Ana de la Reguera Archives

Review: ‘Elio’ (2025), starring the voices of Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldaña, Remy Edgerly, Brandon Moon, Brad Garrett, Jameela Jamil and Shirley Henderson

June 17, 2025

by Carla Hay

Characters in “Elio,” pictured in front row: Glordon (voice of Remy Edgerly) and Elio (voice of Yonas Kibreab). Pictured in back row: Ambassador Naos (voiced by Atsuko Okatsuka), third from left; Ambassador Questa (voiced by Jameela Jamil), left of Glordon; Ambassador Turais (voiced by Ana de la Reguera), right of Elio; Ambassador Helix (voiced by Brandon Moon), third from right; and Ambassador Tegman (voiced by Matthias Schweighöfer), second from right. (Image courtesy of Disney/Pixar)

“Elio” (2025)

Directed by Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi and Adrian Molina

Culture Representation: Taking place in the United States and in outer space, the animated film “Elio” features a cast of characters that are humans and outer-space aliens.

Culture Clash: A lonely 11-year-old boy’s wish to be abducted by outer-space aliens come true, but he finds himself caught up in trying to stop an intergalactic war with help from the son of the war instigator.

Culture Audience: “Elio” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of Pixar animated films and family-friendly movies about misfits who learn to be comfortable with who they are.

Lord Grigon (voiced by Brad Garrett), pictured at far left, in “Elio” (Image courtesy of Disney/Pixar)

“Elio” is among many Pixar animated movies about protagonists who learn about themselves as they experience obstacles in unfamiliar environments. “Elio’s” plot is sometimes messy, but it’s a cute story about self-acceptance. This is the type of movie that uses several stereotypical formulas of humans interacting with talking non-human creatures, but it has enough unique visuals and engaging performances to maintain viewer interest.

Directed by Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi and Adrian Molina, “Elio” was written by Julia Cho, Mark Hammer and Mike Jones. Pixar Animation Studios is known for having movies based on original screenplays, except for sequels and spinoffs of previously released Pixar movies. “Elio” won’t be ranked in the upper echelon of the best Pixar films, but it’s better than most of the animated films that get released in any given year.

The title character of “Elio” is Elio Solís (voiced by Yonas Kibreab), an 11-year-old American boy who is a lonely orphan obsessed with going to outer space. Elio lives in an unnamed U.S. city. He has constructed his own ham radio to try to communicate with outer-space beings. Elio feels “different” from other people because he wears an eye patch, for reasons that aren’t explicitly stated but appears to be for medical reasons.

Elio’s parents died when he was younger, for reasons that are not revealed in the movie. Elio’s guardian is his aunt Olga Solís (voiced by Zoe Saldaña), a U.S. Air Force major who is very focused on her career. She works in a team of orbital analysts who track space debris. Olga is skeptical that there are creatures who live in outer space.

Olga and Elio love each other but don’t always get along with each other. Elio is slightly rebellious and sometimes skips classes at Montez Middle School, where he is student. Olga didn’t expect to be raising a child and often feels overwhelmed and gets impatient with Elio.

Olga doesn’t appreciate Elio’s ambitions to go to outer space and thinks his dreams and goals should be more realistic. Elio feels misunderstood by Olga, which causes him to be further alienated from her. Sometimes, Elio can be a rude brat, such as in scene where he gets into an argument with Olga and yells at her that she’s not his “real family.”

After Elio gets into trouble for being absent from school, Olga decides that Elio should go to Camp Carver, a summer camp that she went to when she was a girl. Elio starts a Ham Radio Club and places an ad to find members at the camp. Two pals who are about the same age as Elio show interest in joining Elio’s club: Bryce (voiced by Dylan Gilmer) is friendly and outgoing. Caleb (voiced by Jake Getman) is mean-spirited and bullying.

Elio likes to spend a lot of time alone as he daydreams about a better life in outer space because he’s unhappy with his life on Earth. At a beach, Elio carves out this message in the sand: “Aliens! Abduct Me!” He lies face up on the sand, hoping this wish will come true, but no alien abduction happens. Olga scolds Elio by saying to him: “Your life isn’t up there, Elio. It’s down here.”

Meanwhile, Olga’s eccentric co-worker Gunther Melmac (voiced by Brendan Hunt), a military contractor, has his own ham radio group. He also has conspiracy theories about outer-space aliens. Gunther has been trying to communicate with outer-space forms of life by using the technology that he knows. He thinks that signals are coming from outer space. His beliefs make him an outcast with his co-workers.

