Gangsters, Guns & Zombies - Blu-Ray

Content: Actually, Q (Vincent Jerome) and Tony (Huggy Leaver) were just going to pull off a simple bank heist with their four accomplices. But as they make their escape, they find that the town is overrun with zombies. The way to the hospital, where they should deliver the injured Danny (Simon Mathews), is just as blocked as the originally planned escape route. So the only way out is to make their way to the sea. But on their way to supposed safety, the gangsters discover that it's hard to hide from the undead... <x><BR</x>

Gangsters, Guns & Zombies is a mix of gangster movie, zombie horror and black comedy produced on a very low budget. Now this is really nothing new, as recently proven by the duel Cockneys vs. Zombies. And that's where the main problem with Matt Mitchell's feature debut lies. He doesn't manage to find new sides to such a genre-mix. Everything seems somehow familiar and cribbed from somewhere. That wouldn't be a big deal if the humor really hit the mark or if the production was otherwise very engaging. But unfortunately the gags are rather tepid and the pacing in many places too worn to really keep the audience entertained.

A good example is a scene where the gangsters have to fight some zombies in knight armor (!) on their escape. While this is a nice idea in itself, the execution is extremely heavy handed, resulting in clear signs of boredom after no more than two minutes. Also, the gore effects aren't convincing enough to pull anything out of it. The movie only gets really good towards the end. In the last minutes, Mitchell gives it one more gas and presents a nice twist that reveals an entertainment value that the film otherwise unfortunately lacks far too often.

Of course, you have to give Matt Mitchell credit for the fact that Gangsters, Guns & Zombies is his feature-length debut as a director and that he had little time and money to implement his script. But even if this explains and forgives some minor flaws, it still doesn't make this zombie tale a really good film, unfortunately. Some nice ideas and the good ending but at least enough so that zombie fans who do not shy away from low budget productions, can risk a look.

Picture + Sound: That the film had to get along with a mini-budget, it is also noticeable in technical terms. Visually, it simply can't compete with works of similar content that have been given significantly more money by major studios. But even if color mixing, contrast, sharpness and depth of field are not on a very high level, they are absolutely satisfactory for a low budget production. The sound, which is in a DST-HD Master Audio 7.1 mix, is relatively powerful, with some good surround effects to be heard alongside the dialogue, which is nevertheless very directionally mixed. Good!

Extras: The Blu-ray has plenty of extra material to offer. Besides two audio commentaries, one from the crew and one from the cast, there are two very detailed making of documentaries (approx. 29 min + approx. 16 min) to watch. Some amusing outtakes (approx. 6 min.), a look behind the scenes (approx. 5:24 min.) and a featurette about the music (approx. 12:37 min.) together with the trailer round off the really extensive bonus package. Very good!

Conclusion:Gangsters, Guns & Zombies is not the first film to attempt to humorously tie the zombie genre to another subject. Unfortunately, director Matt Mitchell fails to wring new sides out of such a genre mash up or inject some originality that would set the film apart from similarly guessed works. As a result, the weaknesses of the production are unfortunately more apparent, ultimately making Gangsters, Guns & Zombies nowhere near as much fun as it could have been given the premise. The film's Blu-ray, on the other hand, knows how to impress with a decent audiovisual and very good extras. Nevertheless, in the end it is only enough for a: conditionally recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp