This is one flick that's gonna get me in a debate with Billion$Baby. I think he pretty much hates Biozombie, a mishmash of Clerks, Dawn of the Dead, and virtually every HK action flick ever made, while I find the film absolutely irresistable. Expect a counterpoint on this one :)

Biozombie begins with a group of Iraqi agents selling a chemical weapon to a secret branch of the Chinese government. The weapon is a liquid that transforms a man into a mindless killing machine, whose bite transforms his victims into the same. The chemical agent is delivered in a harmless looking Lucozade bottle, which is inadvertantly ingested by one of the agents when our heroes Woody (Chan) and Bee (Lee) run the man over in thier bosses car and find the bottle in the man's briefcase. Woody and Bee think he's thirsty when he points to the bottle, and pour half of it down his throat before the man passes out, and they decide to hide him in the trunk of the car so they can return to work at the DVD shop in the mall. The agent turns into a Bio-Zombie, and begins infecting other workers at the mall, and soon Woody, Bee, and a few survivors are trapped inside with them and must fight there way out.

It's basically Zombie Film 101, but the thing about Biozombie is it's much more than a horror film (actually, it's not really SCARY at all!). The film is a laugh-out-loud (intentionally!) comedy with a witty script, engaging characters, and a contagious energy that engages the viewer the minute Woody and Bee swagger onto the screen. Much like Clerks, the film has it's share of pop-culture reference heavy humor, some of it firmly rooted in the HK Action genre, and a lot of sight gags that nod to it's influences. I especially liked a bit where Woody is using a cordless drill to kill a zombie and the battery falls out. Bee slides across the floor in slow motion, picks up the battery, and slides beneath Woody and the zombie and pops it back in the chamber in an homage to John Woo that is not only funny, but exciting and genuine. Director Yip wears his influences proudly on his sleeve, and never asks to be taken seriously ( for example, the heroes arm themselves with whatever they can find, and then are presented to us like video game characters with a little bio that appears next to them telling us their "power level". It's a silly bit, but it encapsulates Woody and Bee's pop culture lifestyle. After all, it was through video games that Bee learned how to kill zombies in the first place!). My only complaint is that the film takes a decidedly serious turn towards it's finale that seems out of context.

The DVD from Tokyo Shock presents the film in widescreen, with a fairly solid transfer that suffers a bit from the film's low-budget origins with a little artifacting here and there, but otherwise looks fine. The soundtrack is clear and distortion free. Like most imports, there aren't an abundance of extras, but Tokyo Shock DID manage to dig up some lobby cards, as well as a bunch of trailers for their other films, which are more of a marketing thing than an extra, but they are entertaining nonetheless. The menus are a riot, especially the ENGRISH subtitle option. That's right. ENGRISH!

Biozombie is a very funny, fast-paced comedy horror flick with enough charm to get around it's rough edges and should please fans of the genre immensely!