CANpatbuck3664 I haven't read Jane Austen's classic novel Pride and Prejudice and I've never had the urge to. I read Sense and Sensibility and it wasn't my cup of tea. So, I turned this on with the hope that having a more contemporary element would make a story that clearly wasn't written for me, easier to sit through. I'm happy to report that it did and a large part of that was the humour that they incorporated into the narrative. Maybe other people saw it differently, but it just made me smile to watch people in this elaborate gowns and debonair dress slicing and dicing the undead. They establish the mythology (which was tightly written enough to satisfy me) and while they follow the beats of the original story, the zombie fighting is squeezed in and it works better than I thought it would have. It wasn't perfect, but I thought it was a pleasant surprise.So, while this movie departs from the classic story, my problems with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies don't have anything to do with those changes. The most noticeable flaw with this project is the sub-par effects and makeup. The budget on this is relatively low at $28 million (which was good considering how few people saw this in theatres) and unfortunately it shows. The costuming is good but with so many competing zombie TV shows (The Walking Dead) and movies (Zombieland) doing zombies so much better, it makes P&P&Z look even worse by comparison. I was also disappointed that the ending fizzled out. This could be blamed on the source material, but I don't see how. There's a considerable buildup with the rivalry between Mr. Darcy (Sam Riley) and George Wickham (Jack Huston) and the movie seems to be preparing you for a bad@$$ zombie fight. But there's almost nothing when the resolution hits and while I can appreciate a credit stinger that seems to set things up for a sequel, I wanted more.Through the positives and the negatives, the big thing that this movie brought to my attention was how talented Lily James is. I had seen her in supporting parts in Baby Driver, Darkest Hour and the Exception (Downtown Abbey isn't my thing) but she's the lead heroine here as Elizabeth Bennet and she knocks it out of the park. She anchors this movie capably and I don't know if this movie would have worked without her. She's turning into a performer that I would tune into a show or movie I didn't know about just because of her involvement. I largely liked the rest of the cast, but I also want to credit Matt Smith as the Bennet's wimpy cousin Parson Collins. I'm not familiar with him as an actor but he had me laughing in almost every scene he appeared in. This is a movie full of strong characters and Parson is conversely so pathetic that it becomes easy to mine laughs out of him being such a tool. I also enjoyed Bella Heathcote, Charles Dance, Jack Huston and Lena Headey in their supporting parts.I can understand die hard fans of Pride and Prejudice turning their nose up to this. But I'm not in that camp and this movie made the Pride and Prejudice story palatable for me. I liked the tongue-in-cheek humour, how they decided to work in the zombie elements in and the movie boasts a dynamic lead performance from Lily James. Is it a landmark in screenwriting? Absolutely not but I did enjoy this movie from beginning to end. My true rating for this would be a 7.5/10 but I'll round up to 8/10. I would recommend this to people looking for an interesting mashup of genres, but I would also warn you ahead of time, if you're a fan of the classic novel, this film probably will seem like blasphemy.

BenignPillows I finally got around to watching this, and laughed my head off, and I actually think Jane Austen would have as well. I'm not even a zombie horror fan, but this is such a great comedy, while retaining the power of the love story, that I still loved it. I don't feel it disrespects Pride and Prejudice; it's a homage more than a parody. It can't be denied that the story is made less character-driven - to put it that way, it's not INNER demons Elizabeth and Darcy are fighting anymore. However, it's still clear that the movie endeavours to take the novel's themes and love story seriously, and the actors, especially Lily James, play it straight and give it their all. I found the constantly leather-clad Sam Riley a bit lacking as Darcy, but Lily James would be a good Lizzy in any version of P&P. It's just, in this one, she is a martial arts champion as well. Another aspect that prevents this from seeming trashy, is that the production values and cinematography are surprisingly good. Apparently it was mostly filmed on location, and that shows.This also may contain the best Mr. Collins and Mrs. Bennet I have seen - though, granted, that may be because they are made more sympathetic than in the novel. Matt Smith is priceless and Sally Phillips hasn't got enough credit for her hilarious Mrs Bennet.The script and comedic timing are what make this an excellent comedy. I loved the historical revision that explains the invasion of period zombies in England - blamed on the French, of course. I loved how Darcy is recast as a zombie hunter and Lady Catherine as a warrior legend (Lena Headey was underused, though). I love the girl power element inherent in the fact that instead of embroidering, the Bennet sisters polish their weapons in their free time, and their deep conversations of love are had whilst doing combat training. I loved small directorial touches like the camera staying with Mr Collins after his unsuccessful proposal; we hear Mrs Bennet screeching off-screen followed by a quiet "Bugger" from Collins. I didn't see this in a theatre, but if I had, the scene where Elizabeth responds to Darcy's first proposal by *kicking him in the stomach* would have been worth the ticket price entirely!

srdjan_veljkovic Putting the somewhat silly and naive P&P into zombie-land seems even more silly. But, they do follow through on this premise until the end. It kind of works. Story is somewhat "watered-down", but, it's still there. And there are zombies! :)There are some good jokes in there, which actually makes this pass the bar of acceptable. Without it, this whole exercise would have seemed rather pointless.I believe it would have been better if they explored more the very silly notion that zombies are so popular in this age and made more fun of the genre.The feminist element is not too much. Sure, it's silly that 5 girls do a better job of fighting the undead than a trained army of men, because, you know, they studied in China. But, it's not like the men simply get tossed around by zombies and the girls toss the zombies around.Other than that, Lily James is well cast as the main character and it's interesting that they even explore this - Darcy says "she's pretty but not too pretty, has masculine features but is still feminine", though it didn't get much comedic effect, so it kind of fell into the "insulting the viewers intelligence" category.The rest of the cast do a decent job, with the Mother overacting a bit and the Father actually underacting and Lena Headley is somewhat underused, but such is her part.Bottom line, it is an interesting and somewhat funny movie, worth a watch.

Russell W Well I had planned to see this at the cinema....I'm glad I didn't.Some of the lines are just delivered rather lacklustre and it tends to drone on and in some scenes the players look very uncomfortable with each other.I do not know if he meant to play it this way but I felt the need to want to feed Matt Smith to the zombies and he greatly ruined any scene he was in.There were a couple of chuckles.I'd say watch on Netflix or DVD if you can but only free or rental.Action scenes are well done though and the visual effects and makeup are great.Sadly not enough to save it from slightly bombing.