Undead or Alive is a Self-Proclaimed Zombomedy
Undead or Alive Starts out sounding like a half-way decent comedy western – but then this is not Best-Western-Movies.com now, is it?
Written by The Zombie Master
May 27, 2008
Release: 2007
Written and Directed by: Glasgow Phillips
Starring:
James Denton as Elmer
Chris Kattan as Luke
Navi Rawat as Sue
Matt Besser as Claypool
Chris Coppola as Cletus
If you just happened to be looking for a new way to create a zombie (as if we needed one), Glasgow Phillips has what you are looking for.
It appears that before Geronimo died, he decided that the best way to get his revenge on the white man was to place a curse on them. This curse makes the white man apparently die (he starts the decaying process) and hunger for living flesh. The curse is also transferred by a bite. Here is the trick though; you can only reverse the curse by eating the flesh of the one who instigated the curse to begin with.
Placed right in the middle of this scenario are two very unlucky cowboys. Elmer (James Denton) is a deserter from the Union Army that just wants to be left alone. Luke (Chris Kattan) is a cowboy who is preparing himself for marriage (to the town prostitute) and
has his heart broken when she is showing off her set of lungs to the piano player in the saloon (who just happens to be Elmer). Elmer and Luke proceed to fight it out in the saloon when Sheriff Claypool (Matt Besser) breaks them up and arrests them. They escape from jail but rob Sheriff Claypool on the way out. Claypool doesn’t take too kindly to this and rounds up a posse to track down Elmer and Luke. On the run, Elmer and Luke are captured by Sue, Geronimo's niece. After some smooth talking, Sue lets them go and now all three of them are on the run from the law.
So far Undead or Alive sounds like a halfway decent western but then this is not Best Western Movies dot com now is it? While all of this is happening to our heroes, a town farmer has become a recipient of Geronimo's Curse and has been put in jail for eating his wife and daughter. When Elmer and Luke escape they put Deputy Cletus (Chris Coppola) in the cell next to our curse carrier and he gets bitten. Cletus, upon being released by the Sheriff then bites the Sheriff. While tracking down Elmer and Luke, Claypool and Cletus attack the members of the posse. Now we have a posse of cursed zombies tracking our two heroes and Sue. It doesn’t get much better than that.
Undead or Alive is a fun movie for what it is. It is a zom-com-western that covers most of the bases of all three genres. James Denton and Chris Kattan won’t win any Oscars but they do a fairly decent job of being a pseudo-slapstick comedy team. Navi Rawat is just fine so I would watch her in anything. Matt Besser reminds me of a western version of Captain Rhodes and Chris Coppola is as good a bumbling deputy as anyone I have seen.
Undead or Alive has its flaws, the dialogue is not the best, some of the acting is not the best, and in fact the movie could be labeled as cheesy. I like cheesy every now and then and Undead or Alive fills that niche perfectly. Questions or comments about Undead or Alive? Talk about it on The Ossuary Forums!
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