you’ll have more fun with this title than I did. Having seen plenty of better films featuring both, I was more invested in waiting for the end credits to begin rolling than anything else. I will say that watching the film with the English dub track enabled, versus the original Mandarin audio, provided a level of campiness that – at the very least – made my one-time viewing more tolerable.
Video
“Zombie Fight Club” features a sharp 2.35:1 1080p 24/fps AVC MPEG-4 encoded picture that excels in regard to clarity and fine detail. The color palette is pretty dull, with few bright hues to leap off the screen; it’s rather dull. Contrast is generally very strong, and there is also a nice sense of depth to the image. Where this picture heavily falters is with the blending of CGI and organic elements –the former of which often looks poorly rendered and sticks out like an early 2000's video game cut scene.
Audio
Audio comes in a variety of flavors here – English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 or Mandarin DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz/24-bit), as well as 2.0 tracks for each option, too. As I stated earlier, the English dub is the way to go simply because it makes the film a little more tolerable. The Mandarin track does sound a bit tighter in terms of sound mixing and depth, though I highly doubt anyone is concerned with any of that when watching a film called “Zombie Fight Club”. Subtitles are available in English and English for Mandarin Only.
Extras
Other than the theatrical trailer, the only extra feature here is a featurette on the film’s stunts. “”Zombie Fight Club” Stunts” (1080i) is a featurette that runs for 2 minutes and 42 seconds. This is some brief b-roll footage of stunts being mapped out before rolling. A theatrical trailer (1080p) runs for 2 minutes and 5 seconds.
Packaging
The single disc comes housed in a standard Blu-ray keep case. The cover art is reversible and there is a slip-cover included on first pressings.
Overall
I hated this movie. The only reason it isn’t getting an “F” is because they wisely hired some very attractive females for the first act.
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