Nerds That Geek Movie Review: ‘Ground Zero’

Written by Scott Edwards

If you are good at what you do, why not get paid for it. If you are a great cook, then you sell your services to the restaurant of your choice. If you are a great sales person, you find the shop that has the highest commission. If you have a gift with numbers, you become a high-priced accountant. There is a job for almost every skill set, sometimes the problem is just finding it.

Jairus and Greer are extremely good at their jobs and charge top dollar for it. Being ‘Cleaners’, the two have worked together for some time and have the art of cleaning up a crime scene down to a science. Only handling high end accounts, the pair has made a decent name for themselves, but Jairus is still looking for ways to expand to bigger and more lucrative contracts. Even though their current employer is keeping them busy, Jairus wants to get as much money as possible before retiring from the business to live with his girlfriend.

After planning a trip to see his love, Jairus receives a call with a new contract. Five bodies need to be disposed of before a remodel team shows up to renovate a warehouse. Knowing this is a big job, he notifies Greer that they will have to get a move on. With such a big job and working against the clock the two check out the scene and then are greeted by another pair of ‘Cleaners’. Their client, Mr. Johnson had called in the other two to ensure the job will be done on time, but the two new members to the team are not professional and end up delaying the process. When trying to identify the victims, Jairus takes note that one of the dead bodies belongs to a political activist that stole a virus from the Nat-Tech Corporation. Understanding why the payment for this job is so high, Jairus does his best to keep the crew on task and get the cleaning process underway.

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Jairus has a very insecure girlfriend, Tina, who calls him all of the time, even when he is on a job. Greer is tired of the constant distraction that Tina causes on the job and is trying to get her partner to man up and let the calls go to voice mail when he is working. Jairus tries to defend himself, saying that this is how relationships work, but Tina only calls to yell at him and there never seems to be a civil conversation between them on the phone. While Greer is coaching her partner on hanging up the phone, one of the new ‘Cleaners’ is messing around and waiting for someone to come back and help him move the final body. While his back is turned, the dead man behind him gets up and takes a chunk of flesh out of his neck. Fighting for his life, the new ‘Cleaner’ stabs the corpse and ends up bashing its head in when the others return to finish the job.  No one believes him that the dead body came back to life and bit him. The job must be finished within the timetable provided, but a strange change occurs, one that alters their plans...

Ground Zero follows Jairus and his partner Greer as they are ready to take on a monumental job on their own. Being paired up with a couple unprofessional kids that were sent by their client, the two stick to their guns and concentrate on the task at hand. Not knowing what this virus is that the activist stole from Nat-Tech, or what it could do to a person leads to the downfall of a perfectly laid plan. Calling in the problems to Mr. Johnson, Jairus’ check gets bigger and bigger with each issue he encounters and money is the only thing on his mind, so he can collect the check and go live with Tina. With the cleaning crew getting bit, Jairus is forced with one of the hardest decisions in his life. Can he make the right one?

A fun movie that explains the possible origin for a zombie virus and how it might be unleashed on the population. Jairus is a professional that does not ever want to deviate from the plan, has his routine and follows through with it, no matter what happens. It is nice to see someone not get too rattled when the end of the world is right in front of their face. Although there are no awesome zombie kills or brain shots that will leave you cringing, there is plenty of comic relief. Just normal people doing a job that get sucked into a bad situation that should have never happened in the first place. Stay Scared.

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