Valley of the Dead (2020)

Valley of the Dead follows the standard Zombie flick formula with one or two twists, that add a little added novelty. Its Spanish civil war setting is not something I have seen before. It offers a tie in with Nazi experimentation and creation of zombies, as a biological weapon. Given Hitler backed one side of the conflict this is a clever tie in. Does it really make a difference though? Well in a superficial sense, yes. But then this is a drama that runs primarily on exposition, shoot zombies, run from zombies, repeat, find out who's behind it all and try to stop them. The downside and this is a problem I have encountered with a lot of content with the Netflix label is its "woke-ness." It sets up a toxic masculinity scenario at one point and has a women deal with it. Its a rather nasty little number too, involving the clergy and kids....yuck. Frankly I considered switching off at this point. No one wants to be lectured watching what is supposed to be entertainment. Knock it off guys, its not doing your reputation with me at least, any favours. Anyway moving on from that its otherwise mostly watchable. Exposition is well done, sets are good and acting is solid, with a decent cast. 6/10.

At the latest since id software published their second Wolfenstein game, there's a "Nazis making zombies" trope. This instance isn't especially original, and I agree with the reviewer who was annoyed about the PC BS (though it wasn't overmuch). But there's two aspects that make this movie stand out in a good light: the pacing, and the banter. Especially the latter. While the characters are a bit schematic, the dialogue is nimble, amusing, and makes the characters more alive. All in all it is, as one would expect, not of a high standard - but it manages to be entertaining. 6/10