Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is released on February 5, 2016 in theaters across America. The film stars Lily James, Douglas Booth, Matt Smith, Sam Riley, and Bella Heathcote.
The Jane Austen novel of young love and pride takes place in 19th century England. This film, directed by Burr Steers, honors Austen’s original story, only Buur adds one more complication to the love story-an army of hungry zombies.
Highland Park High School was contacted by a producer from the film offering the Plaid Line staff two tickets to see the premiere of the film at MOA as well as the opportunity to participate in a nation wide conference call with the cast. Excited, I, and another writer, John Edwards, accepted the invitation and saw the premiere.
The movie was exactly what you think it might be, a strong and independent woman who falls victim to prejudice daily but somehow falls in love with the same man that oppresses her, all the while fighting the never ending war against zombies.
The day after the premiere we were told that we could participate in a press conference where we could ask the cast questions about the movie. The press conference was scheduled to take place at 2:30 and last till three. My fellow writer and I racked out a few questions we were eager to ask and report back to our fellow readers. Patiently we sat next to the phone listening to the smooth jazz that reminded us we were on hold; for half an hour. It wasn’t till after four “thank you for waiting”’s and a few minutes after three did the press conference begin.
We were instructed to press a pattern of buttons and wait for an operator to ask our questions. If we did that, we couldn’t listen to the cast answering questions from a few writers who were fortunate enough to be able to ask a question. A few questions later, we thought we finally had our turn; the operator had our name and we had our question ready. That was when the host of the conference said “Thank you for participating in the Pride and Prejudice and Zombies press conference…” and that was it. Fifteen minutes of listening to redundant questions, struggling to figure out the procedure to ask our own, all the while the holding-jazz-music was laying in the back of our heads.
So overall, we would give the movie itself, 3.5 stars out of 5 due to its cheesiness, and lack of originality.
As for the conference call, we would rate that experience 0 out of 5 stars. Overall, not worth the time invested.
Plaid Line + PRIZM + Scottie News 