Gunther has been tracking the Voyager Satellite, which has a Golden Record collection of messages from many of Earth’s children. One day, Elio sneaks into Gunther’s work space while no one else is there and finds a way to send a Golden Record message into space. He quickly sends this message: “This is Elio Solís of the planet Earth. I come in peace and I’m super excited to join you. I’m creative, hardworking, shredded. So, please come and get me. I’ll be waiting!”

Much later, Elio is blamed for getting some of his fellow campers into trouble. Caleb leads a group of boys, including Bryce, in chasing Elio to physically attack Elio. But right at the moment that the boys catch Elio, time freezes, and Elio is beamed up into outer space by aliens who got Elio’s message. Elio is about to enter a magical world called the Communiverse, named after the group of ambassadors and other creatures whose goal is universal harmony.

The Communiverse is an interplanetary group with representatives from various galaxies. They have recently rejected Lord Grigon (voiced by Brad Garrett), the aggressive warlord leader of the planet Hylurg, because Grigon believes in conquering other planets through war. Grigon vows to get revenge by destroying the Communiverse.

When Elio arrives in the Communiverse, he is greeted by several creatures:

Ambassador Questa (voiced by Jameela Jamil), a 15-foot-tall, charismatic pink sea dragon, who is the leader of the planet Glom
Ambassador Helix (voiced by Brandon Moon), an egotistical, party-loving official who is usually seen holding a container of glorp, the Communiverse’s official drink
Ambassador Tegman (voiced by Matthias Schweighöfer), the logical leader of the planet Tegman, who doesn’t speak much, but when he does, he usually speaks bluntly
Ambassador Naos (voiced by Atsuko Okatsuka), brainy inventor of the Communidisc, a device for controlling gravity, temperature and languages.
Ambassador Turais (voiced by Ana de la Reguera), a nuerotic official who is easily gets anxious.
Ambassador Mira (voiced by Anissa Borrego), a skeptic diva who questions Elio’s authenticity as Earth’s leader
Ambassador Auva (voiced by Naomi Watanabe), the perky creator of the Universal Users’ Manual, which contains the secrets of the universe.
Ooooo (voiced by Shirley Henderson), a supercomputer that looks like a small blue liquid blob

Ambassadors Questa, Helix and Tegman are the first to meet Elio. The other ambassadors are introduced to him later. Ambassador Questa the is the diplomat whose personality stands out the most, while the other ambassadors have generic personalities. All of these side characters are introduced in a jumble. Their relationships with Elio are tangential to the movie’s central relationship: the friendship that Eli develops with Glordon (voiced by Remy Edgerly), Grigon’s sweet-natured son, who doesn’t want to follow in Grigon’s footsteps of becoming a warlord.

Elio is told he was chosen to go to the Communiverse because the Communiverse is looking for the brightest dreamers and stargazers on each planet. The ambassadors assume that Elio is the leader of planet Earth, and he doesn’t correct them. It’s a big plot hole in the movie because with the Universal Users’ Manual and other technology, it should be easy for the ambasadors to find out that Earth has no leader of the entire planet.

Elio loves being in the Communiverse and wants to stay there for the rest of his life, but the problem of Grigon is an immediate threat to the Communiverse’s happiness and safety. All of the ambassadors are afraid of negotiating with Grigon. Elio is desperate for the ambassadors’ approval and acceptance, so he volunteers to be the chief negotiator. He is now burdened with the responsibility of preventing Grigon from going to war with the Communiverse.

The Communiverse says that if Elio was reported missing on Earth, it would create chaos. And so, Ooooo (who took a sample of Elio’s DNA soon after Elio arrived at the Communiverse) uses that DNA to create a clone of Elio (also voiced by Kibreab), who is sent to Earth to impersonate the real Elio. This parallel sublot about the Elio clone becomes a somewhat clumsy part of the story because as Elio is trying to save the Universe, he sees through a portal that the Elio clone is a perfect version of Elio that Olga likes a lot better than the real Elio.

