Los muertos no mueren

Jarmusch escribe los personajes a la medida de su icónico reparto, dejándoles hacer el tonto y reaccionar de forma humorísticamente mimética a lo que conocemos de las películas de zombis. Al son de misteriosos riffs de guitarra como los de Dead Man, a un ritmo algo más rápido, con Tom Waits como hombre del bosque, observando el fin del mundo desde la distancia, un papel puramente zombi para Iggy Pop, comiéndose los intestinos recién cortado y ensangrentados de su ama de llaves y tomándose el café de la cafetera de la señora, y sin olvidar el entusiasmo y la perspicacia de los jóvenes frikis del género. Simpática química entre el dúo de policías Murray/Driver, que representan dos generaciones de héroes de las dramedy de Jarmusch. Una agradable diversión con un gore sorprendentemente completo, nada rompedor, pero una visión alternativa de cosas conocidas. Para los fans acérrimos de Jarmusch, que resoplaban por la «comercialidad» de Noche en la Tierra, será otro pausa en la carrera de Jim. Y si Universal obtendrá beneficios en los multicines, no lo sé: es demasiado anticuada y poco dinámica para la juventud palomitera, a pesar del bendito número de cadáveres y de los buenos CGI, y los fans de Jarmusch a esto tampoco van. [Cannes] (15.05.2019)

The Dead Don’t Die is a slow, hipster zombie satire based on repetition of the same jokes and situations which constantly makes fun of the fact that it is a slow, hipster satire based on repetition of the same jokes and situations. It sometimes works very well, sometimes not so much. In the context of Jim Jarmusch’s earlier genre deconstructions, the film is inspiring (not only are genre conventions exaggerated, but are also commented upon by the actors, who step out of their roles and express their opinions on the screenplay) thanks to a cast that has superbly mastered deadpan humor and numerous references to (Romero’s) zombie horror movies and other old films (a headstone with the name Samuel Fuller inscribed on it) and it is fairly entertaining throughout its running time. The film is neither a summer hit nor the peak of Jarmusch’s filmography (it is sloppy especially visually and in the interconnection/variation of individual motifs), where The Dead is found in the paradoxical position of a film that is simultaneously his least and most serious work (the planet is in a state of decay and in order for it to regain its balance, humans will have to get out of the way), but I rather imagine it is not the absolute failure that the responses from Cannes warned against. 75% (27.06.2019)

Jarmusch on auto-pilot. It’s quite fun, with weird characters that walk, ride and stand in a town affected by a zombie apocalypse, while throwing funny one-liners. But when you see all that talent together, you want more. #KVIFF2019 (02.07.2019)

The talented Jim Jarmusch serves up a zombie comedy with a perfect cast, it feels like all the money was spent on the actors, but not much left for the film itself. It has rather ugly visuals, a very slow pace (slower than zombies), almost no gore, minimal tension and atmosphere, and the only thing that sort of works are the jokes, but even those don't wake you up from your micro-sleep. The director knew that a lot of people would be bored, so he snuck in at least a few movie references to keep the audience entertained. Didn’t like it. 40% (05.09.2019)

Very weak. Excellent potential, but a purely average result. While some of the individual moments are fine, like all the scenes with Tilda, the rest of the actors behave exactly as the audience likes. It's not enough. (04.07.2019)

“Cooofffeee..." A great comedy, but it’s certainly not for everyone. Jarmusch doesn't deny himself, and so the humor is drier than dry, but if you're on his wave, it's irresistible at the same time, and from start to the very end, the film offers one opportunity after another to burst out in laughter. Bill Murray and Adam Driver are absolutely amazing, and the apathy with which everyone involved approaches both the causes and consequences of the zombie apocalypse is irresistible, just like Iggy Pop as the best undead character that a film screen has ever hosted. (05.07.2019)

