Fido

A festival circuit favorite for the last year that's finally being released into theaters, Fido could have been a contender, but it's descent into total Zomcom silliness keeps it from being anything other than a mild diversion. The concept is great. A take-off on all those Lassie-type films where a young boy's best friend is his mutt, this version has Timmy (K'Sun Ray) adopting a six-foot-tall loveable flesh-eating zombie named Fido (Billy Connolly). His uptight '50s-style community uses domesticated zombies to do household chores and gardening in an environment designed to keep real people-munchers outside of the protected 'hood. Timmy and his, uh, zog go everywhere and do everything together, until one day Fido decides to eat one of the nice neighbors. Of course this hostile act turns her zombie-like and doesn't go down well with the unbitten, who are whipped up into a frenzy. Poor Timmy is determined to keep his best friend, even though Fido is clearly in need of some severe leash laws. Some of this is definitely amusing for a while, and even edgy, but it's all been done better in near-classics like Shaun of the Dead, and after a while, it gets a bit tiresome to watch. Nevertheless, the fine character acting is dead-on and the movie has its moments. Just not enough of them.