OVERLORD (R18+)

Put Saving Private Ryan in a blender with Inglorious Basterds. Now add some Nazi zombies. Voila! You have just made yourself a movie as gory, funny, gruelling and flat-out crazy as Overlord. This very well-made hybrid of war movie and horror kill-fest is certainly not here to accommodate all tastes - that R18+ rating says it all - but is here to excite, appall and entertain those who dig such unrefined fare. The setting is German-occupied France, just hours ahead of the D-Day landing. A select squad of US soldiers is tasked with taking out a radio transmitter that could prove the difference between success and failure for the Allied forces. Little do they know that the church in which the equipment is housed is also home base for a phantom enemy army of undead mutants. It is all patently ridiculous, but all the better for being taken rather seriously by expat Australian director Julius Avery ( Son of a Gun) and influential producer J.J. Abrams. A movie that keeps going too far, yet keeps staying the distance.