matthewhemmings Remember, big fan of movies in general and zombie flicks here. I am used to a bit of cheese in a zombie flick.This one stunk like the cheese counter at your local supermarket, or that big bag of especially dank green you just picked up.The first fifteen minutes involve plot set-up (tl;dr: zombies on an island. Yes we should visit it) and the fact that our heroine suffers from nightmares. We couldn't just see her have one nightmare, we had to see three just to really hammer the message home (and to get some zombies in early / use some cool footage they had. Probably). This sets the tone for the rest of the film; dragging things out.Our "rough and tumble marines" actually scream and prance like highly strung queens at the first whiff of danger. Particularly embarrassing anyway (stuck in my mind) but then to read that in the strapline, well yeah.The dialogue leaves a taste like tinned ham in your mouth. People repeat things and it is so painfully apparent that these are not trained marines (apparently people with such high training need to be told three times to open fire).But, the worst part of the film is the camera work. The worst part because it is the best part (the film does look good). This means they had some money to make this film with, they just didn't feel the need to spend that money on a compus mentus director, a script that didn't only contain plot holes and cheese, and an editor who doesn't think repetition is the key to success.I'd give the director, the script writer and the editor an honorary Razzie, then send them on a tour of film schools around the world armed with a copy of this film to show the students what not to do when making a film.Oh there's about three plot twists. No one involved in making this had much to say, they figured they'd only get one swing at the ball so they threw everything into the mix.I did manage to clip and file my nails while this was on and miss absolutely nothing, so that's something.M

Michael_Elliott Zombies: The Beginning (2007) * 1/2 (out of 4)Italian director Mattei ended his career with this sequel to ISLAND OF THE LIVING DEAD but don't expect a typical zombie flick. This film picks up right where the previous left as the sole survivor is asked by the government to head back to the island where her crew was killed by the zombies. That's pretty much all you need to know in terms of story as you really don't even need that considering this movie completely ignores what happened at the very end of the previous one. Yes, Mattei's final flick has a lot of zombies but it's actually just a direct rip off of ALIENS. This isn't the first time Mattei has ripped ALIENS and even though this movie is extremely bad, you can't help but somewhat admire how much ripping this guy can do. Not only do we get dialogue and scenes ripped from the Cameron flick but we get the typical stock footage stolen from other movies and this time it's CRIMSON TIDE. How Mattei got away with doing this his entire career is beyond me but quite a few of the sub scenes from that movie are lifted and used here. The movie actually looks like it had a fairly decent budget as the set design is actually pretty good and this is especially true at the end when we visit the alien/zombie tombs. Fans of gore will get quite a bit of that here as the red stuff is constantly flowing with various heads being shot off and parts being ripped or eaten. The CGI effects are quite poor but it adds a somewhat campy feel to the film. The performances, like the previous film, are hard to judge considering how bad the dubbing is but most people don't come to movies like this for the acting. The film doesn't mind ripping off other movies including dialogue from DAY OF THE DEAD and Mattei even rips off his own RATS: NIGHT OF TERROR. Fans of exploitation will probably want to check this out just for the cheese but the biggest problem is that it runs way too long and there's just not enough here to warrant the long running time. Mattei certainly went out with his comeback and this film contains all the bad stuff he'll always be remembered for.

ultra_tippergore Zombies:The beginning is not a beginning in any way. In fact is a sequel to Island of the Living Dead and also is the last movie from Italian exploitation director Bruno Mattei. Mattei made a lot of movies, more than 100, and he was famous for using footage from other movies, music from other movies and also plots from other movies, he was a professional rip-off director, but he managed to made some really entertaining movies (zombie movies, WIP movies, erotic, gore, action, nun exploitation,etc) . Zombies The beginning is his last movie and, fortunately, it's a good end for Bruno. The movie delivers the goods, is a blood packed action zombie movie, with the usual stock stolen from other movies and the complete lack of originality, but its very good in his own way. Lots of action, lots of zombies, good fx and good costumes, lots of torched babies and atrocities. The movie is shot on digital video and that's the only reason this one is not as good as mattei 80s zombie movies, the film look. But in action, gore and entertainment this one is as good (in terms of entertainment that is what matters after all more than cinematography) as those ones. Bruno is dead. Long Live Bruno.7/10

iceknuckles2288 Mattei's final film is truly amazing. It is bizarre, disgusting, and incredibly cheesy. The plot is basically just the movie Aliens(1986), except with zombies as the enemy instead of the xenomorphs.The zombies have excellent makeup, they look much more like rotting corpses then much of Mattei's earlier work. The acting is hilariously terrible. Even though this was filmed in English, Mattei used the old Italian trick of dubbing all the dialog. This has predicable results, with the actors putting emphasis on the wrong syllables and words, and having far less emotion when delivering their lines. This helps the movie out tremendously ,however, as most dialogue scenes are chocked full of potential quotes for bad movie lovers.The gore is good, it is not as explicit as some of his previous movies but it is still very entertaining. The rest of the special effects are more laughable then anything else. But what do you expect from a Mattei production? All in all, its a great movie, filled with quotes and moments that exploitation fans will love. It is sad ,though, that such an entertaining filmmaker died before he got the respect he deserved. Ciao Bruno.