Code Red (2013) Reviews

• Low budget looking decent.

  gothic-fiction2014-02-13

  I'm not gonna say that this one is a low budget movie done right, nor am I gonna praise it and recommend it to everybody, but I will say that I was relatively impressed. Why? It doesn't look cheap, doesn't act like that either, the make-up is acceptable, the story works, not too thin, not too complex, and the acting, except the main character, is OK. Not much to say about "Code Red", a simple, and maybe, effective zombie movie, does not act like a tryhard, and most definitely not like a gore fest. It is an OK movie, one of the few that actually managed to make a positive impression, so, will I recommend it? Well it's not as bad as "Zombex" but not quite as good as "Outpost: Rise of the Spetsnaz", somewhere in between, therefore, you have a reference point, so you'll know what you'll be up against. Overall, "Code Red" shows that an effort was put into it, and that somebody wanted to make something, a zombie movie, with a small budget, that won't be a laughing stock as so many are. I say it succeed!

• not bad all things considered

  blackestofsmiths2014-01-08

  OK so first lets get the bad things out of the way...some rather dubious and clichéd dialogue,some rather clichéd and dubious actions by the 'good guy' towards the end of the film and a rather odd feeling that something is missing....IMDb lists the run time as 118 minutes but the UK DVD runs for 90 minutes??? and at points in the film it feels like some stuff has been cut away.now the good news.decent acting,plot although not original,good production value and fx and some pretty cool zombies.lots of old school fx work and blood squibs.think planet terror meets doomsday meets lenzi nightmare city.well worth a watch for zombie fans.real world it's 2/10 but in the horror direct to video world it's a solid 7/10.

• Not bad at all

  garycbelleville2014-01-25

  You know not every film maker starts out trying to create an Oscar award winning film. Just like you and me who go in to work they simply try to do their best with what they got. This film is not a great film but a good film. After viewing I didn't get that "oh what a waste of time" feeling. It was good. You got the feeling that everybody tried hard. Sure there are some problems with it but no matter what you Watch you will always find problems with something. This movie didn't make it an struggle to Watch to the end. you kind of want too all by yourself. So far it's got a score of what 5.7 well that sounds totally logical to me. I myself give it a 6 out of 10. To all involved Thanks for the Entertainment. Their is one thing I would like to thank everyone for especially. This film didn't feel the need to throw in bare breast to help bring more viewers. I've got nothing against bare breasts in films but too many times it is used as a ploy to get Young males to Watch. Bare breast have their place when used properly. Now I don't know if this was done intentionally or if the main actress simply refused to do it. but well done. In this movie it would have just cheapened the movie. So again Thanks to all involved.

• Not so impressive

  white-cleric2014-02-16

  I have watched a lot of zombie movies and this is not a great one. Don't get me wrong makeup and scenes were decent, acting acceptable, but the accent and storyline was just off putting. Scene during WW2 was awesome, real hook and the 9/10 scene, rest of the movie 3, maybe 4. First thing that comes to mind is how everyone speaks English, even old lady answering the door. It's just annoying through most of the movie. There is no reason that Bulgarians should speak English amongst themselves. I remember only one expression said in Bulgarian throughout the whole movie and I can't imagine why, since the more important scenes don't have a single word said in native language. At the explosion scene there is alarm and guy in perfect English explaining the danger to 99% Bulgarians in that town. Scenes are fine, but the characters are not. Lady doctor Anna is unconvincing to say the least. She talks as she's uncertain if she should say her lines or not. At the first scene she describes a dead soldier coming to life with same intonation as she's telling a story from a day in shopping mall. Also I am certain that they could've found someone more authentic to play American doctor, but that's just me. Lead character John is only good as blurted one liners and some macho dialog. Screenwriter did terrible job, as he was writing dialogs and story as they went through the shoot. Lead character doesn't do anything, at all, just dies at the end, also he doesn't help explain the plot. Doctor Anna is all over the place. First thing we see is that she lets her small daughter open the door while she sleeps in apartment in slums of a foreign country, then she takes her clothes off in front of a complete stranger, and last but not least she drags her daughter by hand so they can get separated in the entrance of a bunker for some unknown reason, because in a later scene we saw that they had plenty of room. But it further advanced the plot, so we'll let it slide. And in the end she drags her daughter by hand over the corpse when she falls and mother of the year lets go of her once more so she gets bitten. Also story plot is unclear. US doctor gets suspended by Bulgarian colonel which makes no sense cause US army is her employer. Also at some point Bulgarian colonel says that he's going to be in charge of weapon warehouses after the transition. This also doesn't make sense since those warehouses are property of military bases and as such will be handed as well. And even if that is the case there is no reason for him to blow it up, as no one can make him show the true inventory on paper. There is also a scene when Bulgarians capture John sneaking around the base and kill their own guards so there wouldn't be any witnesses, but not him. Why? He was the only witness now who could incriminate any of them. Ending is forced, where big bad American general comes and tells: "You don't know what are you dealing with", but they most certainly do at this point. There is no conclusion to this story just end as some point, which leaves a viewer wondering if there ever was a script or plan during the filming or just improvisation after the WW2 scene. There is no story about soldier from the first scene and how he escaped, just a line that he killed himself at some point, no explanation how and why the zombie gas was hidden in Bulgaria and why was it forgotten. There was no sex scene and romance development after the pseudo naked scene, no explanation how the poison spreads and why didn't it affect all the people, not even all injured people. No one was trying to find a cure and no one was saved, even a little girl was killed off along with two people that died trying to save her. Conclusion is that this is not worth watching. Story is forced and illogical, character unconvincing and ending and plot don't make sense what so ever.

• Good effort, not bad zombie movie

  railhan-12014-02-05

  I saw the trailer of the movie a few years ago. It got me excited but then I kinda forgot about it. Found the finished movie by accident recently. The bad things first - It's not a movie that will become a cult classic or even memorable. The script is pretty usual. There is lots of cheese in both dialogues and characters. The main character, GI Joe El Macho, aka Special Forces agent John McGahey was literally made of Mozzarella and topped with Gorgonzola. FX are a bit old school and green screen is apparent in some scenes. The plot is based on real events that happened in Bulgaria. Few years ago there was an "accident" at a weapons warehouse at Chelopechene. It was widely suspected that it was a cover up for stolen munitions. First 15 minutes(scenes of Stalingrad) are excellent. I think they were shot by a team different than the one that did the rest. Zombies are plenty. I prefer fast and agile ones(28 Days Later type), and they are in Code Red. Acting is decent. The characters were shallow but actors did a decent job to make them believable. A note to my fellow Bulgarian viewers - The image of Bulgaria presented in the movie is cliché 90s Eastern Europe. I don't know if this is required to make the movie marketable abroad, but please don't make a fuss about it. We are either too touchy or too nihilistic about this kind of stuff. And please go and ****** buy the movie if you liked it. It's a local production with decent results. We don't get too many of them. Please support the people that managed to do it. This is a B movie so if you are general viewer the score is 4/10. As a horror/zombie genre fan I would give it an honest 6/10. My actual score is 7/10 but that's due to sentimental reasons :)