Review: Day of The Dead (2008 -Remake)

  What movie executive gives the ok to make a movie like this? What self respecting director attaches his name to such a film? What editor says "ok I'm happy with this product, send it to the theaters"?

 Don't get me wrong, there are lots of 13 year olds that would find this movie very entertaining, but how can you invoke the name of the great Romero and make this crap?  Romero's movies are about asking the difficult moral questions that are much bigger than the Zombie genre, saying that this is a Romero film, is like making a remake of Star Wars in honor of George Lucas and having Darth Vader wear a hockey mask and machete the rebel alliance to death...

  This movie stars a pint size Mena Suvari, who is in a ranking officer in the army, but when she goes into a house to investigate a report of 2 bodies that have been torn to shreds, she pulls out her gun and tells the other army guy next to her "don't worry, it's not loaded" her only explanation is "it's a long story", I know a lot of people that are afraid of loaded guns, but none of them go off and join the military...  mind you this same girl wants to protect a guy she just met that has turned zombie from the rest of the group that wants to get rid of him, she says something in the line of "you can't just kill him, he was a person"  five minutes later she purposefully runs over her own mother and explains to her brother "she wasn't mom, not anymore"

  Then you have Nick Cannon, who was great in "Drumline" because he plays himself, a cocky kid who depends more on his ego than on his skills, well if you like that you will not be disappointed,  because in this movie he just loves himself.

   The whole movie is full of incongruous stuff, like for example, a Zombie can crawl on the ceiling upside down, another one can jump and reach a window 2 stories up, but when our heroes are going into the ventilation shaft to get away, the undead cannot reach a foot over their heads to grab them, then when a flame barely touches a Zombie he goes up instantly in a puff like a modern day vampire hit with sunlight, but they don't think about using fire again until the very end of the movie...

  And what does this firendly neighborhood Zombie blogger hate the most? the "oh, I'm infected and it's obvious to everyone, but I'm going to keep denying it and people will believe me no problem"  it happens about four times in a row.

  So yeah, it one of those movies that have absolutely no character development, everyone is just mindlessly running and making one stupid mistake after the other, it is no homage to Romero, but as Miss Jean Brodie would say "for those who like that sort of thing, that is the sort of thing they like"

To see a list of all the films I've reviewed click here

Review: Survival of the Dead (2009)

  Some family feuds never die, some die but just don't stay dead, specially when it involves Zombies...

Leave it to George Romero to deliver another powerful thought provoking tale of horror, this movie follows a team of renegade soldiers escaping fleeing the zombie apocalypse only to end up in the middle of a family feud between the O'Flynns and the Muldoon, two big families with very different views on how to deal with the clan members that have died and been reanimated, the leader of the O'Flynns beleives that they are an abomination and need to be out down, while Pater Muldoon prefers to adhere to this bloggers idea that "Zombies were people too!!!" (at least as it pertains to his kinfolk) keeping them in chains or in a stable in the hopes that someday someone might find and a cure, or they can at least teach the zombies to feed on something other than humans.

This is definitely a movie to watch, it has the inventive gore that you come to expect from a modern zombie flick,  intelligent survivors who are prepared for the threat ahead, but what is most important to me is that the movie posts moral questions that leave you thinking, I know that thinking is a very dangerous pastime but sometimes it's inevitable.

In  synthesis, this movie is well put together, believably acted, and has a good serving of gore for those who are just in it for the thrill of it.

To see a list of all the films I've reviewed click here

Modifying your vehicle to kick some serious Zombie behind.

Ok, most Zombie movies show desperate people who have absolutely no survival instincts other than run and hide, so, yeah I doubt this could ever happen in one of those, some ask the question of how people would live a few months or years after the first breakout, so just in case there is a Zombie apocalypse, and you do survive and find the time to actually prepare for the fight ahead this is a very good idea to have in mind, it's not like Zombies drive cars so you'll probably have your pick.

These guys from down under deliver a good plan to Z-pimp your car n case the shiz-nit hits the fan, apart from very useful information these guys from Mighty Car Mods give you a good dose of humor, I should warn, towards the end they have  very "interesting" list of reading suggestions, some may be offensive to some watchers, ans some may just be too funny.

Enjoy, and until next time remember....   Zombies were people too!!!!

Review: AMC's The Walking Dead - Season 1 - Episode 1: Days gone by

 

AMC's The Walking Dead for those of you who live under a rock like Patrick Star (from Spongebob) is a series about the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse based on a popular comic book.

