Welcome to yet another bad movie review. We haven’t been doing these for a hot minute, huh?
Well, we’re back! Not better than ever, but we’re back, and just in time for CNY! This time, we’re going to be reviewing a movie called KL24: Zombies directed by James Lee, Shamaine Othman, Gavin Yap.
Yeah I know. What a time to review zombie movies while we’re still in an outbreak. But bear with me.
This movie had a three star rating on IMDb. And the comments under the movie were all praising it. So you know I’ve got to see it for myself. As usual, this will be my completely honest opinion. So buckle up, friends!
Disclaimer: As usual, there are spoilers in this. Proceed with caution.
The Introduction
The movie starts off with a newscaster reporting about how Malaysia was able to contain a deadly virus from spreading throughout the country. That’s a foreshadowing if I’ve ever seen one.
Right off the bat, I don’t know what it is about this movie, but it’s like all the actors are just waiting for each other to finish their lines before they can say theirs. It’s interesting to watch for a while but it gets a little annoying in the long run.
The main character, Farah (played by Sharifah Amani) and whose the only name I remember, seems to have a sort of strained relationship with her father. Her dad called her to ask her to come home and she couldn’t get away from the conversation fast enough.
The thing about this movie is that there’s a lot of characters in it. And I just don’t remember most of them, if I’m honest. We get introduced to an Uber driver, who apparently knows Farah and who I think is lowkey into her, if his dreamy looks were enough of a hint.
They never really addressed it throughout the movie, so in the end, I just assumed that’s what his face has always looked like when he talks to a girl.
Where It All Started… I Think
The Uber driver, whose name is Joe (played by Joseph Germani), got to his half empty office after dropping off Farah and found his officemates gathered around a work computer, looking at viral videos of the public attacking each other in really inhumane ways.
First of all, I have no idea why they were so chill while they were watching videos of people literally mauling each other. Is that supposed to be a normal response? If I saw videos like that, I’d be on the first flight to anywhere but Malaysia.
It’s kind of funny how the normal characters just ignore the sick ones at first. I mean come on la, you clearly see that the uncle that’s selling you the chicken rice looks like death reincarnate, but you still want to buy rice from him. And your boss is obviously sick but you still ask him if he’s okay instead of just insisting he go home.
It’s only six minutes in before the real fun starts. I just want to put this out there and say that I tak puas hati that they were being so calm about everything. Even when Joe tried to warn his other friends about their boss acting weird in the bathroom, they were like “oh he’s just having a bad day. Leave him.” Hello? Mana common sense you?
This boss dude passed out, threw up chunks in the bathroom and looked like he was buried alive. You still think he’s okay? Get out of here!
After all that, Joe managed to be saved by a security guard (played by Azman Hassan) that apparently knows the way to safety and asked him to “follow me if you want to live.” What is he, The Terminator?
Messy Messy
Let me just say — I’m really not sure if this movie was supposed to be a comedy or not. Because it’s shot like it’s a serious movie but the way they’re acting in here and some of the dialogues that they’re saying really made it seem like it’s supposed to be funny. But is it really?
No. No it’s not.
After Joe and his new security guard friend saved Farah from a potential zombie attack, they had a flashback scene to how Farah got there in the first place.
The weird thing is, the flashback scene — or maybe it wasn’t a flashback after all? — started with a sex scene. At first, I thought it was just someone getting attacked by zombies but they panned the camera to a couple in bed laughing and giggling to themselves. So, maybe not.
It was very uncomfortable, I’m not going to lie. And entirely out of place but good for them, I guess.
Farah’s current boyfriend, Steven (played by Benji Lim), had brought her home to meet his family, which was the couple that was having sex just now and it’s obvious that they don’t like her.
Steven also has a messy family problem, but I’m not getting into that. Let’s just say that Steven’s father isn’t someone you find likeable, to say the least, and he doesn’t try to hide it.
Anyway, we’re here for the zombies, not the family drama. So while Farah and Steven’s family were having a talk at the dinner table, they heard a lot of commotion going on outside the apartment. Only to open the door and be met with a zombie eating their neighbour.
They also took it pretty calmly. The only one that was bothered by it was Farah. It also turned out that Steven’s step-brother had gotten infected somehow and ended up attacking everyone in the house.
Move It Along
Okay, let’s fast forward past this mess before I have a breakdown. It turns out that the roast pork that they’ve been eating was the one that got them sick. But it also wasn’t explained. They just assumed.
And Farah is now a zombie killer pro or something, after killing off all of Steven’s family members when they got infected. I got a little teary-eyed when Steven said that monologue about how Farah would survive the zombie apocalypse and ended it with an “I love you.” That was really sweet.
Moving on, we finally get to see why Farah was so distant from her family. My initial guess was that her father had married someone young and she disapproved of it. But I’m only halfway through right.
Her dad has four wives, the fourth one being the youngest. He talks to his wives like they’re baby-making machines and only married them because of that. He married his latest wife three months ago and he already expects her to be pregnant.
There are actually three storylines happening here, if I’m not mistaken. One was Joe’s story, then we have Steven’s family story and finally we have Farah’s family story.
Let’s get something straight here, the storyline itself is a mess. I have no idea who’s who until they get introduced much later, and at that point, I didn’t really care who they were, to be honest. The whole movie wasn’t a flop, per se. If it was anything other than a zombie movie, I would have probably enjoyed it.
Especially Farah’s family dynamic. That was actually very interesting to watch — and also a little bit sad. But I would 100% watch a movie that circulated around that family.
Take a deep breath with me and imagine: your dad has four wives and your brother is in love with your dad’s latest one and impregnated her, but she unfortunately got infected with some zombie juices and tried to kill your whole family. And now your mum is forcing your brother to cut her head off to save all of you.
Isn’t that a much better idea for a movie?
Is it Over Yet?
Anyway, let’s cut to the end, shall we? This movie went on for far longer than it should. They just keep adding random plotlines to it and I wouldn’t mind if it makes sense, but obviously, it doesn’t.
There were a bunch of thugs that capture normal un-zombielike people and take them hostage because they wanted to build a new government. Yeah, I have no idea. It’s almost the end of the movie, I don’t understand why you would put that kind of plot point towards the end.
But whatever. So in the end, everyone dies except for Farah. Yay her. She got rescued by a SWAT team and carried off in a helicopter.
The Verdict
Overall? I’d give this movie two-and-a-half stars. I really enjoyed Farah’s family problems but there weren’t many zombies in it to actually have the name in its title. So, it’s a little misleading.
I don’t know, if you’re looking for something to watch with the whole family, I wouldn’t recommend this movie. If you’re watching it with friends, then it’s okay, because this movie is sort of NSFW a little bit. There’s a lot of swearing too.
If you want to watch something else with your family, may I recommend another bad movie?
I Watched Raya Tak Jadi So You Don’t Have To
