Somewhere in SE Asia a contagious virus escapes from a research facility into a populated city. There is a military blockade. No one is allowed in or out, infected or not. So a Mitt Romney look-a-like hires major Max Gatlin (Dolph Lungren) to breech the blockade and brave the zombies to get his daughter.

One second later, we see Max and his crew in the afflicted city dressed in outfits that would make any sport biker enthusiast proud. The zombies are ravenous, fast, and ferocious. Like maybe you would be if you arrived at your favorite fast food take-out restaurant 5 minutes before closing time. According to a guy in the movie who worked in a lab before the outbreak, they are not really zombies ("The infection invades the cerebrum and kills the higher cortical functions"). I'm guessing this is the more evolved area of the brain responsible for smartness and civility (higher thought, cognitive awareness). --Ergo, those crazy flesh eating people running around in ratty clothing are just dumb and uncivil. NOT the undead at all. Maybe he's right since in this movie you can kill these faux zombies by stabbing, slashing, and shooting them anywhere.

Eventually Max finds the girl of his mission "Jude" (played by cutie Melanie Zanetti) but finds out she's not alone. She is a member of a group of survivors (3 women and 3 men). Their leader, an older gentleman with grey mustache and goatee, acts like a father figure or cult leader using the old stratagem of JUST WANTING TO PROTECT THEM to facilitate his control over them. He doesn't want to leave the place he's hold up in. Says there is no way to get out safely. I can't blame him. Reader, the guy is hold up in a MANSION; smokes pilfered expensive cigars, and is clearly boffing the simple-minded blonde chick in the group. Why would he want to leave? With the zombies running around outside he's "king" on the inside. The fact that Max came for Jude -and only her- is problematical since the group members would like to leave as well -save their leader who doesn't want any of them to.

The action in this movie was a combination of machine guns, knives, and martial arts which I did not find particularly riveting. Dolph looks a little wobbly in the legs when he runs (or tries to run) --or even walk fast. Reminds me of someone's grandpa. Some zombie killing robots were thrown into the mix later on in the movie. I was at times frustrated (and bored) by the hand-to-hand fight scenes of man vs zombie and robot vs zombie because the cameras were in too tight so you mostly saw "body parts". An arm here, a leg there, a hip here, etc. This is an annoying trend in many action movies. Someone or something gets served but you really don't get to see HOW because of the close-ups and quick cut-aways. All you get is the "illusion" effective fighting techniques.

As I said earlier, patient Reader (I have to call you that if you're still with me),the zombies or "zombie-wannabes", if you prefer, are of the fast variety. They run so fast it makes you wanna hand out track suits. Steep stairs are a breeze for them to scramble up. And they can run and tackle you like a pro footballer. Curious though that when they were confronted with a gate that was only about a foot taller than them the gung-ho athleticism they earlier demonstrated was (conveniently?) forgotten. They reverted to the old-style zombies and just stood there hungry, angry, and perplexed grasping thru the bars. Braaains? No. Love, Boloxxxi.

Another US-financed film made in Singapore by director Christopher Hatton. Surprisingly enough, this one turns out to be a sequel to his ROBOTROPOLIS, which was a sci-fi movie about a force of robot policemen who turned rogue and started killing off the civilian population. Hatton ups the ante in this one by including Dolph Lundgren and zombies, so it sounds pretty much like a B-movie lover's dream.

And, truth be told, it isn't so bad for what is quite obviously a cheap B-flick. There's plentiful action on offer here from beginning to end, and the return of the robots, which I enjoyed in ROBOTROPOLIS, was something of a small delight for me. The generic zombie attack stuff is less successful, but then again the viewer is treated to the unique spectacle of seeing Lundgren kicking zombie backside, which is entertaining in itself.

BATTLE OF THE DAMNED is, in the end, a film which overcomes the usual obstacles of bad acting and sub-par dialogue to become a mildly entertaining film. Yes, the CGI explosion effects and the like are pretty poor, and the narrative is always predictable. But director Hatton is like a kid in a sweet shop, always having fun, and some of that fun rubs off on the viewer.

After a zombie outbreak in Asia, the mercenary Major Max Gatling (Dolph Lundgren) is hired by a wealthy industrialist that was the responsible for the pandemic to rescue his daughter Jude (Melanie Zanetti) with his team from a city. Max loses his group that is killed by the zombies and stays alone to accomplish his assignment. He finds Jude and learns that there are other survivors; Duke (David Field),Reese (Matt Doran),Elvis (Jen Sung),Lynn (Lydia Look) and Anna (Oda Maria). She refuses to flee alone without the others and Duke and Elvis handcuff Max on a power pole to die. However, when Reese discovers that Jude is pregnant and the city will be firebombed, he rescues Max to save Jude. Then they find a group of robots killing zombies and Max reprograms them to help the survivors to escape. Will the group succeed to escape?

"Battle of the Damned" is a laughable movie with Dolph Lundgren in the lead role. The idea of zombies and robots is original but the execution is very poor: terrible screenplay and dialogs are terrible; and the camera work in the mayhem of zombies is awful. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "Zumbis e Robôs" ("Zombies and Robots")