User reviews

In 2015, the world is a chaos. The last known oil fields have been lost to global war, over-population has reached critical levels, food and water is scarce. Anarchy prevails. Mankind is in the verge of a new Dark Age.

During the upheaval, one Corporation has emerged to become more powerful than any government. Its base of operations is a fortified city known as the Red Zone. As the outside world burns, the Corporation implements a depopulation program to cull the human race.

The scientists tasked with the heinous act revolt. The drug they are instructed to develop should pacify and then slowly kill; but instead, the scientists turn mankind into something beyond their worst fears. Out of the darkness a new species has arisen. They are dominant and savage and their number far exceeds what remains of mankind. For the few survivors lost to the wilderness, they are known only as Biosyns.

The lonely Max Carter (Ray Bullock Jr.) survives wandering through the devastated world waiting for Hareem Jabbar (Bahi Ghubril), a man supposed to rescue him. He stumbles in the wilderness with the deserter Jamal (Shiv Grewal) that was tracking him and Jamal believes that he is the antidote for the plague. Then they meet with the scientist Rachael (Emma Choy) and her mate Zac (Steve Weston) and after many problems they walk together to the South escaping from the Corporation and the Biosyns in a dangerous journey.

"The Vanguard" is a low-budget film with a reasonable storyline but poorly executed. The acting is good, but the film seems to be a weak pilot of a TV series, excessively talkative and going nowhere. With a better screenplay, direction, locations and budget, "The Vanguard" could be a reasonable movie. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "Vanguarda" ("Vanguard")

Plot: The Earth is overrun by zombie-like people that reacted badly to medicine administered (or something like that, I can't remember and didn't understand at the time either), one guy runs around Versus style chopping heads and mashing zombies, and apparently his blood holds the key to saving humanity, so he and a few other over-actors try to reach safety to fix the world.

Budget: About $8.50.

What was so horribly wrong then Smart-Guy? To start with the zombies ran just like either gorillas from the Planet of the Apes remake, or the crawlers from The Descent, take your pick. They have little or no makeup aside from messy hair and they snarl a bit to appear scary.

They do the whole "run past the Hero so that he can hit you with the hatchet in a theatrical manner". If he didn't hit them they would simply run straight past with no effect. What kind of attack is that? The acting is abysmal, point blank. I am no master of acting talent, but these guys just suck. The plot is a rip of several other better films, only this movie looks like a student film.

Final Rating – 3.5 / 10. Redefines low budget crap.

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Before I add my comments, please read below and see how the first person to review this film felt about it.

Author: malvolio-5 I saw a preview of this and it is without a doubt one of the most spectacularly invigorating and exciting movies I've had the pleasure of seeing in years! It has cult classic written all over it! It's an unashamedly violent, rough, gory, terrifying thrill-ride. With bold, exciting direction and some of the scariest most menacingly dynamic "zombies" ever committed to celluloid, this makes 28 Days Later and I Am Legend look like The Teletubbies. The lead protagonist, Max, sets a new template for proper, masculine heroes that have been sorely lacking from Hollywood movies since the '70s, and I guarantee his "look" is set to become truly iconic. Do yourself a favour and seek this movie out! It simply kicks ass!.

OK, Now my comments.

I have no vested interest in this film, and my comments I think will be endorsed by far more people than will say "they are rubbish" The storyline has been used a hundred times before, and often far better. The cinematography, which completely over-uses filters, is dreadful, The Cameraman either has Parkinsons disease, or was drunk. The main actor, if he is to become Iconic!, will have to find another way, because this isn't it. (People with Parkinsons disease, that was not meant to make fun of your condition.) I don't often comment on movies, but I do try to take the things written about the movie seriously, hoping to make an informed judgement whether to watch or not, but after reading the comments above, well, I just had to write.

I love Science fiction, it is without a doubt my favourite genre, and will often find some good in bad films, but this is dire.

When I read the above review, I wanted to believe it, but come on, either the guy is heavily involved with the film, or he his just having a laugh.

