Cinema Reviews

Maggie Review

20th Jul 2015

Arnold vs Zombies. Well it is one foe that he hasn’t tackled in his career. But hold your horses right there. Don’t even expect for a moment that Arnold is going to go toe to toe with the undead 9Well maybe in a couple of brief moments). But this is not an apocalypse action movie. This is a very low budget, very small cast, very toned down, extremely morose movie about a girl who is infected with a disease that will eventually kill her and leave her as one of the walking dead.

The titular girl (Abigail Breslin) literally steals the show here whilst Arnold is left lurking in the background to mope as her father who brings her home at the start of the film in order to take care of her for the remainder of her days.

It’s a brave choice for Schwarzenegger for sure and a much needed change of pace to help him stretch a few acting muscles he hasn’t used in a while. He does have a tendency to lift his eyebrows as he speaks which is an annoying tic, but he gets points for trying. For the large part he is successful. You can see how limited he is in this capacity – but playing everything on the down-low aids his quests and also keeps the film true to itself.

It’s Breslin’s movie after all, and she has no problem filling the screen up with her own presence.

Fans of The Walking Dead (slow episodes of The Walking Dead! – So Season 2 fans) will eat this one up. The run time is around the 90 minute mark – but a slow paced film can make it seem longer. Maggie will never be a ground breaking new angle on the zombie genre – but it is at least accomplished in what it sets out to do, has an admirable tone and look to it which should be good enough for some genre fans. Gore hounds on the other hand might want to take a pass.