Navy SEALs vs. Zombies, Co-Starring Michael Dudikoff

Films with a "vs" right there in the title are often a little too eager to announce themselves as would-be epic slugfests, like Eks vs. Sever or Al Adamson’s Dracula vs. Frankenstein. Frankly, Godzilla vs. Kong just continued the trend. Little was expected from this grubby B-movie, but at least it cast 1980s Cannon action star Michael Dudikoff in a supporting role. In this case, the fighting force that never quits takes on undead hordes in Stanton Barrett’s Navy SEALs vs. Zombies, which airs Monday on Comet TV.

Right off the bat, it is hard to have confidence in a film that mistakes the capitalization of “SEALs” in the opening titles, but apparently there was no budget for proofreading. The story is sort of the lite beer version of Escape from New York. The Vice President is trapped amid a zombie outbreak in Baton Rouge and a team of SEALs has been scrambled to extract him.

Unfortunately, the SEAL team has no intel to warn them about the situation on the ground. Eventually, they start listening to CIA Agent Stacy Thomas, who has good reason to believe the zombie pandemic is actually the result of a foreign power’s virus warfare program (that sure seems a logt more credible now than when the film was produced). In fact, she has a secret lab in the city that might hold applicable research. That suddenly changes the mission objective (so much for the blowhard Veep).

Seriously, Rick Fox does not inspire much confidence either as the Vice President. Conversely, Dudikoff (Joe Armstrong, the “American Ninja”) has instant credibility as Commander Sheer—but it is rather a shame he does not have any action duties this time around. (We will readily admit he is the only reason we considered this film in the first place.) Yet, aside from the ex-Ninja and ex-basketball player, only ex-pro-wrestler and former USMC Lance Corporal Chad “Gunner” Lall stands out to any extent as Petty Officer 1^st Class McKnight.

Be that as it may, veteran stunt performer and part-time NASCAR driver Barrett does a competent job helming the SEAL vs zombie throwdown. He gives us plenty of shooting and fast zombies. Despite the conspicuously limited budget, you basically get what you are promised with this film. It is Navy SEALs versus zombies and that is pretty much it. Functional as a hangover movie, Navy SEALs vs. Zombies airs Monday afternoon (5/17), on Comet TV.