People will still watch it no matter what is said, and thats great we all have a choice, in fact I encourage you to watch it, simply to show that my comments are honest and truthful, unlike some.

I myself am English, this is a British film, and I wanted to so much show the world yet again that we can produce good quality work on a limited budget, and we can, but not with this.

Trust me the film is bad, way too bad to be released, but it will, and you will watch, and? well hopefully you will comment, and your comments will be heard, preventing anything as awful as this ever being shown again, but then again I'm an optimist, well for 90 minutes I wasn't, but am recovering now.

I've seen The Vanguard at the BIFFF in Brussels. A got drawn by the Poster 'refreshing, will leave you craving for more' Yeah Right. This film is extremely low budget (there's nothing wrong with low budget films if they're well made, but this one obviously is not) and has the look and feel of a student's project. The idea is OK, but the horror in this is totally absent. THere's no gore either. The one scene where blood splatters out of a guy's chest, it's so fake it's not even funny. The plot is full of holes and doesn't work up to a climax. There's only a flat line. The zombies are unconvincing and confused: do they attack you always, or just when they feel like it? The playground is a field and a couple of hundred square meters of wood. The characters only run around in the wood and go nowhere (just like the plot). This film is a total waste of your precious and expensive time. If you want to see zombies, go see Romero's latest: Diary of the Dead, at least that one is well executed.

OK, I was looking through the DVD's in my local supermarket and 'The Vanguard' caught my eye. So I pick it up, turn it over and read the sleeve. Think to myself: hey, this sounds like it might be a good film.... oh my god!!! I could not be more wrong. In my opinion this film is the biggest pile of steaming boring dull dull dull crap I have ever seen, and I've seen some real crap films. It appears to be a very low budget film, and even though there's nothing wrong with that, it just adds to the cheap mind numbing feel of this movie. If I could, I wouldn't of even rated this movie with the score of 1 - it really is that awful. By all means, make your own mind up, but I seriously advise all to avoid this dross at all costs....you have been warned x

What more is there to say..? This film sucks! Everything is bad; the acting, directing, the filming and the effects. The DVD-cover was attracting, but the film was rubbish!

A friend of mine bought the film for 4 dollars, and we thought that this would be THAT good film because of the cover, as I mentioned earlier. It started as a pretty bad film, and transformed into something more worse as the time went. So, after watching it, I will not hesitate to put it on the list of the worst films I have seen in my life. And for those who say that it could have been worse: It could not have been worse!

I first saw this in 2008 on a dvd which I own. I dont want to throw away the dvd. Mayb after 50 years, this film will be in the journals regarding atrocious films n the print might get lost. Jokes apart, this aint no movie man, jus a zero budget time waster. Read some very positive reviews on the dvd cover. Even the poster looked cool of the guy with an axe. Hav learnt a lesson. Never believe the reviews on the dvd cover. The biggest mistake i did was that i jus bought the dvd without checking the prolific reviews on IMDb. There was no zombie action, jus a guy running..... that too in a fake forest. Was it a field or park? The helicopter man. What can i say! It was a toy helicopter made to fly n then shot as a video.

I'm all for people trying something different with the zombie/infected movie, UNLESS it's at the expense of all that is enjoyable about the genre. The Vanguard attempts a vaguely art-house approach, with a contemplative mood, introspective narrative, a degree of quirkiness, and an attempt at social commentary about racism, but offers none of the stuff that usually makes these kind of films fun: gore, excitement, scares, and more gore.

The Vanguard does have a couple of good basic ideas: they're the same ones used for I Am Legend and 28 Days Later, only here they are completely wasted by film-makers with no idea how to turn them into an entertaining movie. The acting is mediocre, the action is dull, the splatter is restricted to some arterial spray (some of it crap CGI), the characters are irritating, and the 'zombies' are very disappointing, loping along like apes, growling like lions, and sporting naff zebra stripes drawn on with face-paint (I realise they're supposed to be like animals, but this is too silly for words).