“Elio” is a swirling rush of Elio grappling with his insecurities, forming a genuine and uplifting friendship with Glordon, and finding the courage to face his fears against a bully such as Grigon. Glordon and Elio naturally bond because they both feel like outsiders in their own families and unaccepted on their respective planets. But to be fair, Glordon’s family situation is a lot worse than Elio’s because Elio is not being raised an emotionally abusive adult. (Glordon’s mother is briefly mentioned as too busy to take care of Glordon because she’s away in combat.)

“Elio” has a lot of vibrant and dazzling visuals that can be enjoyable to watch. But the “Elio” story retreads the same concept of many other Pixar movies that have come before it: Someone goes outside a home residence to try and fit in somewhere else and finds out that it’s more important to be secure with oneself, no matter where you live. The voice performances in “Elio” are very good, the movie’s direction is capable (the last 15 minutes of the movie are fantastic), but don’t expect “Elio” to be a masterpiece in animation.

Walt Disney Studios will release “Elio” in U.S. cinemas on June 20, 2025. A sneak preview of the movie will be shown in U.S. cinemas on June 18, 2025.

Review: ‘¡Que Viva México!’ (2023), starring Damián Alcázar, Alfonso Herrera, Joaquín Cosio, Ana de la Reguera, Ana Martín and Angelina Peláez

March 24, 2023

by Carla Hay

Ana Martín, Damián Alcázar, Ana de la Reguera and Alfonso Herrera in “¡Que Viva México!” (Photo by Juan Rosas/Sony Pictures International Productions)

“¡Que Viva México!” (2023)

Directed by Luis Estrada

Spanish with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Mexico City and the ficitional city of La Prosperidad, Mexico, the comedy film “¡Que Viva México!” features a predominantly Latino cast of characters (with some white people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: An upper-middle-class factory manager, who wants to forget that he came from a poor family, goes back to his hometown with his wife, two children and maid, after his paternal grandfather dies and leaves an inheritance of valuable gold that starts a family feud.

Culture Audience: “¡Que Viva México!” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and like watching long-winded, unimaginative and tacky comedies.

Pictured in front row, from left to right: Damián Alcázar, Angelína Peláez, Alfonso Herrera and Ana de la Reguera in “¡Que Viva México!” (Photo by Juan Rosas/Sony Pictures International Productions)

What’s worse than a crude, repetitive, unfunny comedy that has nothing interesting to say? A crude, repetitive, unfunny comedy that has nothing interesting to say and drags on for 191 minutes. In other words, avoid this garbage movie at all costs. Yes, you read that correctly: the time-wasting “¡Que Viva México!” is three hours and 11 minutes long, which is annoyingly too long for a movie that is this stupid.

Directed by Luis Estrada (who co-wrote the movie’s terrible screenplay with Jaime Sampietro), “¡Que Viva México!” (which means “Hurray, Mexico!” in Spanish) was originally supposed to be a Netflix movie with a release date of November 16, 2022, the same date that the movie was scheduled for release in cinemas and on Netflix. But something went wrong with this distribution deal. Estrada (who is also the movie’s producer) has given interviews saying that he signed a deal with Sony Pictures International Productions for the theatrical release of “¡Que Viva México!” Netflix still retains streaming rights for the movie.

In the beginning of “¡Que Viva México!,” arrogant and selfish Pancho Reyes (played by Alfonso Herrera) is a senior general manager at a textile company’s main factory in Mexico City, where he oversees several workers. He is feared but not respected by his subordinates. In order to cut costs, Pancho has been firing employees, and the employees who remain must take on a heaver workload. Pancho takes delight in deciding how many people will be part of the layoffs because he likes having that power.

Pancho’s boss Jaime Sampaolo (played by José Sefami), who owns the company, is even more egotistical and ruthless than Pancho. The politically conservative Jamie hates unions, paying fair living wages, and liberal politicians. Jamie is also a misogynistic jerk who expects female employees to be nothing more than sexual playthings for their male bosses. Needless to say, Jaime hates the #MeToo movement, as he complains about it in a rant to Pancho.

One day, Jaime calls Pancho into Jaime’s office and praises Pancho on achieving high productivity for the company. Jaime doesn’t care how many employees were laid off by Pancho, as long as the company’s profits keep increasing. Jaime tells Pancho that Pancho is on track to be promoted to general corporate manager.

Throughout “¡Que Viva México!,” Pancho has nightmares that are phony scenes made to look like they are really happening to Pancho at the time, but then the scenes are revealed to be Pancho having a bad dream. These “nightmare” scenes are very gimmicky and quickly grow tiresome. These “nightmare” scenes are also lazy and unimaginative ways of stretching the total running time for the movie.

