I've seen a number of Uwe Boll movies that were MUCH worse than "House of the Dead." That said, I put it in my Netflix cue partly because I could, partly because I've caught the sequel at least TWICE on cable, but never seen "the original," and MOSTLY because it had (so far as I could tell), the ONLY nude scene ever done by "Smallville's" Erica Durance (she was going by Erica Parker then, her married name from a previous marriage).
She may have met her current husband while doing that movie, as reading her bio I noticed his name (they've been married since 2005, the movie came out in 2003), and it was the actor who played Castillo in the movie... At any rate, that was her skinny dipping early in the movie, then getting over-run by zombies when she went into the House of the Dead looking for her boyfriend. I just HAD TO "have a look," so to speak, lol.
As for the movie, well, yeah, I agree with most of the criticisms of it -- all the game splices were RIDICULOUS (although I've seen that done in SEVERAL other movies based on video games -- I usually don't know they are, since I'm not really into video games -- it WAS done more poorly in this one than in any other I've seen -- even other Boll movies, like "Blood Rayne," which I THINK had a little bit of videogame "stuff" in it, although I can't recall, for sure -- was a MUCH better flick than this, at any rate!). All the college kids "instantly" being pros at using automatic weapons was pretty ridiculous, as well. They DID have a line in the beginning about the Alicia character studying FENCING, however, which would explain why she was as good as she was with a sword.
I watched the "extras" on the DVD, including an 18-minute piece called "Behind the House: Anatomy of the Zombie Movement," which INCLUDED a number of cut-in interviews with THE MASTER, George A. Romero, along with talk about how they created all the zombies for the movie, newer technologies, etc. (even Romero and his special effects guy -- who also worked on this movie, I think -- lamenting that they didn't have some of the latex and stuff they have now, then), and actors, etc., all talking about HOW GREAT Uwe Boll is. He seems to have LOTS of fans, and somehow seems to often get big-name stars (like Sir Ben Kingsly, for "Blood Rayne") to take parts in his movies. I'm not sure HOW, since even though I don't think they're as bad as most folks do (actually enjoy some of them), I agree they're certainly not "career boosters."
Oddly, on the DVD interview, Romero was talking about how he was trying to get a FOURTH Zombie movie produced and already had a script put together, but was having some "funding issues," and how maybe the SUCCESS of "House of the Dead" would help him. Well, by the time he was doing the DVD interview he HAD to know that the movie grossed only $10 Million worldwide, and cost $7 Million to make -- not much of a "success," if you ask me. The script he described for his new zombie flick sounded JUST LIKE the script for "Land of the Dead," which he wrote and directed and was released in 2005 -- and according to IMDB it's the LAST "Dead" movie Romero has made that's made money (made it for about $15 Million; grossed about $46 million -- that's a decent profit). His last two -- I've seen "Diary of the Dead," but not "Survival of the Dead" -- not yet, anyway -- didn't even COME CLOSE to breaking even -- not in theaters, anyway -- at least not based on IMDB figures. Oh well, no good thing lasts forever.
Jeff
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