Random Movie of the Week: Homecoming
Homecoming's synopsis, of which I posted a little bit yesterday, is completely ridiculous. The movie is about dead soldiers who come back to life to cast their vote in the presidential election, specifically to vote against the man who sent them to war based on a lie. I think it's safe to say that the writer doesn't support the Iraq War.
As crazy as the movie's premise is, it could have actually been fun if it was handled in a tongue-in-cheek way. The problem is I can't tell what the film is trying to be. At times it feels intentionally over-the-top, which is when it shines. The film's message is incredibly obvious from the synopsis, so there's no reason to hide it, but that's exactly what it feels like they're doing sometimes. For obvious reasons, this doesn't work, but when the film chooses to embrace it's silly premise, it can be enjoyable.
The inconsistent tone isn't the film's only problem. With the exception of Robert Picardo, who's probably best known as the doctor from Star Trek: Voyager, the acting was merely decent. Picardo, who excels at stuff like this, was obviously having a lot of fun with his role, while the rest of the cast were taking their roles too seriously. You're in a movie about zombies who vote in a presidential election. Picardo seemed to grasp this concept well. In a scene where they've investigating a zombie strapped to the table, Picardo's character casually says "Not to be premature, but I'm thinking supernatural" like it's just another day at the office. It was great.
The scene in which the zombies first rise is one of my favorite scenes in the movie, but as with the problem I mentioned earlier, I don't know if it was intentionally hilarious or just bad. A group of zombies rise out of their coffins and converge on a living soldier who, understandably, goes into a confused panic. He aims his pistol at a zombie and attempts to talk them down, then yells "I know you're alive and I'll send a medic to help, just please stop!" He then immediately starts unloading on the nearest zombie, who he just acknowledged was a living soldier, simply because the soldier was shambling towards him. He probably assumed that since he was going to call a medic anyway, there was no harm in shooting the man several times.
It just gets better from there. Another soldier walks in on the scene and raises his gun. This man didn't see the zombies rise from their coffins, so as far as he knows, it's just a group of unarmed soldiers hovering around his buddy. This doesn't stop him from letting the bullets fly and all he manages to do is kill his friend.
There were enough ridiculous moments like these to keep mildly entertained throughout, but I was laughing at the movie more than I was laughing with it. If only the film could have taken itself less seriously, it could have been something good. There are some truly great moments, but they occur only often enough to frustratingly remind you what could have been.
