Bullet Points: Code Red

Another day, another review. This time out the 2013 zombie actioner, Code Red starring Paul Logan…

• Flashback: Code Red starts off with some World War II stock footage to set up the graphic opening scene featuring the horrors of war all through the perspective of German soldier Hans. Hans has to see his fallen comrades and their various body parts strewn about the battlefield, he even witnesses the field doctor there to aid the wounded soldiers blow his own brains out. When the movie cuts to modern times we find out that Hans ended up taking his own life after the things he saw that day landed him in a German psychiatric hospital. Hans did not survive, but his journal did and through a contact at MI6, that journal is now in possession of General Owens, who in turn has handed it over to our hero, John (Paul Logan, The Horde).
• The Reanimator: A recent report from a military base in Bulgaria matched the most noteworthy information in Hans’ journal… the dead being reanimated! General Owens then lets John in on a little secret… apparently Stalin was working on a chemical agent to create a super soldier and it is believed that after the war, the Russians stored the chemical agent in a warehouse on a small island in the Danube river located in Bulgaria. It is believed that this chemical agent is to blame for the recent incident in Bulgaria, so John is going to be sent over to Bulgaria to find the chemical agent and secure it before it can cause anymore harm.

• Cover Story: John’s cover story is that he is in Bulgaria to investigate a recent string of thefts at the warehouse. It turns out that a high ranking member of the Bulgarian military, Col. Borov has been dipping into the inventory and supplying arms for the Bulgarian underworld’s gun running operation… so the last thing he needs is this nosey American figuring that out.
• Is There a Doctor in the House?: Before John conducts his warehouse search, he pays the doctor who filed a report about the reanimated corpse a visit, Dr. Anna Bennett (Manal El-Feitury). Anna was sent home after filing the report, so John has the soldier assigned to drive him around, Pvt. Harold Miller (Julian Koslov) take her to her apartment…. John and Miller are greeted by Anna’s young daughter Miriam (Mya-Lecia Naylor). She tells him about the soldier who was crushed by some barrels in the warehouse, who was brought to her and pronounced dead, only to attack a nurse moments later. She is shocked anyone was willing to believe her story since Col. Borov sure as hell didn’t, John assures her he wouldn’t be there if his superiors did not believe.

• Chaos Erupts: John begins his warehouse investigation, but Borov is going to make sure John doesn’t find what he is looking for. He blackmails one of his officers to ambush John in the warehouse and plant bombs throughout the facility. I am not sure why they didn’t just leave John to die in the pending explosion, but instead they take his unconscious ass and throw him in the back of a military police transport. When the warehouse blows up it shakes the entire island…. the inhabitants of the island all flee to the island’s underground bunkers… almost all, young Miriam gets separated from her mother Anna and being scared and not knowing what else to do, she returns to her apartment, where she finds the mean old lady down the hall who is always yelling at everyone, is now a mean old zombie lady! In fact there are zombies everywhere!!! Fortunately, Miriam finds John locked up and is able to free him, now she has herself a protector.
• Meanwhile Back at the Bunker: Dr. Anna has found a familiar face at the bunker, Pvt. Harold Miller. Miller does his best to calm her down in regards to Miriam and assures her that Miriam probably made it into the bunker through the other entrance and they’ll find her… but what they find is that some of the evacuees in the bunker are turning into zombies!!! Miller and Anna get the hell out of there, so now we have two team ups going on with Miller/Anna and John/Miriam as they fight their way through a sea of zombies hoping to reach the bridge to get them off the island and to mainland Bulgaria. But there is one big problem…

• Code Red: The military has declared a Code Red and that means everybody on the island has to die. So not only do our heroes have to deal with zombies, they have to deal with the military preventing them from leaving the island. I should point out that we do eventually get the happy mother/daughter reunion and I should also point out that is the only real piece of good news we get in the third act.

There is nothing worse than bad special effects to take you out of a movie but that was not an issue in Code Red with the zombies and the gore being really well done… The characters you are supposed to care about are easy to care about in Code Red with the capable Paul Logan leading the pack… The balance between story and action was well calibrated… I think most importantly, Code Red did not try to reinvent the wheel, but seemingly did try to make the best movie possible given their resources.

Here are the best Bonus Bullet Points I can give you, given my resources…

• Dew It: If Paul Logan ever has the opportunity to star in an action movie titled Baja Blast, he needs to do it.
• Double Duty: Valeri Milev was not only the director of Code Red, he also was one of the writers.
• Bulgaria as Bulgaria: It was nice to see a movie shot in Bulgaria that was actually set in Bulgaria.