Fido

"Fido" is a black comedy that subscribes to the adage that any genre can be improved with the addition of zombies, with a capital Z. Set in a time-warped ‘50s American Dream era, the movie happily rolls out retro trappings that promise some salient social commentary, perhaps about illegal immigrants, that never comes to fruition. Empty-headed Americans live inside walled-in "ZomCon"-protected communities that keep out zombie cannibals roaming the earth. The irony is that families also keep domesticated zombies, with the aid of special collars, as servants, pets and even lovers as is the case with Mr. Theopolis (Tim Blake Nelson) who keeps a frisky young female zombie. "Timmy and Lassie"-styled protagonist Timmy Robinson (K'Sun Ray) adopts the zombie (Billy Connolly) that his mother Helen (Carrie-Anne Moss) procures, and names him Fido, against the wishes of his conservative dad Bill (Dylan Baker). However, Fido is not the good-boy that Timmy imagines, and it takes some secret assistance from mom to keep things status quo.

Rated R. 91 mins. (C+) (Two Stars)