I don't know why but I have the instinct to erase a recorded show after I'm done watching it, seconds later I kick my self for doing it, for this one in particular I wanted to hit myself in the head with a baseball bat for choosing "Stop & Delete" on my DVR, thankfully this week they had an encore of the whole first season.

Just how good is this series? let me just put it this way...  I do believe this show is the essence of what I like about zombie movies, it is as realistic as possible, though the make up effects are great and there is satisfying amount of blood in it, the show is really about the survivors, and how they fight to maintain their own humanity in the midst of the apocalypse.

I love the fact that it is done in series format for two main reasons; character development, and since the story doesn't have to end in two hours the survivors don't have to make some unrealistically stupid decision so they can all die off, as happens in 99.9% of zombie stories.

(Spoiler)

Now on to episode 1, the first shows  deputy sheriff Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) waking up form a coma in a hospital some time after the zombie outbreak, completely in disbelief he ventures out to the halls were he sees the devastation that was left, and a double door with chains marked "do not open, dead inside" suddenly the doors slightly open and hands start reaching out, once Rick is outside the hospital he sees hundreds of dead bodies laid down all over the place, the remains of an overrun military temporary defense post, we also see a flashback of Rick and his partner Shane Walsh (Jon Bernthal) before rick gets the gun shot would that sends him to the hospital in the first place, it sets the backstage for one really screwed up drama, see Rick and Shane as I mentioned are partners... and in the law enforcement world we know partners are sacred, so big surprise in the post z-poc (zombie apocalypse) Shane (believing Rick is dead) is boinking Rick's wife Lori (Sarah Wayne Callie) and raising his son Carl (Chandler Riggs)...  a genius move by the writer if I must say, something that I would never have thought to put in a zombie sotry :)

While searching for his family Rick meets up with Morgan Jones (Lennie James) and his son Duane (Adrian Kali Turner) who quickly bring him up to speed, then they go to the sheriffs station to get cleaned up and stocked with weapons, Rick decides to search for his family in Atlanta where supposedly there is a sheltered area and the CDC (Center for Disease Control) is working on a cure. to know how this episode ends you will have to either see it, or read my review of the second episode. watching the actual TV show will be infinitely more satisfying than reading my next review, but don't worry you can do both!!!!

Until next time remember...  Zombies were people too.

I see undead people!!!

Hello my beautiful readers, this is your friendly neighborhood zombie blogger and enthusiast here to delight you with another silly post.

Lately I've told you about my plans to make an on-line comic book, and I don't know if I've mentioned it, but I'm kinda going to cheat... I consider myself to be a good artist, but I am not fast, and my strength is in the details, I find it hard to put a scene together so my plan is to actually take pictures of the scenes that I want to show with real people, then adding any detail and/or special effects that I want.

So naturally being obsessive as I am, when something gets into my oversize head (for the record I don't have a big head, just a small body) it goes round and round like a car race, and for now my comic book is all I can think of.

Lately, anyone I come across I try topicture how they would look like if they where zombies, the scary thing is that for most people (specially if you go to Walmart) would not need a lot of altering from my pencil to become one, what is this world coming to? why odes everybody look so unhappy?

Perhaps we need a good old fashioned Zombie apocalypse to whip us into shape, we need to realize that life can be full of happiness if we try not to concentrate on the bad things, what do you think?

Until next time remember... Zombies were people too!!!

Review: White Zombie (1932)

Wow, this is very hard, how do you review a film that was made in 1932? what do you compare it to? the acting is horrible, the special effects are almost no-existent, there is very little dialogue, too many looooong scenes, and there is really no intelligent plot, but then again, it was made in 11 days and it was one of the first "talkies" in fact the only redeeming quality is Bela Lugosi's image, and the famous line in his trademark accent "I have looked into her eyes".

Unless you're a film major, or are having a nostalgia streak, or you're a two bit internet blogger like me don't waste your time, classic or not it sucks, that's all I can honestly say.

Until next time remember, Zombies were people too.


To see a list of all the films I've reviewed click here

Review: Last of the Living (2008)

Funny!!! This group of New Zealanders has come up with a very entertaining view of the Zombie apocalypse scenario, the premise is simple; 6 months after the first outbreak 3 friends have managed to be the last survivors by simply holing themselves up until "it felt safe to venture outside" now the 3 amigos are living the high life (whilst having the minor inconvenience of having to fight Zombies from time to time) having access to a city where every store is like their own personal storage unit, and they move from abandoned mansion to abandoned mansion on a whim.

