Tag Archives: zombie

Movie, Review, Zombies

Zombieland (2009)

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Zombieland — You know it … you probably love it … Why?  Because there was a LOT of money behind this film and a lot of marketing — and you were told to love it.

I expected to not like this film — not wholly buy into it — largely because of the obvious amount of money and “star power” behind it.  Quite frankly … I liked this film far better than I expected.  I stopped watching TV before this film came out — the marketing, the money, the star power didn’t work on me — I liked the content … the humor, the character arcs, and the fact that hopeful romantics can exist in the apocalypse.

How does IMDB summarize this film?
“A shy student trying to reach his family in Ohio, a gun-toting tough guy trying to find the last Twinkie, and a pair of sisters trying to get to an amusement park join forces to travel across a zombie-filled America.“

Have fun with this movie, it’s worth a watch.  I saw it twice, the second time for the music.  Heck, watch this film because one of the stars is Emma Stone — why — because Emma Stone, that’s why.  In any case, I rated it Green Ooze!

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Movie, Review, Zombies

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

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Night of the Living Dead – Green Ooze OF COURSE!

The seminal zombie film of zombie films that wasn’t originally meant to be a zombie film — so zombie-genre fans everywhere just may look at this as a happy accident.  As for the rest of this review, I’ll write it when after I’ve seen it again.

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Apparently there have been remakes of this film &/or re-uses of the name — I’ll have to see….

Movie, Review, Zombies

World War Z (2013)

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World War Z is rated Green Ooze and is one of BagpiperDon’s Favourite Zombie Movies.

I am currently 23 minutes into seeing this film for the first time. Frankly I’m not paying full attention — I’m busy on my laptop working to start my company (yeah … that’s all) — I am, however, forming a few first impressions. Without pulling any punches, I’m trying to figure out how to say that this film delivers … moreover it delivers where the re-make of Red Dawn flat out failed. Yes, I know, neither of the Red Dawn films were zombie flicks — that’s not the point.

I’m impressed by the depiction of chaos and survival once the invader have hit — in Red Dawn the U.S. being invaded by one or more foreign countries whereas in WWZ humanity world wide is being invaded by our favourite plague … ZOMBIES! My impression of the Red Dawn re-make is that it was crafted in part to grab the teeny-boppers who went nutz over hunky werewolves and love-lorn glittering vampires. In other words, the re-Red Dawn survival and tactics would have gotten the Wolverines killed.

Pretty freaky, eh?

In my mind WWZ does a good job of depicting post-catastrophe society and tactics necessary to survive. As Z-films go, this film clearly has money behind it. It gets off to a start quick, and then gives its set-up. The zombies have intense movement and drive which doesn’t seem to be explained (but like I said, I’m not giving it my full 84% focus), at least not as of yet.

I’ve been curious how this might play out; I haven’t read the book but I have heard some of the audio-book. Action, adventure, mystery. There is a journey, but not the typical journey. In a way the zombie chaos is worse than the survivor chaos.

Stylistically speaking, I quite like the movement look that the production achieved for the zombies. Time and time again you seem similar movements from zombies — but in this film not only did the film-makers find a different way for the zombies to move, it ties in with the zombies’ drive, how they work as zombies.

This may be the biggest (stand alone) zombie film made yet.

To avoid this, get to the airport WAY EARLY like your dad.

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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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Movie, Review, Zombies

The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988)

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PHEW!  For all of my reviews, writing something for The Serpent and the Rainbow is frankly a bit daunting — but let’s do it anyway.  Prepare for a long, drab description in 3 … 2 … 1 …

Synopsis

In 1988, a Harvard doctor by the name of Dennis Alan (Bill Pullman) has been hired by a large pharmaceutical corporation to travel to Haiti in 1985 (which is tricky because they don’t supply him with a time machine) to investigate the case of a man who died in 1978 and has apparently returned to life with the aid of a Voodoo drug.  The pharmaceutical corporation wants Dr. Alan to acquire the zombie drug so they can research it; their intent is to mass produce and sell it as a type of “super anesthetic”.  While in Haiti, Dr. Alan hooks up with a brainy local hot chick by the name of Marielle Duchamp (played by Cathy Tyson), then gets mixed up in deception and Voodoo.  Apparently this fictional film is loosely based on the non-fiction book of the same name.

Marielle Duchamp (Cathy Tyson) doing the Safety Dance … either that or she’s tied up. Who knows … it was the 80s!

Or at least to say, if you have a sense of humor, you can interpret this film that way and write big long run-on sentences, because really who reads all of these reviews anyway?
(Although I was told once that a person read, and had a good laugh, my review of the zombie film “Billy Elliot” — yes, it’s a zombie film.)

So on a more serious note… well, somewhat more serious…

This film was budgeted at $7M and made nearly $20M at the box office, so I don’t know if that makes it good but the marketing was good enough to get people to watch it.  I guess Wes Craven was trying to cash-in on his good name and Nightmare on Elm Street success.  Whatever the case, it kind of looks like an 80s film and it definitely feels like an 80s horror-mystery film.  I wouldn’t suggest going out of your way to watch this, but if you are looking for something to play while you hang out … well, spin it up.  I’d rate this film Yellow Puss.

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Movie, Review, Zombies

Return of the Living Dead Part II (1988)

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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?

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Movie, Review, Zombies

Navy SEALs Vs. Zombies (2015)

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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)

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Movie, Review, Zombies

A Christmas Horror Story (2015)

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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’.

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