“¡Que Viva México!” opens with one such nightmare scenario, where Pancho and his snobby wife Maria Elena, nicknamed Mari (played by Ana de la Reguera), are having a black-tie dinner with other guests at what looks like a country club or high-end resort. Jaime congratulates Pancho for being a senior general manager at the company, despite coming from a shady background. One of the movie’s main themes is that Pancho is ashamed of his working-class family whom he left behind in his hometown of the fictional La Prosperidad, Mexico. Pancho thinks these family members are trashy.

Suddenly, this stuffy party is interrupted by two elderly men carrying rifles and pointing these guns at the guests. These intruders are Pancho’s father Rosendo Reyes (played by Damián Alcázar) and Rosendo’s father Francisco (played by Joaquín Cosio), who both say that they don’t want any money. Pancho’s father and paternal grandfather say that they just want revenge for Pancho being so ungrateful for their sacrifices, such as paying for Pancho’s college education. Just as it looks like Pancho will be shot, he wakes up from this nightmare.

Mari knows about Pancho’s nightmares, and she keeps telling him to go see a therapist. In response, Pancho yells at her and says that she shouldn’t judge him because he knows all about how her “white trash family” got their money. Mari’s nationality is Mexican, but there are several mentions in the movie that she identifies her race as white, because her family is descended from white Europeans.

Mari is a hollow stereotype of a self-absorbed and materialistic “trophy wife.” Mari is also very rude to the family’s maid Lupita (played by Sonia Couoh), who has a kind and easygoing personality. For example, when Lupita makes a harmless comment about something in the household, Mari tells Pancho in a mean-spirited hushed tone that Lupita is being difficult. “She thinks she’s one of us,” hisses Mari.

Pancho and Mari have two children: son Tony (played by Raphael Camarena) and daughter Cati (played by Mayte Fernández), who look like they might be twins, although the movie doesn’t really say for sure. The children are about 7 or 8 years old. These kids are also the only characters in the movie who aren’t made to look foolish or awful. All of the other cast members play into how their characters were written: as bad parodies.

One day, Pancho gets several calls at home and at work from his father Rosendo. Pancho keeps deliberately avoiding these calls because he doesn’t want to talk to his father. In fact, he doesn’t really want anything to do with his family members who still live in shabby living conditions in La Prosperidad, including his mother Dolores (played by Ana Martin). Pancho hasn’t had contact with these relatives in many years. He hasn’t even met most of them yet.

However, Pancho eventually takes Rosendo’s call and finds out that Rosendo’s father Francisco died a few days earlier. Francisco was a miner, and the family has found out that Francisco had a secret will. There is speculation that Francisco, who was always looking for gold treasure, might have hidden gold that will be passed on to someone in the family through an inheritance.

Therefore, Pancho agrees to go to La Prosperidad out of greed, not out of grief. He decides to ask for a three-week leave of absence from his job. Mari, Tony, Cati and Lupita are also on this trip. Pancho’s relatives live in an isolated, underdeveloped area. And you know what that means.

Because this moronic movie is very phony-looking and illogical, “¡Que Viva México!” contrives the story around Pancho and his family entourage being “forced” to live in squalid conditions in the family compound, where there are no indoor toilets, no cell phone service and no Internet service. Viewers are supposed to believe that Pancho and Mari can’t figure out a way to find a comfortable hotel.

The Reyes family in La Prosperidad is a large, boisterous and argumentative clan. All these extra characters are mainly in the movie to have several people yell at each other in conflicts that mostly go nowhere. It’s yet another way that “¡Que Viva México!” wastes a lot of time. Pancho sees most of these relatives for the first time in several years when he goes to La Prosperidad for Francisco’s funeral and to see what he can get from whatever inheritance was left for Pancho. A corrupt priest named Father Ambrosio (also played by Alcázar) plays a big role in what happens in the story.