Es un divertidísimo sin fin de todo tipo de referencias de Jim Jarmusch a (no solo) la cultura pop y películas y cineastas de terror clásicos, guiños humorístico modernos (el servicio de reparto WUPS), o casi rompe la cuarta pared entre el espectador y la acción de la película. Sin embargo, si el espectador busca unos personajes interesantes y dignos de fans o una trama que tenga algún sentido, se sentirá decepcionado. Por no hablar de que Jarmusch recapitula la crítica a lo «George Romero» a la sociedad de consumo de forma demasiado literal, una y otra vez. Los muertos no mueren es, sin duda, una película entretenida, divertida de ver en el cine, pero esta vez no ha habido milagro, y yo tenía muchas esperanzas puestas en Jarmusch. (07.07.2019)

Una película de zombis experimental e intelectualmente irónica de un director que menosprecia las películas comerciales de zombis estándar, y eso es lo que parece. Derribar deliberadamente las reglas del género zombi y anular las convenciones y los estereotipos suena más bien a capricho que a innovación, y el resultado es una película puramente anti-entretenida y de apariencia aleatoria con un guion deliberadamente descuidado, lleno de repeticiones y personajes no utilizados que solo pueden ser una sátira social agotada y superficial con unas cuantas metabromas, cuyo ritmo es más lento que el andar arrastrado de los mortales jadeando, y apunta a espectadores que, en la mayoría de los casos, probablemente ni siquiera lo dejarán pasar por el tema elegido. (05.10.2020)

The Dead Don't Die is my second encounter with Jim Jarmusch after Coffee and Cigarettes, and I have to say that I didn't find the director to my liking in this case either. From the start, the atmosphere of a small, sleepy town in the middle of nowhere is built up quite decently, and to the sounds of the country hit “The Dead Don't Die”, we are introduced to the various inhabitants, with everything slowly but surely leading up to the terrifying invasion of the undead. I thought the film would be laced with floor-to-ceiling black humour, but I found most of the jokes and morbid innuendo dull – the scene that amused me the most was the first zombie attack and the Chardonnay-loving woman beyond the grave. Even the slight allusion to Adam Driver's involvement in Star Wars and the fact that he was driving a Smart Car didn't help matters much. Of all the characters, I was most taken with the mysterious Tilda Swinton, though the ending of her line was very bizarre. I'm sorry, but the (obviously present) charm of Jarmusch's latest effort missed me by a large margin. (09.07.2019)

That Jarmusch has taken the reins of zombie horror isn't really all that surprising. It's not the first time he's decided to paraphrase a pure genre film, see Dead Man, Only Lovers Left Alive, or Limits of Control. The problem is that the aforementioned films still managed to exist on their own, allowing their characters to coexist in the distinctive Dada universe where the stories in question took place. The Dead Don't Die is pure and simply a parody of the contemporary mainstream, its characters, practices, exuberant self-reflection, pop culture references, futile attempts at socio-cultural and ecological relevance, and repetition of centuries-old schemas. While the simple method of portraying all these aspects, albeit in a completely unspectacular manner and with actors who alternate dry declamations with unbearable overacting, achieves the desired results in places, it also fails to carry the whole film. The problem is that, unlike Jarmusch's previous films, DDD doesn't contain that distinctive universe where its story takes place and where its events would make some kind of sense. In this way, The Dead Don't Die is really just a pouting poke at the commercial cinematic present, but one that it helps co-create instead of mounting active resistance against it from the barricades of auteur independent film. For as the saying goes: if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. PS: anyway, clearly the best joke of the film is that the naked zombie character is played by the same actress who played the famous naked zombie in the original Night of the Living Dead from 1968. Too bad you can only pick up on that if you read the trivia. (04.10.2019)

The American-Swedish movie The Dead Don't Die proves all the good titles for zombie horror movies are probably exhausted. This movie is Jarmusch's attempt at a zombie horror, although he failed. It was an attempt where the most positive thing was that popular actors and singers wanted to be in it because Jim Jarmusch was involved and, unfortunately, that is all the movie has to offer. (18.09.2019)

I don't really seek out zombie movie – in fact I tend to avoid them – but in this case the director's name was enough to guarantee me that it would be something more than just a mere killing spree. Fortunately, I wasn't wrong and in the end I quite enjoyed this cruelly parodic statement about the bleak state of the contemporary world, where almost all people constantly succumb tor consumerist cravings like some kind of gluttonous zombies. I was amazed at how masterfully Jim Jarmusch managed to touch so many raw nerves at the end. (75%) (10.02.2023)