The main characters (Morgan, a bat wielding guy who kinda resembles Steve-O from Jack-Ass, Johnny a crazy has-never-been rocker/fighter and Ash a frightful, mild mannered accountant with a golf club) spend their days holed-up drinking and playing video games insulting each other and just plain being irresponsible, that all changes when they meet Stef (Emily Paddon Brown) a drop dead (no pun intended) gorgeous young female scientist on a mission and suddenly they have to start acting brave to impress her.

The movie is low budget, but since it's mostly character driven it is still really enjoyable, it's slow for the first 30 minutes, but as soon as they meet Stef it's all fast paced, the sound editing is a little off, they set up a scene with eerie music and then the music just ends with no danger whatsoever and they switch to another scene (they do this several times) then there's the "we don't have firearms" issue, which kind of nags at you until they explain in a very funny way just why there are no more firearms (not gonna spoil it for you you'll just have to watch it)

One thing I can never get over (but it happens in "E-V-E-R-Y" Zombie movie so I guess it's accepted) is the fact that even though the survivors are always scanning the area and the Zombies can't help but emit their grunts (and in this movie flatulations) one always manages to sneak up and not be noticed until it's biting your leg...

All in all a very entertaining movie, definitely worth watching.

Until next time remember, Zombies were people too!!!

To see a list of all the films I've reviewed click here

Undead On-line Comic Book Casting

Hello Ladies, Gentlemen... and Zombies, welcome back to the premier blog on all things undead.

Have you ever been attacked by a horde of Zombies? has your city turned upside down because of an outbreak? of course not, Zombies aren't real.... or are they?

If the Shiz-nit does hit the fan are you ready? are you a survivor? how long do you think you will last? well now is your chance to find out.

I am currently writing a script for an online comic book, my take on the whole "Zombie Apocalypse" thing.

Now I consider myself to be a good artist, but when it comes to details, and to tell you the truth I am very slow, so my brilliant idea (it isn't actually mine) is to take pictures of living breading people and trace over them and adding any detail I would like.

As of now I am looking for collaborators, actors, posers... anybody that would like to participate just for the fun of it, whether it be as a survivor or a zombie, so if anyone is interested please leave me a message, thank you!!!!

P.S.: if you subscribe to follow the blog you'll be among the first to receive news of my progress.

Review: Dead Snow (2009)

Every once in a while you just don't want to think, all you want an old fashion campy movie. For those nights this movie is what the doctor ordered.

This movie starring a group of Norwegians, and directed by Tommy Wirkola is as bloody as it is inventive, it adds many twists to several zombie movie cliches, like a very close up shot of face-biting but when the camera pulls away you realize it's the human biting the Zombie...

*Spoiler alert : These are not Romero-Zombies, for example these Nazis kill, they don't eat (they even punch you in the face), they are somewhat intelligent, they respond to a Z leader that can use binoculars and at least a hammer, they don't turn other people into Zs, though one of the humans cuts off his own arm after being bitten believing he would turn Z too, and they use hiding as a tactic... one thing that kind of killed it for me was the fact that they can just pop out of the snow anywhere, I do like some logic in my movies, but it is kind of a comedy so I guess we can overlook that.*

All in all as I've said before a very entertaining movie, I know you have to read subtitles but... it takes you a bit away from "Hollywood" to watch a foreign film and that's refreshing too.

Well until next time remember... Zombies were people too!!!!

To see a list of all the films I've reviewed click here

Review: George A. Romero's "Night of The Living Dead"

This is a fitting movie to start with my reviews, for many it's the first, in fact if you ask a lot of fans they'll probably believe that Zombies were invented by Mr Romero, but alas they weren't...

Where to start?, I should probably have done some research on the movie before I reviewed it, but I realize that when it comes to cult classics you can find a lot more opinion than fact. One thing that is obvious is that it was done with a very low budget, but the black and white give it a very nice effect.

Let me say that the way in which this movie is made is why I am so obsessed with the genre, the interaction between the human survivors, the way they deal with things, and sometimes show you the saddest thing... at least you can trust Zombies to be honest about things...

The whole story starts after a brother and sister go and visit their dad in the cemetery, in broad daylight they are attacked by a walking corpse, almost thinking it is a joke, but the brother is killed and the woman runs away and locks herself in the first house she sees, throughout the movie some more survivors show up and that's when the real sparks start flying, when bravery meets cowardice and strong wills collide.

Don't get me wrong it still has a lot to offer Zombie-wise, some of the scenes of them eating flesh are quite well thought out, though they look like badly dressed and lightly powdered people they still create very creepy images.

All in all a very good movie for 1968, it stills tickles an old zombies bones today too...

To see a list of all the films I've reviewed click here