Apr 03 2024 56 mins
A bit of a mixed meal this week. You know when you are traveling through a foreign country, say somewhere in Asia, and you want to eat but can't read the menu and so you pick a couple of dishes based on the photo next to it on the laminated wipe clean menu? The two courses could be anything. You could have thought the Kaeng Tai Pla looked good but when the bowl of fish entrails soup arrived you gagged and threw up into your napkin. Where the Adobo looked like a soy soaked car crash but was, in fact, one of the greatest things your taste buds have ever experienced.
That is where I find myself as I watch Block Z from the Philippines and KL24: Zombies from Malaysia. But, which one was the rancid fish entrails, and which one the wonderful chicken?
Block Z. From the Philippines. At a university hospital a woman comes in suffering from a bite, and rabies. The bite is actually human. She comes back from the dead, bites one student doctor, then several nurses and before too long we have a university campus version of All of Us Are Dead. Well done, tense, with about half a dozen kids, a parent, a security guard and an obvious villain, this was a good watch. Well done, some excellent kills and despite this being my second watch I would recommend it and watch it again.
6/10
KL24: Zombies. Malaysian, so country number 35 for us, a flu like infection has taken over KL which turns into a zombie outbreak as we follow three intersecting stories of survivors fleeing for safety. Is listed as an action comedy on Amazon and scores 3.5/5 there. It is neither full of action or comedy. It is more like a bad Malaysian daytime light drama where the Muslim way of life will guide you to either your salvation or your doom as Farah has a truly awkward meal with her boyfriends secular family, before saving her brother and then the country, whilst her father's four wives end up fighting, turning zombie and killing him before Farah's brother Imri kills them all. Note: I make it sound better than it is.
3/10