The members of this La Prosperidad family include Pancho’s six siblings: brother Rosendo Jr., nicknamed Rosendito (also played by Cosio), who grabs Pancho by Pancho’s genitals when Pancho and Rosendito see each other for the first time in years; sister Socorro (played by Zaide Silvia Gutiérrez), who is described as a “religious prude” by her father; brother Hilario (played by Luis Fernando Peña), who is called “the artist of the family”; brother Rufino (played by Álex Perea), who is described as “the black sheep of the family” and who immediately grabs Mari in a sexually suggestive manner; transgender sister Jacinta (played by Cuauhtli Jiménez), whose former name was Jacinto; and pregnant, unmarried sister Bartola (played by Vico Escorcia), who has six other children. All of Bartola’s children have different deadbeat fathers.

The significant others of Pancho’s siblings include Socorro’s “poet” husband Cruz (played by Enrique Arreola), who uses crutches and who used to be a teacher; Hilario’s wife Pánfila (played by Natalia Quiroz), who is so forgettable that Rosendo Sr. can’t remember her name; Rufino’s promiscuous girlfriend Gloria López (played by Mayra Hermosillo), who immediately flirts with Pancho; and Jacinta’s husband Guadalupe “El Lupe” Flores (played by Fermín Martínez), who pretends to be a loving partner but is actually abusive. Rounding out this dysfunctional family are Francisco’s widow Pascuala (played by Angelina Peláez); Rosendo’s brother Regino (also played by Alcázar); and Regino’s son Reginito (also played by Cosio), who is very competitive with his cousins.

“¡Que Viva México!” has a lot of sexist and tacky scenes where any woman under the age of 50 is treated as a target for sexual harassment, or depicted as existing only to give sexual pleasure to men. Pancho has no qualms about cheating on Mari, but when he finds out that she might be tempted to cheat on him, he goes ballistic with jealousy and rage. Mari’s decisions on whether or not to cheat on Pancho are always made when she’s drunk, so the movie has a loathsome scenarios where certain people try to shame, embarrass, or take advantage of Mari while her judgment is impaired by alcohol.

“¡Que Viva México!” also has several crass scenarios involving bodily functions. A low point is when someone defecates on Francisco’s grave, and the movie shows the graphic details, with no discreet editing. What that person does to Francisco’s grave is like what “¡Que Viva México!” does to any viewer’s hope that “¡Que Viva México!” could actually turn into a good movie.

Sony Pictures International Productions released “¡Que Viva México!” in select U.S. cinemas on March 24, 2023. The movie was released in Mexico on March 23, 2023. Netflix will premiere “¡Que Viva México!” on May 11, 2023.

Review: ‘Army of the Dead’ (2021), starring Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Omari Hardwick, Ana de la Reguera, Tig Notaro, Matthias Schweighöfer and Garret Dillahunt

May 13, 2021

by Carla Hay

Dave Bautista in “Army of the Dead” (Photo by Clay Enos/Netflix)

“Army of the Dead” (2021)

Directed by Zack Snyder

Culture Representation: Taking place in Las Vegas during a zombie apocalypse, the horror flick “Army of the Dead” features a racially diverse cast (Asian, white, African American and Latino) representing the middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A ragtag group is enlisted to retrieve $200 million in cash from a casino bank vault before the government drops a nuclear bomb in the zombie-infested area.

Culture Audience: “Army of the Dead” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in epic and suspenseful zombie thrillers.

Ella Purnell in “Army of the Dead” (Photo by Clay Enos/Netflix)

What’s a filmmaker to do when there are so many movies and TV shows about a zombie apocalypse that cover a lot of the same problems? In the case of director Zack Snyder, you up the ante by making the story about looting a vault filled with $200 million in cash, before the area is detonated by government bomb. That’s the concept of writer/director/producer Snyder’s “Army of the Dead,” which definitely won’t be confused with director Joseph Conti’s 2008 low-budget supernatural horror movie “Army of the Dead,” which was about ghostly conquistadors.

Snyder (who was also the cinematographer for his “Army of the Dead” movie) isn’t new to directing a zombie film, since the previous zombie flick that he directed was the critically acclaimed 2004 remake of “Dawn of the Dead.” With a total running time of 148 minutes, “Army of the Dead” has a lot of time for viewers to get to know the story’s individual human characters, who each have a distinct and memorable personality. And believe it or not, a few of the zombie characters have semblances of personalities too—or at least a hierachy and customs that they follow—which is a departure from most zombie stories where the zombies only think about killing humans for their next meal.

