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Rating:  - Neocon Bootlickers Are Gonna Hate This One
Homecoming is a very clever film focusing on the hypocrisy of flag-waving Chicken-Hawks. The film's main character is a Neocon political hack who boldly states that all the soldiers who died in Iraq loved the war and would vote Neocon if they could. In true horror-movie fashion, the dead do rise and become politically active, in a non-Neocon manner.
What I liked most about the film is how the director shows us the true evil monsters in the movie: The Neocons. But the main point of the film is presented in a clever and sometimes funny way. I see some Neocon bootlickers have already reviewed this film; to them "patriotism" means cowardly obeying the guy in the room with the most money, not defending the constitution. How sad.
We need directors and producers to make more movies like "Homecoming".
Rating:  - Story is much better, but movie's pretty durned funny.
Masters of Horror: Homecoming (Joe Dante, 2005)
I had no idea, when I first found about about this Joe Dante short from the Masters of Horror series, that it was based on my favorite Dale Bailey story, else I'd have endeavored to track it down a lot sooner than I did. And while Dante has a much heavier hand with the social commentary than does Bailey, Homecoming is still more fun than two-- yes, two!-- barrels of monkeys.
David Murch (Jon Tenney) is a professional spin doctor working for the current government's administration, who have gotten involved in a very unpopular war. (Sound familiar?) One night, while on a talk show, confronting a woman whose son was killed in the hostilities, Murch wishes, aloud, that her son weren't dead. Unfortunately, the dead hear-- and it's not just the dead from this war. They're all rising, and they all have a goal. But what? (That is the major spoiler, and the punchline, and you'll just have to watch it.) While public opinion about the zombies is at first what one would expect, as the zombies start integrating themselves, the public begins to support their right to exist, and from there, everything starts getting really, really complicated.
Dante, whose career has been exceptionally low-key ever since 1989's The 'burbs (a fun film, but it bombed badly at the box office), has been quietly cranking out two kinds of movies for the past twenty years-- big-budget stinkers (Small Soldiers, Looney Tunes: Back in Action) and quiet, indie flicks that are actually worth your time (Matinee, The Second Civil War). His seeming growing fascination with sociopolitical commentary is increasingly obvious in his choice of projects, so Homecoming was a natural fit for him. He hasn't learned to do it subtly yet, but then anyone expecting subtlety from the guy who directed Gremlins is probably looking in the wrong direction. His signature blend of comedy and horror, however, is just as strong as it ever was, and he turns in an enjoyable Masters of Horror episode here. But do yourself a favor and read Bailey's much-superior story when you're done. ***
Rating: - Political zombies
During a contentious presidential campaign, a government mouthpiece (Jon Tenney) publicly wishes that the soldiers killed in Iraq could come back long enough to let the American people know how they feel about being called on to make the ultimate sacrifice in that cause. Dead soldiers begin to return as zombies who are less interested in eating brains than casting ballots--against the current administration. This puts the right wing spin machine into overdrive, providing director Joe Dante with ample opportunity to skewer neo-conservatives for hypocrisy and cynicism.
Your opinion of this episode is bound to be colored by your feelings about the war in Iraq, so I'll be up front with mine--I've been against it from the start. Yet this episode still doesn't sit well with me. Conservatives are criticized for claiming to speak for dead soldiers to make a political point, but isn't that what Dante and screenwriter Sam Hamm have done with their script? Does it make it right just because they are on the other side of the issue? The allegory is rather heavy-handed, but it has a pleasantly creepy atmosphere up until the zombie agenda is revealed, and Thea Gill is funny as a thinly veiled Ann Coulter castrating conservative babe. That's worth a few points in my book.
Rating:  - My Jaw Dropped...
...in a bad way. This movie is astoundingly bad. The message it delivers is so ineptly handled with unfunny humor and bald-faced hatred that it fails as propaganda. It is not funny, so it fails as satire. And because it tries so desperately to be satire and propaganda, it fails as horror.
Clearly, the people involved in this sad project hate conservatives--which is fine. Many people do. But not many artists do to a degree that blinds their aesthetic judgments (Tim Robbins can churn out excellent parody, for example). The script seems like it was written by an angry co-ed. I came to this movie expecting to be entertained with some tongue-in-cheek horror. Instead, I was hectored by adolescents.
Rating: - One-Line Joke From the "Gremlins" Director
It's made-for-TV, so adjust your expectations accordingly: The effects are cheesy, and the acting even cheesier. The movie's nothing more than a one-liner, but it's a brilliant one-liner. "Homecoming" is bound to offend just about everyone, from Republicans to military families to anyone with any sense of decency...but if you're watching a zombie flick in the first place, you're not looking for good wholesome entertainment, right?
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