Tag Archives: 2016

Commentary, Movie, Zombies

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016)

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It seems that this is a review I lost with my hard drive crash nearly 2 years ago.  Here’s news — you’re not missing anything — nothing in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and nothing with my review.  If a film doesn’t register with you, it’s hard to review it — so what would you read from that?  ANSWER – me, annoyed.

Anyway, I’m working from memory here, so let’s get started…

Colour Rating — Yellow Puss or Red Blood … whatever …

I haven’t read Pride and Prejudice, I have had no plans to, and after this film I am further not interested.  It’s amusing that Seth Grahame-Smith could write a quirky parody mashup (published 2009) combining the 1813 Jane Austen‘s classic novel with elements of modern zombie fiction, but mostly I just found it snooty and boring — I couldn’t get in to it.  When they showed the action stuff, it worked for me, but all otherwise it was the whos-in-love-with-whom Jane-Austen-junk my mother warned me about.

Not a gore-fest, this Z-film was a SNORE-fest!

There was clearly a lot of money behind this film, and one good thing I can say about it is that I’m sure it will perturb the Jane Austen purists.  Hopefully, it will be at least a little fun that it was re-envisioned.  For me though, coming from the zombie-film fan perspective . . . something was lost with this to capture the the zombie-fan demographic.

Conclusion…

If you’re a Pride-Prejudice/Austen fan and you’re open-minded — go for it.  If you’re a zombie-fan and you want to make sure you’ve watched EVERY zombie related film, well … good luck.  If you’re a die-hard zombie-film fan …. don’t bother.

LINKS to help you sleep

Movie, Review, Zombies

The Girl With All The Gifts (2016)

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The Girl With All The Gifts immediately
makes the viewer begin to ask questions…

The Girl With All The Gifts
If you found this movie poster disturbing, it’s supposed to be

A 10 year-old girl wakes in the cell of a seemingly military controlled facility, possibly underground.  She rises from her bunk, dresses in a set of faded red sweats, then voluntarily sits in a wheelchair.  Moments after two soldiers enter her cell at gunpoint to strap her arms, legs, and head to the chair, followed by rolling her in to a classroom with similarly secure children.

As class begins you find that all of these kids are very intelligent … and seemingly happy … but soon you find out why these children are so closely controlled. In a post-apocalyptic dystopian future, society has broken down after a fungal disease has infected and all but destroyed humankind.  This mysterious fungus turns its victims into flesh-eating “hungries” – fast moving, mindless, and ravenous zombies.  They are capable of running over long distances, and quickly transferring the infection through their bites.

Let's roll!
I don’t know about you but being strapped to a chair  could have helped me to get through some of my college classes…
RadioTimes.com said that The Girl With All The Gifts is “The best zombie movie since 28 Days Later”
… and BagpiperDon is inclined to agree!

The bar for zombie films
Has Been RAISED.

You know when you hear an album that’s so good you play it twice in a row?  Have you ever had that with a movie?
That was this film for me — I watched it back to back!

Sennia Nanua and Glenn Close
Sennia Nanua and Glenn Close

The Girl With All The Gifts is the most unique and original Z-film I have seen since 28 Days Later and World War Z.  BRILLIANTLY acted by Glenn Close (yes, six time Academy Award-nominated actress Glenn Close is in a zombie film), along with Gemma Arterton, Paddy Considine, and staring new-comer Sennia Nanua as Melanie, the little girl.  What is it about Brits and Z-movies – The Girl With All The Gifts is SPECTACULAR!  And if Sennia keeps acting like this … she’s going to go FAR — what a treat to see such a future talent!

act 2
The gang hangin’ out up on the roof

By the way, this was directed by Colm McCarthy, one and the same as Peaky Blinders — unbelievably for £4 million, which is about $5 million.  Filming lasted seven weeks in The West Midlands, taking place in Birmingham city centre, Cannock Chase, Dudley and Stoke-on-Trent.   Aerial views of a deserted London were filmed with drones in the abandoned Ukrainian town of Pripyat, which has been uninhabited since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

book cover
Book cover

The Girl With All The Gifts is rated dark Green Ooze and is one of BagpiperDon’s Favourite Zombie Movies.

Links

OH YEAH!

I even plowed through the book!

The original science-fiction novel, The Girl With All The Gifts, is by M.R. Carey.  Published in June 2014 by Orbit Books, it based on his 2013 Edgar Award nominated short story “Iphigenia In Aulis“.

And now, every e-thing you want about Pripyat…

Movie, Review, Zombies

Train to Busan (2016)

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Train to Busan, or by its original title “Busanhaeng“, is a South Korean zombie apocalypse action thriller film released in 2016.  The film takes place on a train to Busan, as a zombie apocalypse suddenly breaks out and compromises the safety of the passengers.

Fast moving zombies.  Fast infection.  Zombieism also affects animals (<– very slight spoiler).  Hordes of zombies like in World War Z — and this film could easily be the South Korea part of the WWZ outbreak (same universe).  People on a train feels like Snowpiercer (which if you’re a sci-fi fan and you haven’t seen Snowpiercer you are seriously missing out – IMDB/Wikipedia).  It even has little touches that remind you of Speed.  This has got to be one of the best Z-films I’ve seen since 28 Days Later!  OH YEAH, Train to Busan is rated Green Ooze and is one of BagpiperDon’s Favourite Zombie Movies!

…screw that, MF — this film has Zombies On A Train!

The zombies move in this totally different than any I’ve seen in other films …. and having both been a zombie in a film and having been in a car accident and gotten whiplash, what these actors did not only looks amazing for a zombie film but from my perspective now …. painful.  The Z-film journey element is in this film, but works totally different (well, the way it’s applied maybe one could say ‘re-imagined’) than I’ve seen in previous films.  There’s also something I haven’t seen in zombie films before in how the zombies do and don’t notice non-infected people.  And there were a few old lady wigs.

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