The Singing Revolution (2006)

Between 1986 and 1991 singing was the weapon of choice for the people of Estonia who sought to free themselves from decades of Soviet occupation.  During these years masses of young people, without any political party, gathered in public to sing patriotic songs and to rally for national independence — patriotic songs that had been made forbidden.

People tend not to think of singing when it comes to revolutions, but with the Estonian culture and tradition of song not just tens of thousands but Hundreds Of Thousands gathered to sing and to give their nation a renew spirit.

“The Singing Revolution”, by James Tusty and Maureen Castle Tusty, tells the incredibly moving story of how the people of Estonia peacefully regained their freedom and helped to topple the Soviet empire in the process.

My fellow musicians, If Ever You Question The Importance And The Power Of Our Craft … watch The Singing Revolution.  Imagine a revolution that looks like this with everyone you can see singing

 

SingingRevolution.com

The Singing Revolution at IMDb.com and Wikipedia …. and for no good apparent reason another page about the same film at Wikipedia.  Go figure.

Return of the Living Dead Part II (1988)

So far as I’m concerned, Return Of The Living Dead Part 2 (1988) is a zombie-film masterpiece –rated Yellow Puss all the way.  And by ‘masterpiece’ I mean that most sarcastically.

It looks and feels very 1980s, which is probably because this film was released on January 8, 1988.  It looks and feels pretty budget.  Why?  According to Wikipedia this gem “…was a minor box office success, making over $9 million at the box office in the United States against its $6.2 million budget.”

The action and horror-humor gags are obvious.  The zombies are semi-aware.  The semi-aware zombies contribute to the obvious gags.  You hear the zombie desire for “BRAINS…” so much you can watch the film and climb the wall at the same time.  There were no gratuitous zombie-movie boobs in this film, which as tired of it as I am, frankly it would have helped this schlock.  Because of this, I thought I’d supply some…

Politicians Fighting AKA semi-aware zombies

Smartest person in the zombie situation is a kid in grade school, which I think is part of the point to this film.

Does that guy kinda look like Michael Jackson? Yeah, I think that was intentional too…

At the end it appears there’s a zombie family dance as the horde is getting killed off.  I’m not sure if that was intentional, but it’s funny to think about it that way.

The one not-so-direct-from-the-film comment I was say …. the source of the zombie outbreak gets into the water supply.  Think about it …. your city, your town, are you on supplied water?

Links

Wyrmwood – Road of the Dead (2014)

Last night there was a meteor shower over Australia … then, inexplicably, some people started turning into zombies the following morning … normal types of fuel no longer work, but zombie breath and blood is flammable.

Weird — yeah …

Fun — OI, MATE!

Long/short — this film was a lot of fun, and surely is a film for my Top 10+ List.  Amazingly this film was budgeted at $160,000, and written by brothers Kiah Roache-Turner (director) and Tristan Roache-Turner (producer).

This was a kick because it showed some new ideas — not just with the characters Frank and Barry discovering that zombie blood can be used as a substitute for gasoline.  They take to the road to find Barry’s sister, Brooke.  She’s been nabbed by soldiers and a scientist, and gets injected with a chemical concoction that somehow gives her the ability to control the hungry hordes.  This helps to bring something fresh to zombie-genre after it’s received a heavy flogging in recent years.

In February 2015 a sequel was announced with a potential return of the original actors, with the release proposed for early 2017.  The Roache-Turner brothers later announced that their next project would in fact be the Wyrmwood sequel in the form of a 10-episode TV series titled “Wyrmwood: Chronicles of the Dead“.  The team released a short teaser for the series on 19 May 2017, featuring Gallagher and Bradey reprising their roles as Barry and Brooke.

Not bad for a crowdfunded film where no one got paid (HOORAY FOR DIY) and made this film as a labor of love for 3+ years.

Wyrmwood at IMDb and Wikipedia

Here’s the trailer…

But why bother with that when you can watch the whole movie…

Navy SEALs Vs. Zombies (2015)

Navy Seals vs. Zombies, Navy Seals vs. Zombies
AKA Navy Seals vs. Zombies

After a deadly zombie outbreak in Louisiana, a team of highly skilled U.S. Navy SEALs are sent into  Baton Rouge to rescue the Vice President.  Embarking on the battle of their lives, they must fight for the city and their survival against an army of the undead.

