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Fido (2006)

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Overall Rating 68%
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Ranked #3,043
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Timmy Robinson's best friend in the whole wide world is a six-foot tall rotting zombie named Fido. But when Fido eats the next-door neighbor, Mom and Dad hit the roof, and Timmy has to go to the ends of the earth to keep Fido a part of the family. A boy-and-his-dog movie for grown-ups, this movie will rip your heart out. --IMDb
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Review by Chad
Added: October 28, 2007
After the resurrection of the zombie genre some years back, filmmakers decided to start getting creative with the undead by mixing together horror with different genres while still putting the zombies front and center. The first of these films was Shaun of the Dead, which mixed together horror and comedy, and from there, the floodgates were thrown wide open. Since the success of Shaun, we've had numerous films that combined zombies with comedy, romance, action, science fiction, and yes, even the teen comedy. However, the one genre that seemed to have been left out was the family comedy that was made famous by shows such as Leave it to Beaver, but with the release of Fido, that niche has now been filled... and damn, were the results ever impressive.

Set in the fifties, Fido introduces us to the Robinson family - loving mother Helen (Carrie-Anne Moss), caring father Bill (Dylan Baker), and of course, little Timmy (K'Sun Ray) - who live in a nice, quiet neighborhood where everything is seemingly perfect. However, this isn't the fifties that most of us have fond memories of; no, in this universe, a comet has recently passed by the planet and covered it with some sort of space dust which causes the dead to rise and feast on the flesh of the living. Thankfully, a company known as Zomcon rose to the occasion and came up with an electrified collar that will convert these bloodthirsty beasts into submissive beings which are so tame that they can even be employed as servants and maids. Now, everyone has their own zombie to take care of the tedious household chores, and owning a zombie is about as common as owning a cat or a dog.

Well, it's extremely common, unless you're a member of the Robinson family. You see, Bill was a young child back during the great zombie war, and he's still a bit touchy about owning one of these things after having had to defend himself against his own zombified father. While one could say that that's an understandable stance on the matter, it doesn't stop Helen from purchasing a zombie named Fido (Billy Connolly); after all, everyone else on the block owns one, and she certainly doesn't want her family to seem "weird" by not owning one as well.

Needless to say, Bill isn't very happy about this, but little Timmy immediately takes a liking to the zombie and the two become best of friends... well, about as friendly as one can get with a mindless zombie, anyway. However, this friendship may be short-lived after Fido's collar malfunctions and transforms him back into a flesh-hungry zombie for a brief period of time, and although the collar is eventually fixed, it's a little too late for one of the senior citizens of the town who feels the wrath of Fido. Timmy tries to cover up the act in a valiant attempt to keep his dear friend in his life, but you know what happens when a zombie kills and subsequently infects a human...

One thing I should make clear right up front is that this is about as much of a horror film as Lassie was. Sure, we never saw any zombies in Lassie and we certainly never got to see anyone get their arm ripped off, but Fido is not a zombie movie by any stretch of the word. In fact, it's not even a horror movie in the way that Shaun of the Dead was, as even though we do see a couple of zombie kills here, the vast majority of the running time focuses on the relationship between Timmy, his mother, and their undead friend. This could have failed miserably given the circumstances, but thankfully, that wasn't the case.

Granted, it's not an entirely dramatic tale dealing with families and friends as there is a huge comedic aspect to the film, but again, one shouldn't go into this expecting the laugh-out-loud style of humor found in Shaun of the Dead. The humor found here is much more subtle (including one particularly entertaining nod to the aforementioned Lassie), and instead of poking fun at the situations and characters at hand, the writers were content to merely allow us to laugh at the absurdity of the situation. Here we are back in the fifties in a world where zombies have taken over, only to be defeated and knocked down to doing manual labor - what could be more bizarre than that? That is the element that the filmmakers emphasize for the humor side of things, and let me tell you: it works.

I also enjoyed the look of the film. The storyline takes place during the fifties as previously mentioned, and everything looks exactly as one would expect it to given that hook. I'm not just referencing the clothing styles and the hairdos, either; no, these guys covered all of their bases and made sure that every last prop, accessory, automobile, and building looked like it came straight out of a fifties sitcom, and this results in a film that is a true period piece... only, with zombies.

Yes, the film does sound like a huge hit or miss prospect, and really, it could have went either way depending on who wrote the script and who was in front of the cameras. With that said, I have to say that Fido was a huge hit. The acting was top-notch (Carrie-Anne Moss was perfect in the leading role), the jokes are extremely funny, there's a good deal of political commentary that never overshadows the actual entertainment factor, and this is overall one hell of a touching zombie movie. Yes, I said it: a touching zombie movie. I'll probably never get to describe a film in that fashion ever again, but it was great while it lasted. 10/10.
bluemeanie #1: bluemeanie - added November 1, 2007 at 1:07am
Pretty neat little flick. I thought the premise was fantastic and they executed it rather well. it had the same tone as "My Boyfriend's Back" and kind of had a little "Bingo" in it too, but was better than both of those. Dylan Baker is hysterical. I think I loved this film. 9/10.
Alex P #2: Alex P - added November 1, 2007 at 9:11pm
i havent watched it yet but it seems to me like this might be the last 2 minutes of Shaun of the Dead made into a full length movie.

still looks fun though.
waxtadpole3657 #3: waxtadpole3657 - added January 17, 2008 at 10:50pm
I adored the hell out of this movie.
Crispy #4: Crispy - added July 18, 2009 at 10:20pm
I'll be the odd one out. Boring as hell.
Lucid Dreams #5: Lucid Dreams - added March 20, 2010 at 3:01am
I could see why Crissy poo would find this boring, but I enjoyed it. I also enjoyed the Lassie reference as well Chad. 9/10
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