Ridge War Z

Director - Alex Gearhart (Joker Rising)
Starring - Tyler Allen, Alex Gearhart, and Kyle Gordon
Release Date - 2013
Genre - Horror
Tagline - "The war against the undead is fought by soldiers"
Format - Streaming (Online Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     When something is successful it spawns dozens of copycats trying to cash in on the success.  You can not blame the people behind these unoriginal material.  If people will pay for it then why not give it to them? So many great, and not so great, films have received this treatment.  The most recent is the flick World War Z that was based on the novel by Max Brooks of the same novel.  The novel was eye witness accounts to the war between humans and zombies.  However, the film starring Brad Pitt was a straight forward zombie apocalypse flick.  That film spawned the similar film titled Ridge War Z.  Before watching this flick I read that the film actually follows the accounts of three survivors of the zombie war.  So that actually made this film closer to the novel than the actual World War Z film.
     The film follows a reporter who is accompanying three vets who are returning to the ridge where a war was waged between the humans and the undead.  The war was waged by military personnel and the undead hordes.  The men were ordered to hold the ridge and kill the zombies.  A lot of great men lost their lives that day and the men return to the spot that caused them a lot of pain to tell their story to the reporter.
     I did not have much hope for this movie and it gave me exactly what I thought it would...nothing.  The film was clearly created to cash in on the World War Z fame but I'm sure people will see through the bullshit and skip this one.  At least, I hope they do.  The acting in this one is actually decent and the only redeeming quality I can find with this one.  The entire cast does a great job but it is a shame because I'm sure no one will see this one to enjoy that.  The story, like I said earlier, is more based on the novel World War Z instead of the film.  Not original but it is rather new to film.  Thought the story is somewhat original, it was very slow paced and the zombies did not make their appearance until the last 20 minutes or so.  Finally, the film does have a few on-screen kills but the camera work did not give us what we wanted to see.  If you are going to take the time to kill someone you should at least let the viewer enjoy the death.  The special effects are not that great either.  The zombies just have pale white, green, and grey face paint but are not that convincing.  Overall, this film offers nothing for the viewer other than a well rounded cast.  Unfortunately, this will not keep the audience entertained.  I would stay away from this one if I was you.