Somehow, this film garnered some decent comments from Fangoria and Gorezone (who are proudly quoted on the DVD cover), and was selected for the Dead by Dawn horror festival; I'm not quite sure how that happened, but take it from me (and the majority here on IMDb who have voiced their opinion)—The Vanguard sucks, even rivalling The Zombie Diaries for the title of worst British zombie film.

Eventually, the zombie apocalypse will come. If you've seen enough horror movies, you've seen a few variations of this theme. "The Vanguard" is another where zombies have taken over through an infection and only a lucky few have the antibodies to survive. It's sort of "28 Days Later" meets "Last Man on Earth"... but in the woods.

I watched this one with my friend Seth, who didn't really like it all that much. I liked it more. I'm not saying it's a great film, but it's not worthless either... much better than some of the crud Anchor Bay has been pumping out ("Five Across the Eyes", "Bryan Loves You"). For what appears to be a low budget, the director (Matthew Hope, also the writer) made a great use of the actors and the special effects were done in a way that wasn't insulting to the audience. I prefer classic techniques, but the computer effects here were tolerable.

Some of it may be cheesy. The beginning features a bicycle ride that gives the impression that the film may be silly. Don't let that fool you. Also, the protagonist (Ray Bullock Jr.) may go a bit overboard with the hatchets. But you have to make sure the zombies are really dead. Beyond that, I thought the film was visually stunning, especially the lead actor's appearance -- the beard kept me glued to the screen, and the rain poncho fit well.

Now, is this the best zombie film? No. Best post-apocalyptic film? Probably not. But it's a worthy addition to the various subgenres. I think the director and lead actor need to be commended for this one and I hope they both continue in the world of horror or movies in general. I see great potential in them both.

from the start of the film you think it may have something to it, but when you find out that the history of the world going bad is from oil running out.... Really. that is what causes "the company" to turn on "us" super weak. Film tricks that have been over used that the next director who tries to use them should never work in film again. The shaky camera, slow motion shots that do not add anything to the effect of what is going on. The nature of the "zombie" people and even the hero don't make any sense at all. I wouldn't give this film a moment more of my time after the first 30 mins. In fact I have never written a review on this site before, but the pure crap that people seem to be putting out needs to stop. I love horror movies, and am a fan of cult films and movies that seem to have some thought behind them. This movie isn't any of the following. The fact that this site placed a glowing review about this movie is also disturbing. How anyone could think that this movie has any merit just shows how the movie was made in the first place. The world is full of stupid people, and I guess this movie was made for them. This movie can't even be considered B rate. I have seen indp films that have more to offer on access cable. What did the producers do with the money they had for the film? snort it up thr nose?

Because of this guy below I wasted a good 15 minutes:

Author: malvolio-5 I saw a preview of this and it is without a doubt one of the most spectacularly invigorating and exciting movies I've had the pleasure of seeing in years! It has cult classic written all over it! It's an unashamedly violent, rough, gory, terrifying thrill-ride. With bold, exciting direction and some of the scariest most menacingly dynamic "zombies" ever committed to celluloid, this makes 28 Days Later and I Am Legend look like The Teletubbies. The lead protagonist, Max, sets a new template for proper, masculine heroes that have been sorely lacking from Hollywood movies since the '70s, and I guarantee his "look" is set to become truly iconic. Do yourself a favor and seek this movie out! It simply kicks ass!.

One word can be enough to describe this movie AWFUL, I wasted 15 minutes watching this, thanks to malvolio-5 who rated it as a "Cult Classic" and other stuff that I made myself forget. After I woke up and took the DVD out of the player I tossed it in the trash, don't waste your time or money on this movie.

In the course of a year I watch app. 600-700 movies - and compared to most movies "The Vanguard" sucks big time. I really struggled to find a reason for why this movie was even made. I really wish all movie directors would spend more time thinking about what they want to say with their movies - instead of just collecting 90 minutes of worthless film and call it a movie.

There's no plot - and the settings/scenery are unconvincing and the actors should really consider a career change, maybe somewhere in the fastfood or cleaning business - as they have no talent for anything, as this foul crap of a movie clearly shows.