That sounds pretty good right?  For zombie films it sounds par for course — and let’s face it, Z-film par has a history of being schlocky.  While I have seen worse (not to mention better, Much BETTER), this seems to be a throw-back to 1970s and 1980s schlock.

B-film SEALs
The guys — ready to go fishing!

Navy SEALs Vs. Zombies came up when I searched my local library system’s website for all-things ‘zombie’.  Surprisingly, enough other people where interested it took weeks to become first in the cue.  Watching this, I give it a Yellow Puss rating.  Don’t break your neck to see this film — if you are a zombie fan with a couple of hours to kill on the weekend and need to recharge your batteries, crash your couch and check it out.

I'd date her
Who needs a good script when there’s at least one pretty girl in the film

This is a film with C-string actors and a B-string script working in an industry that is well known for being tough with rare breaks.  It seems that this is such a B-film that they couldn’t cast an actor as the president — he had to be the vice president.  Frequently the dialogue lags, but then if the timing was better then this wouldn’t be a 97 minute film.  Between the costumes, props, and language the main characters give just enough of the right vibe to feel like Navy SEALs.  They even have operator beards, however I have never heard of an operator pony tail.  As for the zombies, they move fast, their makeup is pretty rabid, and when they attack they have their moments of intensity.

On a personal note…
Affliction Z - Patient Zero by L.T. Ryan
I loved to pick this up, I hated when I needed to put it down … but I fella has to sleep sometime.

Around the time of viewing Navy SEALs Vs. Zombies I was finishing reading “Affliction Z: Patient Zero” by L.T. Ryan.  In his book a team of SEALs are dropped into Nigeria to rescue a group of U.S. Army Rangers who went in earlier — and like the SEALs in this film, they get surprised by zombie afflicted people.  While this film is so-so, it gave a visual representation of similar fiction (just that I’ve enjoyed L.T. Ryan’s book much more)

Links

A Christmas Horror Story (2015)

Christmas is drawing near and things are melting down in the town of Bailey Downs … and at best, I rate A Christmas Horror Story as Yellow Puss.

A Christmas Horror Story clearly resides among its own as a B-film.  It attempts to interweave four horror stories, each of which to varying degrees have little if anything to do with Christmas myth.

If you pay closer attention to this pot-boiler than I did, allegedly the framework of these stories are tied together by a character named DJ Dangerous Dan — a lonely late-night radio personality, waxing on about how he loves Xmas while hitting the eggnog while getting understandably abandoned by the radio station staff.

Hi Bill!

DJ Dan is played by none other than James T. Kirk — clearly a retirement job following his service as Captain aboard the infamous Starship Enterprise … who is probably the only actor you will recognize.

First Story – Three teens break into their school to investigate two murders that occurred the previous year. They mysteriously get locked in the basement  and then — SURPRISE — the horror begins!  This story has nothing to do with Christmas.

Second Story – A husband, wife, and their son go into the woods to chop down a Christmas tree.  The son wanders off and gets switched for a changeling who mimics him and then — SURPRISE — the horror begins!  Aside from the Pagany changeling and Christmas tree, this story too has nothing to do with Christmas.  In other words, these first two stories are just FILLER to justify bringing William Shatner into the film and to bolster the other two stories into a 107 minute B-movie made in Canada.

Third Story – A yuppie family of four visit their elderly aunt and behave poorly.  This attracts the attention of Krampus and while on their way home they are picked off one at a time.  This is the first portion of the story where the filmmakers take liberties with Krampus mythos …. but then HolloWood has given us far worse.   As a result this story has a little to do with Christmas.

Fourth Story – A fittingly Nordic-looking Santa Claus is at his workshop preparing for a busy Christmas when he discovers that his elves and Mrs. Claus have turned into zombies.  He manages to kill them all and then for an unapparent reason Santa is then forced to fight Krampus.  This is where the filmmakers quite unfortunately took the most gross liberties with the Krampus character (AKA Black Peter).  Krampus gets turned into a villain — white hats, black hats … everyone needs a villain — the problem though is that in Krampus mythos he is only a threat to bad kids/people.  In fact, Krampus and St. Nick have always worked together — on Krampusnacht (Krampus night) around December 5th he arrived to punish children who have misbehaved while of course Saint Nicholas would reward well-behaved children with gifts.  In other words, when Krampus became suppressed his tasks were given to Santa who would ‘make his list of who’s naughty and nice’.

Links