Cockneys Vs Zombies

The craziness starts when a construction crew opens a 500-year-old plague pit, unleashing flesh-chomping zombies. Oblivious to this, brothers Terry and Andy (Hardiker and Treadaway) are planning to rob a bank to get the cash to save their grandfather's nursing home, which is under threat from a property developer. Their team includes a safecracker (Ryan), a gun nut (Thomas) and a loyal idiot (Doolan), but their badly planned heist is derailed when they run into the undead. Now their goal is to rescue Granddad (Ford) and his pals (including Blackman, Briers and Sutton).

Much of the fun here is in watching these seasoned veterans have a ball chasing and being chased by zombies. And the filmmakers fill scenes with witty dialog and sight gags to keep us chuckling, plus of course buckets of grisly gore.

Meanwhile, Hardiker and Treadaway maintain lively banter that keeps the film afloat even in the most awkwardly assembled scenes. And Ryan adds sexy energy to the movie in a sparky role that refuses to be a simple female lead.

So it's rather frustrating that the whole isn't nearly as much fun as its parts. The plot continually stalls for repetitive attack sequences, and there are several transitions that simply make no sense at all. Why would they choose an open-backed Routemaster bus to escape in, when a door would protect them from marauding zombies? (Answer: Routemasters are cool.) And there isn't nearly enough specific East London humour, although the one reference to rhyming slang is amusing. Go on, what would you rhyme with zombie?

Rich Cline