Code Red

PLOT:
In a sick attempt to win the war, Stalin had a nerve gas made during World War II. That gas disappeared from existence at the Battle of Stalingrad but after seventy years the gas has been discovered. Now in Bulgaria the locals are being turned into crazed mutants and the dead have been rising to becoming zombies. U.S. Special Forces Captain John McGahey (played by Paul Logan) and Dr. Ana Bennett (played by Manal El-Feitury) will have to fight their way through all the infected and the dead before everything is wiped out in the Code Red alert.

ACTING:
The acting in this was also what I figured would be given by the actors. Paul Logan who is both actor and stunt guy and in such he is able to deliver a mediocre performance with his character. He's not a bad actor, I've seen a lot worse from other actors but Paul Logan was able to make his character somewhat realistic. I can't say I was too impressed with the acting in this movie because it goes from being over done to being forced when trying to make me believe it's a dire situation. There are mutant zombies, the situation would or should be crazy and unpredictable, which is why some of the acting is a little over the top but not so much where it's bad. What makes this movie work for Paul Logan is that his characters fits with his style of acting. Being that he already knows how to do action sequences because of his stunt background, playing an action hero should come naturally for him. Which it seems to show in this movie as he does a lot of action scenes.

ORIGINALITY:
Really nothing that original in this movie, the whole idea of a secret weapon made during WWII that turns people into crazy killers or zombies has been done before. Usually it's the Nazis that is the ones that developed the weapon but having it start from WWII is still the same. Also there's nothing new brought to the table when it comes to the zombie genre movie. This is a typical B-movie with it's zombies killing everyone in site while the hero is going around saving the day. I also can't forget the damsel in distress, the gore, and the death on both sides, humans and mutants/zombies.

TONE/STORY/PROGRESSION:
It's easy to figure out what the tone of this movie is going to be by the type of movie it is, dark and filled with death. It has all the elements that a B-movie should have with the acting, the stunts, the gore, and the zombies. It's not a comedy but there are some moments that could be considered laughable, not in the comedic way but more on the yeah that was so outrageous that it's laughable. I didn't expect much from this movie I got exactly what I expected from it. This plot was one that is predictable and not that intelligent as far as the characters and what happens.
Though it is not the greatest direct to DVD movie I've seen, nor is it the worst. I do enjoy a good zombie movie and when I use the word good I'm using it lightly and not in the context of the movie actually being a good movie. Code Red was good in the sense that it is filled with some gore zombie killing action by a character who will lay it all on the line just to save the day. Code Red was one of these movies that I'll watch once but that's enough for me with it. It has decent make up, not great or even really, just decent enough that I could tell who was a zombie and who was a human, and the audio levels are good, but having the jerky camera work and a lot of the action being done at night doesn't help make the movie that enjoyable. What is being relied on with this movie is that it's a horror action flick with zombies.