Zombies, our times jack-of-all-trades movie monsters return once more to plague a bunch of gangsters who happen to pull off a heist in the wrong night. <br /><br />That's more or less the complete storyline. Not that I protest too loudly, because most b-grade zombie flicks don't offer much more in the line of storytelling. Alas, Dead Heist, while at least struggling to patch some back-story onto the main characters in the first half, totally abandons anything but pointless dialog in the second and forgets more or less what the heck is the point of a storyline anyway. <br /><br />The cast of course is not exactly 1st class material: Big Daddy Kane is okay, Brandon Hardin manages to pull off quite an okay performance while D. J. Naylor seems way too nice to be the battle-hardened veteran and Traci Dinwiddie  dunno, she mouths the gun-blasts in the final battle, as if to dub them ... meh. And the zombie extras  we'll get back to them. Director Bo Webb at least manages to do some nice shots and the movie's picture quality is better than others in this class of film-making.<br /><br />The first thing that is somewhat dolorous in Dead Heist is that the zombies are nicely introduced while rolling the front credits, but then forgotten for about an hour  and when they are brought back you'd wish the wait would have been worth it. You are wrong. Overall, the zombies were in fact the biggest problem in this flick. That is because Anghus Houvouras (the writer) seems to fancy himself imaginative when he makes them a hybrid from the "fast dead" (as seen in 28 Days Later) and vampires (they drink blood). So far, so yawn  but what's with the "you have to shoot them in the heart to kill them"? Headshots are overdone or what? Surely, zombies usually need a good 12-gauge to the head to keel over  but while it has been of course done a hundred times it is a far more "believable" than killing them with a shot through the heart. But maybe the guys were out for virgin soil or whatever. Then again, the back-story of the "governmental experiments gone awry" sounds somewhat familiar ... but who cares? Nobody but Kane's character as it seems  which is total bull if you follow the background story of them vile undead (or whatever they are): they move south for some time, killing their way through the US of A. Yeah. And nobody knows. Good zombie cinema usually is themed the Zombie Apocalypse way (i.e. the world is overrun by them)  but here all is quiet and the hordes of undead are traveling unmolested far and wide. Makes no sense. That they burrow into the ground for the day (as far as the explanation from the zombie-hunter goes) doesn't help. All this of course wouldn't have troubled the seasoned b-grade movie-fan if not for the total swizz the zombies turn out to be when they finally make their appearance. Not only did they get astonishing numbers of bad extras for the zombies (many stumble around like straw-puppets not sure what to do), they are also totally not frightening and not able to kill four people who are armed with knifes when coming at them at a 25:1 ratio.<br /><br />The final battle is one of the great anti-climaxes of the year. Not only do the movie-makers want us to believe that  as it seems  the whole small town in which the heist takes place is turned into undead morons (which of course nobody seems to pay mind  the place is all but deserted apart for the zombies), but also that the "great plan to eradicate them all" of Mr. Kane's character is, well, to shoot them all with handguns and stab them with knifes. In one of the most silly fights in zombie-flick history they of course succeed (with small back-story interplay and demise of the zombie hunter) and then walk away in the morning sun. Not that anyone in the outside world would have had noticed the nocturnal undead massacre or maybe the missing neighbors. <br /><br />If that final folly would not have been that paining  and the zombies would have been more than totally harmless duds  the movie would have been much better. The undead were never that toothless as here. And that's sad.<br /><br />All in all an underwhelming gangster flick, but a total washout when it comes to being zombie horror. Zombie-maniacs might sit through this one, but they will be disappointed. People who like gangster-movies will more likely stick to it, as the part without the zombies is the better one. This one doesn't hurt, but rather leaves you with a stale taste.<br /><br />(And what's it again with the "Dead" in the title? Any damn zombie flick now more features it, or the equivalent "... of the Dead". Show some imagination, lads.)