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Men Against Fire is the fifth, and penultimate, entry in Black Mirror Series 3, and after the disappointment of San Junipero, I was hoping for a return to form. But I didn’t get it.
Stripe (Malachi Kirby, right) is part of a futuristic army, travelling along a post-apocalyptic landscape to fight zombie-type creatures called Roaches. Part of their future tech, for example, comes when they come across refugee camps and need more information, and have a tri-corder-style device on their uniforms which automatically translates other languages.
Amongst times when he dreams about a mysterious girl, he also has an encounter with one of these creatures which ends up really screwing with his ability to concentrate on the missions at hand.
With a scene that partly turned into something akin to a level from a Call of Duty Zombies game, it felt like a poor-man’s 28 Days Later and elements of one other, but I cannot state that here, but either way, I watched this waiting for a pay-off which never came.
Black Mirror: Men Against Fire is available on Netflix from tomorrow. Also, click on the top image for the full-size version. The series isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but you can buy a DVD boxset of Series 1 & 2 and the 2014 Special.
Score: 2/10
Widescreen ratio: 1.85:1
Director: Jakob Verbruggen
Producer: Lucy Dyke
Writer: Charlie Brooker
Cast:
Stripe: Malachi Kirby
Raiman: Madeline Brewer
Medina: Sarah Snook
Lennard: Kola Bokinni
Balcon: Lae Gutierrez
Alek: Toby Oliver
Anderson: Brent Phebey
Dream Woman: Loreece Harrison
Goose: Phil Hodges
Haque: Paul Low-Hang
Chief Villager: Kavé Niku
Villager: Thomas Thoroe
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.