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Thursday, April 12, 2012

Fido (2006)

   Timmy Robinson's (Kesun Loder) best friend is his family's zombie servant Fido (Billy Connolly). When Fido snacks on one of the neighbors he sets a small zombie outbreak into motion putting the Robinson family at risk of being thrown out of the safety of their gated community and into the "wild zone"  where untamed zombies roam free.
   Zomcon seems to have the zombie problem under control in 1950's town of Willard. After what is referred to as "the zombie wars" were won in the 1940's, Dr. Greiger, the founder of Zomcon, had the city surrounded by steel walls and invented a zombie domestication collar, complete with remote control, to curb the appetites of zombies and allow them to be used as servants.Helen Robinson (Carrie-Anne Moss), embarrassed by being the only family in town without a zombie servant, surprises zombiephobic husband Bill (Dylan Baker) and son Timmy with a new undead addition to their family.Timmy decides to name his new zombie friend  Fido after he gets out and follows Timmy to the park and saves him from bullies Roy (Aaron Brown) and Stan Fraser (Brandon Olds), who later get blamed for the death of Mrs. Henderson. While in the park, Fido, who is not supposed to be out without a leash, is attacked by the Robinson's elderly neighbor Mrs. Henderson while he's trying to retrieve Timmy's baseball.His collar malfunctions when she hits it with her walker and she instantly becomes a meal.Fido's collar returns to working order just before he's about to make Timmy his second course.Timmy does his best to try to cover up the mess Fido has made but when he later sneaks out to bury Mrs. Henderson he finds that she has become a zombie.Timmy and Helen, who has also grown very fond of Fido,try to keep anyone from finding out that Fido is the cause of the now small zombie outbreak but neighbor and head of Zomcon security, John Bottoms (Henry Czerny), figures out that Fido is responsible.John takes him away to be "disposed of" but spares the Robinson's the usual fate reserved for people who's zombies attack of being thrown out into the wild zone.Timmy and Helen are crushed when Fido is taken away but Bill, who doesn't pay much attention to his family, much less Fido, could care less.John Bottoms' daughter Cindy (Alexia Fast) later informs Timmy that Fido is still alive (or undead I suppose) and being forced to work in the Zomcon building so Timmy enlists his neighbor, Mr. Theopolis (Tim Blake Nelson) and his zombie girlfriend Tammy (Sonja Bennett), to help him break Fido out of Zomcon (That's right...I said zombie girlfriend.In his defense she's pretty well preserved...wait, what am I saying?She's still a dead person!Maybe all of these zombie movies are desensitizing me and making me open to the possibility of falling in love with a hot rotting zombie...sorry, I lost it there for a second but I'm back now...I think.).
   Fido was a hilarious movie.This was no B-Horror movie  attempt at being funny.Fido boasted an excellent cast and kept me laughing and entertained throughout the entire movie.Fido, at times, was basically a Lassie movie with a zombie in place of the dog and they played on it as such, down to the fact that the boy's name is Timmy. Billy Connolly did a fantastic job as Fido, without ever speaking a word he was able to convey a myriad of emotions with his humorous zombified  face.He made me love and root for a zombie!The idea of domesticating zombies and using them as servants or slaves was amusing and more original than most zombie movies which tend to pretty much follow the same plot consisting of a handful of survivors trying to make it to some far away destination that may or may not have survivors and provide safety from the undead.Netflix rated Fido 3.9 out of 5 stars but I'll give it 4.9.

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