Shaun of the Dead (2004)

How long would it take a Londoner to realize his city has been taken over by zombies? In “Shaun of the Dead,” whole freakin’ days. Simon Pegg’s Shaun is a 29-year-old electronics retail clerk who is clueless about his girlfriend (Kate Ashfield) and best pals with flatmate Ed (Nick Frost), a fatty who farts on cue. The horror bits arrive ever so slow, a peek here, a fuzzy background shot there. Then the blood hits. Our heroes scramble, bicker and fight back. Director/co-writer Edgar Wright trashes everything about zombie flicks, London society and the media. Fantastic scenes abound: The best may be a fight where Shaun and Ed fling old records – but not their favorites – at two dead heads. I could drone on about my favorite bits: The “western bar” showdown, Bill Nighy as a (step!) dad who won’t let being dead marginalize his hatred of speed metal, and the not-subtle joke that Shaun is with the wrong girl. This satire plays smarter than most of the films it’s ripping. Pegg is brilliant as the exasperated hero. Whatever that means. A

Zombieland and Dead Snow (2009)

The living dead ran amok inside my movie-soaked brain with a recent double feature. Grrr! Argh!

Jesse Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson play an unlikely zombie-hunting pair in “Zombieland,” the American cousin to the infinitely funnier rom-com-zom satire “Shaun of the Dead.” Eisenberg again siphons from previous innocent-geek roles in such films as “Adventureland,” matching only Michael Cerra in redundancy. Harrelson riffs heroically and quite knowingly on his “Natural Born Killers” psychopath. It’s a short, funny film that cracks on American culture targets from Twinkies to Hanna Montana, and features a stellar cameo from a beloved movie icon. B+

In “Dead Snow,” any wit is trounced by scatological outhouse sex, sick comedy and grisly gut-bursting violence. The plot: Student doctors head to the mountains of Norway for snow sports, drinking, light drugs and hard sex. Not planned for: An army of undead Nazi killers out for blood. Director Tommy Wirkola loves the visual of blood on snow -- eyeballs get squished, skulls are cracked open and entrails wrap around trees. It’s all so over-the-top gleefully, knowingly and illogically bloody bad – paying homage to “Evil Dead” and “Friday the 13th” – that Wirkola scores a guilty pleasure. B

Quarantine (2008)

“Quarantine” is an American re-make of a European film called “Rec.” Rules stipulate that American remakes suck compared to their original foreign counterpart. There are exceptions: “Insomnia” for instance. And this film. (I have not seen the original. But will.) The set-up is simple: A TV news crew follows a firefighter company for a routine “you are there” news assignment. Yet a simple call – a medical distress – turns ugly, then horrifying and then hellish as a zombie virus spreads inside a cruddy apartment building. The entire film is shot from the view of the news cameraman (Steve Harris, barely seen). This trick gives the viewer an off-the-cuff hell ride, although the “random” placement of the camera gets a little too planned at the film’s climax. The violence is bloody nasty without being sickly, and the actors make fantastic work out of “I’m going to die!” roles. The lingering mysteries, unsolved fates and sparse facts add to the claustrophobia. For a “Z” genre flick, this gets a B+

Resident Evil: Extinction (2007) & Death Race (2008)

When I watched "Resident Evil: Extinction," I had no idea it was the third film in a series about a world overcome by zombies. I hadn't seen the first two films, nor did I know it was a video game. I'm 35, and apparently out of the loop.

The film follows Alice (Milla Jovovich of "The Fifth Element"), a genetically altered super warrior roaming the American West. Zombies are everywhere, hatched by some viral weapon developed by an evil corporation. With the first few minutes, Alice has a run-in with a redneck family of humans that are a nastier, rape-minded re-creation of the villains in "The Goonies." Alice dispatches them in minutes. Not too far way, a mad scientist (there's always one of those around, and here he's played by Iain Glen of "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider") seems hell bent on curing the zombie virus, but certainly eyeing world domination. Or obtaining free cable or some such joy.

All this plot roundup is pointless, really. Direct Russell Mulcahy and writer Paul W.S. Anderson are action directors, having made various bad films called "Solider," "Mortal Kombat," "Highlander" and "Event Horizon," among others. A good script isn't to be found among them. It's all explosions. And the action here is cool and bloody as hell. Heads go boom, brains hit the screen many times over, and the makeup crew deserves a huge vacation. There are huge gaps in logic here. One good guy bitten by a zombie takes days to turn, while another turns within hours. But one can't expect logic here. I'm not rushing to see Parts 1 and 3, and the inevitable 4. C+

Anderson also helmed the recent "Death Race" remake. It is equally silly and missing chunks of logic, but it also is huge fun. The fun is Jason Statham, who's fast becoming my favorite action film star. The guy makes Steve McQueen seem quaint and he could rip the Yippee Ki-yay Mother Funka out of Bruce Willis any day. He made "In the Name of the King" watchable on his charisma alone.

Here, he plays Jensen Ames, an ex-racer car driver sent to prison in 2012 for murdering his wife. It's a scam, of course. The warden of the prison (Joan Allen) airs a "Death Race" reality show on TV and the Internet, and makes millions of dollars off it. That's the plot: Jensen must race against other prisoners in hugely violent matches where the bloody death is certain.

The racing and stunts are fantastic. Cars crash, explode and are ripped apart. As are bodies. And it's all twisted, nasty fun of the highest order. An 18-wheeler from hell pays a prominent role and kicks up the action. This is a true guilty pleasure and I'm now wiling to see Statham in anything. Allen too is a huge delight as the meanest, coldest woman I've ever seen on screen. She must have had a blast doing the role.

The film's holes are big: The warden and her lackey are required to suddenly turn dumb for the heroes to win, and the inclusion of scantily clad woman as race car navigators (!) certainly didn't come from the portion of the writers' collective ... brains. Another nit pick: There's a good deal of homophobia in the early part of the film, and the writers don't ever correctly deal with the issue. But making complaints about this film is like whining that the French fries at McDonald's are too salty. The salt is what makes 'em yummy. Like the original, this will be a cult hit. B