Is it worth spending nearly two-and-a-half hours of your life watching “Army of the Dead”? It depends. If you’re inclined to watch gory horror movies, then the answer is a definite “yes,” because there’s enough of a good story and suspenseful moments that will keep you riveted. If you can’t stomach seeing brutal battles with blood and guts, then “Army of the Dead” is something that you can skip. The “Army of the Dead” screenplay (written by Snyder, Shay Hatten and Joby Harold) keeps things simple, so that even though there’s a relatively large cast of characters, nothing gets confusing.

“Army of the Dead” opens with a military convoy of trucks and vans somewhere in the Nevada desert, with one of the trucks carrying super-secret cargo. Two military guards named Corp. Bissel (played by Zach Rose) and Sgt. Kelly (played by Michael Cassidy) are in a truck together and speculate about what they might be guarding that’s so top-secret. Bissel thinks it might be an alien from outer space, because whatever is in the mystery truck came from Area 51. Kelly has been told on a walkie talkie to stay away from a truck that’s in the middle of the convoy.

Bissel and Kelly are about to found out what’s in that mysterious truck. A newlywed couple named Mr. Hillman (played by Steve Corona) and Misty Hillman (played by Chelsea Edmundson), who are in a car in the opposite lane of the highway, are engaging in some sexual activity, and the husband takes his eyes off the road while driving. Big mistake. The resulting crash is a big pile-up that ends with a massive explosion that kills the newlyweds and most of the people in the convoy, except for Bissel and Kelly.

The truck that was supposed to be “off limits” topples over. And out comes a zombie named Zeus (played by Richard Cetrone), who immediately goes on a rampage. Bissel and Kelly make a valiant effort to save themselves, but they inevitably become the zombie’s prey and then become zombies themselves.

“Army of the Dead” then fast-forwards to Las Vegas in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, by having a fairly long sequence of opening credits showing much of the action in slow-motion. The movie has many touches of humor, such as zombie showgirls who attack the type of creepy older men who would probably sexually harass them under other circumstances. Zombies have taken over casinos and are shown terrorizing people at slot machines and game tables. And because this is Vegas, there’s at least one Elvis impersonator who’s a zombie.

During all of this mayhem, a news announcement comes on TV that the government will drop a “low-yield, tactical nuclear bomb” in the worst zombie-infested area of Las Vegas, at sunset on (of all days) the Fourth of July. All people in the area have been ordered to evacuate. But a wealthy casino owner named Bly Tanaka (played by Hiroyuki Sanada) has other plans.

Bly’s eponymous high-rise casino is now abandoned and is in the area that’s scheduled to be bombed. The casino has a secret vault filled with $200 million cash. And he wants to get the cash out in time by having other people do the dirty work for him.

Bly visits Scott Ward (played by Dave Bautista), a widower who works as a cook at a diner. Scott isn’t an average diner employee though: He received a Presidential Medal of Freedom for saving several people at the start of the zombie apocalypse. (This heroism is mentioned, but not shown, in the movie.)

And due to his shady past, Scott knows the right people to assemble to get all of that cash out of the vault, even if it means risking their lives in an area crawling with zombies. Bly offers Scott $50 million to do the job and says that it will be up to Scott how Scott wants to divide the payment amongst Scott’s team members. Scott eagerly accepts the challenge because he wants the money to open his own fast-food business.

The decision of where to drop the bomb is controversial because it’s in a quarantine area for people who’ve been suspected of being exposed to zombie infections. In one of the movie’s satirical moments, there’s a TV news debate with political pundits on both sides weighing in on the controversy. Real-life liberal Democrat pundit Donna Brazile (a former acting chair of the Democratic National Committee) and real-life conservative Republican aide Sean Spicer (a former White House press secretary in the Donald Trump administration) are seen in this debate arguing over the ethics of this bombing. Brazile thinks the bombing is a human rights violation, while Spicer thinks the bombing is necessary to ensure the safety of non-infected humans.

Scott’s estranged daughter Kate Ward (played by Ella Purnell) works as a volunteer at the quarantine shelter/refugee camp. Kate has befriended a single mother named Geeta (played by Huma Qureshi), who is desperate to have her two underage children smuggled out of the shelter before the bomb hits. Geeta begs Kate to take the children to the nearby city of Barstow if anything happens to her.

One of the supervisors at the shelter is a sleazy bully named Burt Cummings (played by Theo Rossi), who takes particular pleasure in demeaning women. When he does a thermometer scan of Geeta, he stands too close for comfort and tells her that if she doesn’t like it, he’ll use another way to take her temperature: “I could use my rectal thermometer,” he smirks.

