a5c7b9f00b Five sisters in 19th century England must cope with the pressures to marry while protecting themselves from a growing population of zombies. The five highly trained Bennett sisters in Georgian England must try to protect themselves from the growing zombie threat, find suitable husbands for themselves, battle marriage proposals and unlikely suitors, and save the country before it's too late. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016)<br/><br/>1/2 (out of 4) <br/><br/>Five sisters must try and find husbands while at the same time face a possible zombie apocalypse.<br/><br/>PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES is exactly what it sounds like. The Jane Austen novel has been updated to include zombies and I'm sure the author is spinning in her grave. I'm not going to lie or try to hold things back but I really, really hated this movie with a passion. My hatred for this film continued to grow with each passing second of this movie. I've never walked out of a movie and I've certainly seen much worse films than this one but I must say that I really thought about leaving.<br/><br/>There are all sorts of problems with this movie but the biggest is the fact that you've got two completely different ideas that simply don't work together. The idea that you'd take a classic novel and throw zombies into it is rather stupid but if it was done in a creative way it could have worked. The problem here is that neither aspect works well on their own and they work even less when you put them together. The stuff from the Austen novel is just downright boring here as the cast members simply can't bring the material to life.<br/><br/>Then you have the horror elements, which just don't belong mixed with Austen. Had the film known it was stupid or it was at least a B movie then perhaps they could have thrown in some camp, some humor or just something to make it fresh or original. Instead the film tries to take the material serious and it just comes across as stupid, boring and gets dragged out incredibly bad. The horror elements are extremely poor since the zombies are just as boring as the humans. I mean, these zombies have nothing going for them. They're not scary. They don't have any sort of identity. They have nothing.<br/><br/>PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES is a complete disaster on just about every level. Yes, I will admit that the costume design and the sets are of high quality but so what? I have no issue with the retelling of Austen's lovely story, in fact the idea is quite novel in itself. The problem is that the film doesn't know if it is a period drama, horror, fantasy, farce or action movie. Actually, it's a bit of all of those, but does not combine them well. Based on the classic bits, if this had been a straightforward retelling of the period drama/romance, it would have been superb. The film was very well cast, and really this film was wasted on their considerable acting skills. I particularly liked Mr. Bingley, Eliza Bennett and Jane Bennett, with the former two experienced in period drama. However, special mention must go to Sam Riley, whose portrayed a sensitive but tough Mr. Darcy and carried it superbly. Anyone who has to follow in the shoes of Colin Firth (as per the 1990's BBC TV production) has a hard act to follow. However, Mr. Riley has tremendous screen presence as well as a brooding look which suits the part. On the basis of what I saw, I reckon (if played as a straight drama) this cast and production would have been superior to the Keira Kinghtley movie version some years back. There are comic moments, and some mild-ish horror moments, however there are some moments of farce which undermine the rest. The plot, of course, is totally nuts. Entertaining enough I suppose, overall. Darned silly though! Keep the cast and remake it as a proper film of the book I say. What is most impressive about the final film, adapted for the screen and directed by Burr Steers, is that it gets the Pride and Prejudice side of things right, and that's what matters most.
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