Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

i must have seen a different film!!

Absolutely Fantastic

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Zombie fans will all have heard - and probably watched - the British zombie romantic comedy, Shaun of the Dead, so, what does Cuba's film industry have to say on the subject? First of all they're probably not doing themselves or the film any favours by blatantly copying an existing film. People will think it's just a rip off, when it most certainly is not.Okay, so the two do share some common traits: zombies (obviously), humour, gore, lovable losers fighting to survive etc. However, believe it or not, Juan does stray into enough new territory to make it worth a watch. First of all, it's seriously darker than Sean - the 'heroes' make some pretty self-centred decisions along the way (good fun to watch), also the back-drop is different enough to warrant a mention. Gone are the familiar streets of London and instead we see life in Cuba. Whereas Shaun and his mates simply wanted to escape the zombie menace, Juan and his band decide that they're okay with it. They simply lock themselves in their house and start up a new business where they offer to charge people money to kill/dispose of their loved ones! All in all, if you like dark, gory comedy (and have a thirst for watching the undead in action), give it a go - maybe one day Shaun and Juan can get together over a pint and glass of rum and swap tips on the best way to deal with an undead outbreak.Oh, and be prepared for subtitles with Juan (they kill the only English-speaking character pretty quickly!).

I was bored and looking for something new to watch. Nothing on Netflix caught my interest. I searched for video on demand and saw this title on HBO. The title immediately reminded me of Shaun of the dead. I was slightly surprised when the film began and I saw the subtitles. The zombie craze has made its way to Cuba? Fortunately I am bilingual and having worked with Cuban refugees I know a lot about the political climate in that country. It does turn out that the country and its conditions play a major part in what makes this film what it is. However even if you are not that familiar just sit back and be educated. You wont be disappointed. Juan is a loser who surrounds himself with others much like himself. They are all completely clueless as to the cause of the zombie uprising and instead believe what the government is telling them. That the cause of the trouble is merely US interference and that the trouble makers are thus all dissidents. Word to the wise, never believe what your government tells you. Things digress from here. The "dissidents" appear to be gaining ground. Juan and his band of merry miscreants are forced to deal with the new society. This has to be one of the best zombie movies ever. It deserves to be watched by as many as possible. I really hope Hollyweird doesn't decide to make an American version like they do for so many other movies. It's setting are intricate to the plot.

No major spoilers here. It's a friggin' zombie film!This refreshing Cuban-Spanish zombie comedy will definitely annoy every McDonalds-munching day-dreaming couch-potato Western-Marxist hypocrite, for it does not glorify the mankind-loathing decadence of rabid Communism or its psychopathic coffee-mug iconic perpetrators – as 95% of all movies with a political message do. In fact, JOTD is an obvious bashing of Castro's Cuba and its 60 year-long downward spiral, marked by poverty, misery and brainwashing. Speaking of which, brainwashed liberals/avatards and nerdy left-wing film-students, so spoiled by decades of watching only their political views being represented in movies, will be quite surprised to know that the image of Che Guevara – for once – isn't used on the big-screen to symbolize freedom.Havana is in the midst of a zombapocalypse, and the tyrannical regime is incompetent to deal with it. What they are marginally successful in is launching a media campaign whose objective is to portray and label the zombies as "imperialist dissidents", part of a US ploy to destroy the country. Hence the word "zombie" is used only once, by the Bible-hugging foreigner; instead, the living dead are referred to jokingly by the survivors as "dissidents". "Forget America, this time we have a real enemy."Unlike what you'd normally expect from a horror comedy, nearly all of the funny moments are dialog-related. As a result, JOTD has most of its highlights in the first half-hour, much of which isn't dominated by zombies. The second half-hour sees a quality-drop of sorts, since that is when most of the cartoon violence takes place; after all, there are only so many ways in which you can kill a zombie, and the majority of those we've already seen in many other such movies. Although, to be fair, JOTD does provide moments of zombie-slashing/physical originality as well, with some rather fun gore, and can outshine nearly every zombie comedy with ease. The last half-hour is a marked improvement over the middle, with a lot more dialog again, hence more of those wonderful quips by the two male leads.The characters, even though just part of a silly zombie flick, appear more real than most characters in your typical American dramas. They are not morally perfect; in fact, they have many flaws, and aside from Juan's daughter all of them are a bit dodgy, to put it mildly. This too is a refreshing approach, steering well from the American/British clichés of the morally squeaky-clean (hence absurd/unreal) hero.Speaking of what's real and what isn't, JOTD has another essential thing going for it: it does NOT look like a modern Western horror film at all. What I mean by this is that JOTD doesn't have that computer-software-ruined mono-colour filtered/plastic downbeat/depressing look that we've been cursed with in the past decade or so when it comes to American, British and French horror films. (Kudos to the rare exceptions.) JOTD looks very refreshingly real, the colours are stark, vivid, vibrant, and most importantly - they are all there: it's not just green or blue or yellow. That way, the movie serves as a nostalgic reminder of what Western horror films (more-or-less) used to look like once upon a time back in the 70s and early 80s, at a time when a movie's look wasn't decided on some idiot's laptop, but by the quality of the cinematographer and the director.If anyone is worried that a Cuban movie might be a little lacking in the special-effects department, have no fear: the effects are great, as are the distant shots of Havana burning.The fact that the female cast is both beautiful and sexy (Andrea Duro and Blanca Rosa Blanco) is just the icing on the cake.Forget "Shaun of the Dead", this is the one to watch.

While most of the lesser efforts in the "zombie genre" tend to eschew the political savvy the genre's de facto creator George Romero himself often employs (relying instead on simply trying to spook or to nauseate their viewers), JUAN OF THE DEAD does it all- and does it well. Juan is just one of what's come to be known in this country as "the one percent"- the people at the very bottom of the financial and political ladder(s); "the Juan percent," if you will, who are often forced to eke out marginal if not outright illegal livings. Employing Romero's method of imparting information via news reports, JUAN OF THE DEAD makes it hysterically if somewhat subtly clear that this whole zombiegeddon thing is an American government mistake gone global (which could prove over-the-top hilarious, given the current state of GOP- George Orwell Propaganda- TV in this country, if someone were to do an even more "biting" satire along the lines of the original NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD). "We OWN this country," a doddering old movie director proudly proclaimed at a political circle jerk a little more than a week ago. Maybe- but be warned: it could very well come back to bite you in the ***.