This review is brought to you by Kathy Kaiser
THE DEAD DON’T DIE – Rated R – 1 hr. 45 mins.
WRITTEN & DIRECTED by Jim Jarmusch
STARRING: Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Tom Waits, Chloe Sevigny, Steve Buscemi, Danny Glover Tilda Swinton and Selena Gomez
As Writer and Director Jim Jarmusch compiles some of his favorite actors from his previous endeavors, including 2005’s Broken Flowers, 2013’s Only Lovers Left Alive, and 2016’s Paterson, once again for this film ~ it seems that the police force of the quaint small farming community of Centreville, comprised of Chief Cliff Robertson (Bill Murray), Office Ronnie Peterson (Adam Driver) and Officer Mindy Morrison (Chloe Sevigny) are going to be forced to take on a very unexpected Zombie Apocalypse, whether they, or the town folk of Centerville are prepared for it, or NOT!!
I give THE DEAD DON’T DIE a rating of WAIT AND CATCH THIS FILM ON NETFLIX, HULU or other streaming service! Even though I am so over the whole Zombie genre of entertainment, when you put together two of my favorite actors ~ Bill Murray and Adam Driver ~ I have to give your film a looksee, even with its rather mixed reviews coming out of Cannes this year…
So, as I went in hoping that THE DEAD DON’T DIE was going to not only scare me, but make me laugh, and maybe even cry…sadly, it didn’t actually do anything of the sort. I did love all of this films pop culture references throughout, as they definitely did bring a smile to my face more than once along the way ~ but between the monotone/deadpan delivery of the entire storyline, and the less than intriguing performances throughout, even by two of my favorite guys ~ THE DEAD DON’T DIE didn’t come across very entertaining at all. I mean, I knew going in it was a spoof of sorts, and I also tried to keep in mind how much I loved Jarmusch’s film PATERSON from a few years back ~ Drive was superb in it ~ but even those attributes couldn’t force me to like this film more than I did, when it was all said and done. Don’t get me wrong, if you love the undead, then you might totally want to see what this star-studded cast has to provide for Jarmusch’s attempt at a Zom-Com. But for me, neither the cast, nor the almost funny script can make me force you to head out to the theater this weekend, to catch a glimpse of it. And I also wanted to share that my 19 year old daughter, who was counting down the days until we got to view this film, wasn’t totally wowed by what she experienced either, thus confirming that it wasn’t a generational thing, or a “I don’t enjoy scary movies” thing, as much as it was a “this movie was just subpar across the board for thing” which we totally agreed upon when we conversed about this film, at length, once it was through…
MATINEE CHAT with Kathy Kaiser 