The Dead Don't Die (2019) Review

"This isn't going to end well."

-Officer Ronnie Peterson

Due to polar fracking, the rotation of the Earth is knocked out of whack and the dead start coming back to life.  The citizens of Centerville find themselves in an undead nightmare and have to fight to survive.

What Works:

Bill Murray and Adam Driver are the best parts if the film.  This film follows multiple groups of people, but when they are on screen the movie shines.  It feels like a buddy-cop zombie movie and it's straight-up hilarious.  They have excellent chemistry and I'd love to see them work together again.

This movie feels like three different comedies jammed into one movie, so the tone is all over the place, but the best comedy moments are the really dry, dark jokes.  Most of them come from Murray and Driver, which isn't surprising.  Murray has such a "meh" attitude towards everything and Driver is remarkably calm in the horrifying situation.  They both have some very funny moments and I wish the rest of the film had been more like their sections.

Finally, the 3rd act last stand with Murray and Driver fighting zombies in a graveyard is pretty cool.  It's some solid zombie action with these two incredible actors fighting side-by-side.

What Sucks:

As I mentioned above, this feels like three comedies jammed into one movie.  While one of those comedies was good, the others...not so much.  This movie attempts to a political and societal satire, which is a staple of zombie movies, but there is no subtlety or cleverness in the satire.  It's blatant and lazy.  All of the non-Murray/Driver subplots have this and it's obnoxious.  It also doesn't match the tone of dry humor from Murray and Driver, which makes the movie feel unbalanced.

There is also some meta comedy that doesn't work either.  The characters know that they are in a movie and mention the script and the theme song.  If the whole movie was like this, it would be fine, but, again, this doesn't work with the dry humor.  I will say I liked the Star Wars/Adam Driver joke, but that's about it.

None of the other subplots go anywhere and with such a massive and talented cast, it feels like a waste.  It makes me wonder why people like Steve Buscemi, Danny Glover, and Selena Gomez were in this movie.  They contribute nothing to the plot and mostly die off screen.  It's truly baffling and feels like a complete waste of my time.

I love Tom Waits and was exciting to see he plays a hermit in this movie.  His first scene with Murray and Driver is gold, but after that he just wanders around the movie contributing nothing.  It's very disappointing. 

Finally, there is one sub-plot that has absolutely no resolution or bearing on the story.  For the life of me, I can't figure out why it's in the movie.  Three juvenile detention center inmates manage to survive the zombie invasion of their facility and escape.  They then proceed to never show up again.  Was this just to pad the run time?  Did the director forget to shoot a scene?  I have no idea.

Verdict:

The Dead Don't Die is one of the most disappointing movies of the year.  Murray and Driver are great and the dry humor in their scenes works wonderfully, but everyone else is wasted, the satire and meta comedy fall completely flat, and the numerous side-plots add nothing to the film.  I spent most of this movie frustrated and wishing it was strictly focused on Murray and Driver.  That would have been a much better film.

 3/10: Really Bad