Bill Robinson: Now, I know you're not supposed to have a hand gun until you're twelve... but it can come in real handy.
I think I love the concept of 'Fido' far more than the actual movie. How original is it to have an alternate reality set in 1950s Leave it To Beaver Era in a perfect little neighborhood where all of the inhabitants are devastated after the great zombie wars of the 1930s. That's right, instead of WWII this reality faced a military conflict with flesh-hungry corpses revived from the dead. Now everything is quarantined, and a company called 'Zomcom' controls basically everything. 'Zomcom' is a company known for converting and brain-washing zombies with electronic collars to become servants.
After the first five minutes of FIDO my hopes were set sky high but by the end I was sorely disappointed. 'Fido' is a good film and a great film in it's genre, but there is so much that could have been done with this groundbreaking and shockingly innovative plot that the final result is almost appalling.
The performances are are solid. Carrie Anne-Moss is excellently creepy as the mother, K'Sun Ray is great as little Timmy, Dylan Baker, best known for his outstanding and haunting portrayal of a conflicted pedophile serial-rapist in Todd Solondz's 'Happiness', is solid here in the stereotypical uptight white male role he is always type-casted in. The real stand-out is Billy Connolly, who with essentially no dialogue is side-split-tingly funny with his priceless facial expressions as the zombie we all cheer for, Fido. It's also nice to see the always reliable Tim Blake Nelson here as Mr. Theopolis, the neighborhood's Quagmire who uses his zombie as a sex slave. The writing is solid on the ideas scale, but the screenplay gets tedious and slow for a big chunk in the middle of the film. Andrew Currie's directing is solid for the most part, but nothing special.
All in all, I highly recommend Fido to any fan of the horror/comedy genre and only lightly recommend it to the rest of you. It's a good film, but it could have been so much better. Grade: B-
I think I love the concept of 'Fido' far more than the actual movie. How original is it to have an alternate reality set in 1950s Leave it To Beaver Era in a perfect little neighborhood where all of the inhabitants are devastated after the great zombie wars of the 1930s. That's right, instead of WWII this reality faced a military conflict with flesh-hungry corpses revived from the dead. Now everything is quarantined, and a company called 'Zomcom' controls basically everything. 'Zomcom' is a company known for converting and brain-washing zombies with electronic collars to become servants.
After the first five minutes of FIDO my hopes were set sky high but by the end I was sorely disappointed. 'Fido' is a good film and a great film in it's genre, but there is so much that could have been done with this groundbreaking and shockingly innovative plot that the final result is almost appalling.
The performances are are solid. Carrie Anne-Moss is excellently creepy as the mother, K'Sun Ray is great as little Timmy, Dylan Baker, best known for his outstanding and haunting portrayal of a conflicted pedophile serial-rapist in Todd Solondz's 'Happiness', is solid here in the stereotypical uptight white male role he is always type-casted in. The real stand-out is Billy Connolly, who with essentially no dialogue is side-split-tingly funny with his priceless facial expressions as the zombie we all cheer for, Fido. It's also nice to see the always reliable Tim Blake Nelson here as Mr. Theopolis, the neighborhood's Quagmire who uses his zombie as a sex slave. The writing is solid on the ideas scale, but the screenplay gets tedious and slow for a big chunk in the middle of the film. Andrew Currie's directing is solid for the most part, but nothing special.
All in all, I highly recommend Fido to any fan of the horror/comedy genre and only lightly recommend it to the rest of you. It's a good film, but it could have been so much better. Grade: B-