'Final Cut' review: Why does this meta zombie remake exist?

The absolute worst sin a remake can commit is changing nothing from the original. You hope that a new director can put their own spin on the source material, whether that's surfacing different themes or better showcasing previously underwritten characters. If you make the same thing twice in a row, why even make it at all?

That's the question I found myself asking throughout Michel Hazanavicius's Final Cut, a French remake of Japanese director Shin’ichirô Ueda’s cult classic, One Cut of the Dead. Both are zombie movies with a meta filmmaking twist, and Hazanavicius steers so close to the script of the original that there's not much point in watching Final Cut if you've already seen One Cut of the Dead.

This isn't to say that Final Cut isn't a fun movie: It is! Between its B-movie aesthetic and how it pays off long-running gags, there are a lot of laughs to be had. But does that fun stem from Final Cut itself, or from the fact that it's an almost shot-for-shot, joke-for-joke take of One Cut of the Dead? Your mileage on this film will vary depending on how you choose to answer that question.

What's Final Cut about?

To fully discuss the structure of Final Cut is to spoil some of the film's best surprises. However, it may also help you get through film's first half hour, which may be fun for some and downright questionable for others. (A couple walked out of the screening I was in early on, therefore depriving themselves of Final Cut's best reveals.)

Final Cut opens on a zombie (Finnegan Oldfield) chowing down on a young woman's (Matilda Lutz) neck. Just as suddenly as we're launched into this classic zombie movie scene, we're jerked out by the voice of a director (Romain Duris) calling, "Cut!" Turns out, we're watching a movie about the making of a low-budget zombie movie — and by the looks of it, director Higurashi is not at all impressed by his cast's performances.

In a massive one-take shot, Higurashi's actors and crew — including makeup artist Natsumi (Bérénice Bejo) — do their best to decompress from a stressful shooting environment. That becomes exceptionally difficult when a real zombie attacks and turns several crew members into brain-craving beasts. Yet despite the peril the crew finds themselves in, Higurashi insists they continue filming in order to capture real emotion. Christopher Nolan may have set off a real bomb for Oppenheimer, but even he'd be concerned by Higurashi unleashing the undead.

As the zombie attack plays out (still in the same take, mind you), you'll notice that things begin to feel...off. The camera lingers for too long in some places, creating some majorly awkward pauses. The characters get stuck in awkward loops of dialogue. The zombies, with their patchy makeup and pale eye contacts, look like they came straight out of the film Higurashi and team are shooting. Even though Higurashi called "cut" long ago, it still feels like we're still in a zombie B-movie.

And that's because (spoiler alert), we are! As the zombie attack reaches its bloody conclusion, Final Cut flashes back a few months, and every strange incongruity begins to make sense. We meet two-bit director Rémi (Duris), who's been asked to make a zombie film to help launch a new zombie-centric channel. The twist? It's going to be broadcast live — and it has to be done in one take.

It's a fool's errand, made all the more foolish by the team Rémi assembles, which includes actors like the overly serious Raphaël (Oldfield) and the frequently drunk Philippe (Grégory Gadebois). Rehearsals are disastrous, but nothing compares to the live broadcast. Here, we relive the film's first 30 minutes from behind the camera, and we see exactly how everything went wrong. After an hour of set-up, this last act is the highlight of Final Cut.

Final Cut is fun, but it's no One Cut of the Dead.

Despite its zany premise, Final Cut is a bit of a waiting game. If you don't like to watch purposefully bad movies, the first one-take shot might be a bit of a slog. The film definitely slows down in the second act, hammering home every little detail that will come up in the actual shoot. It robs us of the element of surprise, but there is a bit of joy in putting together the pieces of what we saw in the first 30 minutes. (If you've seen One Cut of the Dead, though, you'll know exactly what's coming.) Still, it's a long time to wait for comedic pay-off, and the middle section lacks the frenetic energy of the same part of One Cut of the Dead.

Final Cut's few attempts to separate itself from One Cut of the Dead have mixed results. We learn that the reason all the zombie movie's French characters have Japanese names is because Rémi is remaking Japan's one-take live zombie movie. (Yes, an already-meta movie gets even more meta.) This leads to clashes with the original Japanese writers, as well as with Mme. Matsuda (Yoshiko Takehara, reprising her role from One Cut of the Dead), one of the backers of the project. It's a thin enough comedic premise that wears out its welcome pretty quickly. Instead of having your characters clash with the original film's creators about taking risks with the material, why not just take bigger risks with the material? Perhaps the tension speaks to behind-the-scenes conflict of Final Cut itself, but again, if making a remake without the original's influence was so impossible, why make it at all?

Final Cut still has its joys — Jean-Pascal Zadi is particularly funny as a musician trying to score the live broadcast. His confused interjections are among the film's best punchlines. And if you like works that delve behind the scenes of troubled productions like Noises Off or The Play That Goes Wrong, you're sure to love the film's chaotic final act, including its sweet portrayal of the crew banding together in the face of disaster.

Still, Final Cut's love letter to ragtag filmmaking feels far more sincere in One Cut of the Dead, which had a budget of $25,000, than it does in a $4 million remake from an Academy Award-winning director. You'll definitely laugh along with Final Cut's best moments, but as its credits roll, you won't feel the same sense of achievement as you do when One Cut of the Dead's crew pulls off the impossible. For that, you may as well just watch the original.

Final Cut was reviewed out of its New York premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival. It hits theaters July 14.