Bong of the Dead and Forgetting the Mic' Check: A Movie Review

*a screener of this film was provided by director Thomas Newman.

Director/writer: Thomas Newman.

Thomas Newman went into production on the zombie comedy Bong of the Dead in 2008. He talked about this film with 28DLA here (Thomas Newman Interview on 28DLA), in 2009. This film was shown at Cannes 2011 and the film is a stoner comedy with some excellent make-up effects from Mike Fields (Wind Chill). The film has good acting, a straight forward script and a suitable bloody ending. However, one element rears its nasty head again and again; the film is dubbed, or there are some serious audio/visual synchronizing problems with the screener. The sound element breaks the realm of reality again and again, like a bubble of rising excitation.

Stoners Tommy (Jy Harris) and Edwin (Mark Wynn) come up with a scheme to grow magical marijuana plants. The thing is, they have to travel to the "Danger Zone," which houses thousands of zombies, to find their ingredients. They seem to forget their mission halfway into the movie and Bong of the Dead sets itself in the genre of stoner comedy; Tommy Chong would be proud.

Another great element, outside of the writing, is Mike Fields make-up effects. Late in the film, Tommy and Edwin face a few dozen infected undead with lawnmowers blades and weed whackers. The result is gallons of blood sprayed throughout the scene and later, a zombie baby is born, only to be eaten by the growing hordes of the undead. All of the make-up effects are believable and Fields' work creates an appropriate zombie blood bath. Yet, doom from the sound department looms.

Tommy, Edwin and their new sidekick Leah (Simone Bailly) team up against a zombie overlord, who wants to create an army of flesheaters. These characters must don leather chaps and jackets to face this villain. Meanwhile, the dialogue between the protagonists and the antagonists seems as if it channelled from '70s martial arts films. Actually, the dubbing is not that bad, but this poor film element plagues the film from beginning to end. Strangely, there was a sound department. But, what happened to the recorded audio? The final product would suggest that the sound department were experimenting with the marijuana used for set decoration, as the boom mikes were never turned on.

Bong of the Dead recently found a distributor in Australia and this film will not have any difficulty finding sales in other territories. Yet, this reviewer got stuck at the poorly synched dialogue. This film will find an audience with some B-movie fans, but this film lover cannot back the film, because of this missing and essential element.

Writing/story/plot: 7.5 (the story is ever moving onward, the film seems to veer off course when Leah enters the film).
Make-up/settings: 7.5 (everything looks good and creative).
Sound/performance/believability: 5 (problems here).

Overall: 4.5 (any film that does not get the three necessary production elements correct gets a 4.5 or less, the three necessary film elements are; sound, lighting and some plotline).

Visit the Bong of the Dead website, for more details:

The Bong of the Dead Homepage

Buy your own Bong of the Dead and try to remember to watch Night of the Living Heads, too:



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