Legion of the Dead (2001)

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Two stoners are on their way to a desert town to visit their cousin when they are picked up by a man offering them a lift in his car. But it turns out that the man is a psychotic killer. Their cousin tries to rescue them. Meanwhile a pair of astonishingly inept undead hit men are 'recruiting' people to become undead soldiers for their master Togaio, an evil immortal. Togaio is also after Geena, a female immortal who is the last member of her race, now working as a waitress in a bar. After being rescued from the psycho, the stoners & their cousin arrive at the bar at the same time as Togaio & his army. When their presence triggers one hell of an ugly barroom brawl, the stoners attempt to save Geena from Togaio. Legion of the Dead (or to use the on screen title, which is simply Legion) is perhaps one of the worst films I have ever seen. It really staggers belief that an extremely pathetic piece of trash like this would b e made in this day & age. The film is the directorial debut of visual effects artist Olaf Ittenbach (it would be ironically fitting that Ittenbach would later be doing effects work for fellow German filmmaker Uwe Boll on his film BloodRayne).You get a sinking feeling when the film starts with two stoners clearly stoned out of their mind having a ridiculous discussion about genitals, to the point that you wonder if Ittenbach is pulling your leg & making some kind of satire. Alas, that is not the case – the film tries to copy the success of Tarantino's early works (in particular Pulp Fiction), with two astoundingly inept & idiotic undead hit men killing people & having a running argument over the colour of their suits (one prefers the grey suits they are wearing but the other thinks they are ugly so makes the decision to get yellow suits). This madness grates on for what seems to be forever but is in fact one scene intercut with the plight of the two almost as stupid stoners being abducted & held prisoner by a crazed psychopath. Then we see the life of Geena, the friendly female immortal who has a sunny disposition & who cannot be killed except by a virus created by her opposite member.Having seen the film numerous times (in an effort to discern the almost totally insane plot), I can say with certainty that Olaf Ittenbach probably wrote a horror comedy but somehow lost control & the film was badly edited together to point that the story was jumbled up like a plate of spaghetti. Case in point the barroom brawl, which looks quite spectacular (particularly with the cool techno song playing in the background) but is the very definition of "mindless violence", mainly due to being incoherently edited & with several elements being left unexplained. The film ends on an equally incoherent ending that suggests some sort of time warp taking place.The acting is mostly bad. Matthias Hues is his usual self, making his role of Togaio the evil immortal quite good, although the only actors who comes close to matching him in the acting department are Kimberly Liebe as the good immortal & a madly glass-munching Christopher Kriesa who gives his role of the psychopathic killer some enthusiasm.

This could almost become a cult movie. It involves idiots working with and against the powerful demon Tagaio, played by my favorite actor of all time: Mathias Hues. He played in so many bad US movies that his Germanic accent is almost gone.In this one, he doesn't even fight. He is just the comic relief. The other actors play their parts (of idiots) really well, completely immersing the viewer in the atmosphere of the movie. The end part is an almost exact replica of the From Dusk Till Dawn bar fights, and by exact I mean really funny and completely different.In the end (spoiler!!) Mathias Hues reveals his real identity: he is also an idiot, and the Legion of Idiots is finally defeated.Now really, a bad movie, with decent low budget effects and good film editing. But other than that, the script, acting and directing sucked. If you get really intoxicated with something, you might find it hilarious.

I have purchased hundreds of movies of the last 10 years and currently have over a thousand in my library. I can honestly say Legions of the Dead is the only movie I yanked out of my VCR and slammed it directly into the garbage. Yes...it is that bad. Most horror movies have at least something that captures your attention. Not this one!!! The movie had no opening, so nobody understood what it was about, no story to follow, no scary parts, nothing. I tried to watch it for almost an hour and I couldn't understand what the hell was going on so I literally yanked it and tossed it ! There were 2 weirdo's walking around in gray suits killing everybody and there was another guy who kidnapped 2 other dudes and the guy kept barfing up yellow chunks every couple of minutes. I think this movie is even worse then Dead and Breakfast. If you see it for sale in a dollar store, don't be fooled into buying it. It's not even worth a penny ! 100 % JUNK

This sorry rip-off of From Dusk Till Dawn uses gore in place of wit, a sharp script, good acting, keen editing, decent ADR, or any kind of suspense whatsoever.The film concerns itself with several limp story lines involving road trips and murders that all culminates in a bar full of vampires (and Germans!!). Sound familiar?Where Dusk Till Dawn deftly blended horror, action and an underlying dark humour. Legion veers wildly between over the top gore and slapstick humour. The films main pairings (the vampire brothers and the two friends) adopt the same straight guy and stooge blueprint and rinse it to the point of irritation. By the 10th time the bespectacled brother got in an accident I wanted to throw my DVD out the window.Then there's the editing. It appears that to cut running time the director has merely hacked parts out of scenes with an axe. The first time the hitchhiker killer has a fit, one of the brothers remarks "He's freaking out again". Again?! When was the first time? The film is riddled with moments like this, giving the feeling that we are watching an abridged version.The only saving grace is the beautiful Kimberly Liebe who is also one of the better actors in the film (not that this is saying an awful lot)....and don't even get me started on the ending.