The bomb is supposed to be dropped in 72 hours. But Dave is able to quickly assemble his team. They are:

Maria Cruz (played by Ana de la Reguera), a strong-willed mechanic who had a past romance with Scott.
Vanderohe (played by Omari Hardwick), a quintessential action hero who has a sensitive side (he works at a retirement home) beneath his tough exterior.
Marianne Peters (played by Tig Notaro), a wisecracking helicopter pilot who will be responsible for flying the team’s getaway helicopter.
Dieter (played by Matthias Schweighöfer), a socially awkward and nerdy locksmith who will be responsible for cracking the safe’s complex security codes, which change on a regular basis.
Mikey Guzman (played by Raúl Castillo), a semi-famous YouTuber who likes to make extreme stunt videos of himself hunting zombies.
Chambers (Samantha Win), a feisty but emotionally aloof friend of Mikey’s who only trusts Mikey in the group.
Lilly (played by Nora Arnezeder), also known as The Coyote, a cunning warrior type who works at the quarantine shelter and was introduced to the group by Kate.
Kate, Scott’s daughter, who insists on being part of the team because she wants some of the money to help Deeta.
Martin (played by Garret Dillahunt), a security expert who works for Bly and is there to keep tabs on this motley crew so they won’t steal all the money for themselves.

One of Mikey’s friends named Damon (played by Colin Jones) was also supposed to be part of the team. But a fearful Damon quits early, before they even start their journey, when he finds out that the area they’re going to has a colony of zombies that will be sure to attack. Lilly knows the most about the zombies living in this colony, and she’s the go-to person to come up with strategies on how to outsmart the zombies.

As Lilly tells the rest of the team, these are not ordinary zombies. Regular zombies, which are more common, are called “shamblers” because they don’t think beyond eating and killing. The zombies that are near the casino are called “alphas,” because they’re smarter, faster and stronger than the shambler zombies.

These alpha zombies have formed a tribe headed by a king (Zeus, the same zombie who escaped from the military convoy) and a queen (played by Athena Perample), who expect the rest of the zombie tribe to follow their lead. These zombies, as seen in several parts of the movie, seem to have emotions of anger and sadness. And they also understand things such as bargaining, which might or might not come in handy for this group that will soon invade the alpha zombies’ territory.

“Army of the Dead” keeps things at a fairly energetic pace, although there are a few parts of the movie where people are standing around and talking a little too much. But the action, when it happens, lives up to expectations in intensity and realistic gore. There are some splatter scenes that were deliberately filmed for laughs. The movie also has a male zombie tiger named Valentine, which Lilly says used to be owned by Siegfried and Roy. Valentine is a scene-stealer, even though this creature is nothing but visual effects.

And in this group of opinionated people, there are personality conflicts, of course. Vanderohe doesn’t respect Dieter at first because he thinks Dieter is too wimpy and ill-prepared for the zombie-killing aspects of this mission. Kate has a lot of bitterness toward Scott because of how her mother died. (The death of Kate’s mother/Scott’s wife is shown in a flashback.) And no one seems to really like or trust Bly’s henchman Martin, who has a tendency to be a bossy know-it-all.

The big showdown battle toward the end of the movie is definitely one of the best scenes, as it should be. “Army of the Dead” doesn’t sugarcoat any violence, although there are moments that stretch the bounds of realism with some heavily choreographed stunts. All of the actors play their roles well, with Castillo, Notaro, Schweighöfer and Arnezeder bringing the most individuality to their characters’ personalities. Bautista doesn’t have a wide range of emotive skills as an actor, but “Army of the Dead” is the type of movie that showcases him at his best, rather than the silly action comedies that he sometimes does.

The biggest complaint or disappointment that viewers might have about “Army of the Dead” is regarding the movie’s final five minutes, when a character finds out something that this person should have found out much earlier. It drastically changes the tone of the film’s ending. But this potentially divisive ending doesn’t take away from “Army of the Dead” delivering plenty of thrills and chills that make it a better-than-average zombie movie.

Netflix released “Army of the Dead” in New York City on May 12, 2021, and will expand the movie’s release to more U.S. cinemas on May 14, 2021. Netflix will premiere “Army of the Dead” on May 21, 2021.