The Rest of the Zombie Reviews [a continuation of the last entry]
I'm just gonna review the rest of those Zombie flicks I promised in the last entry so I can review the major horror movies of our generation [anything Michael Myers, Freddy Kruger, or Jason Voorhies]. So just enjoy this entry for what it is.
By the way, I'm on Scene 12 [of 17] of Dtv if anyone cares LoL.
Directed by: Dan O'Bannon
Starring: Clu Gulager/Burt
James Karen/Frank
Don Calfa/Ernie
Thom Mathews/Freddy
Year: 1985
PLOT SUMMARY:
When a bumbling pair of employees at a medical supply warehouse accidentally release a deadly gas into the air, the vapors cause the dead to re-animate as they go on a rampage through Louisville, Kentucky seeking their favorite food, brains.
MY TWO-CENTS:
I love films that can be watched as either part of or parody of their genre, and that is Return of the Living Dead in a nutshell. It uses Romero's 'Living Dead' films as its inspiration but refuses to be enslaved by their understated realism, changing the content to suit the medium - and in this case it's B-grade teen-scream horror, coupled with a healthy gobful of black humour. In Romero's films the zombies were unthinking survival-machines, shuffling around in pitiful mimicry of their former lives; indeed you almost felt sorry for them. Not so in this film: these zombies are grotesque, cackling, devious and evil - they don't just want to eat your body, they specifically want to gobble your brains, and they tell you this at every turn. We've regressed from Romero's social commentary into the land of creepshow comic-books.
It's still a hell of a lot of fun, mind you, watching these walking talking corpses, in various states of decay, chasing dwindling numbers of 'real' people. The premise itself is clever enough, having some kids stumble on an old army tank that contains probably the worst [and slimiest] of the zombies; the chemicals released into the air when the tank is opened subsequently initiate a plague of the beasties. And there are some great scenes that make you laugh and wince at once - a naked, yellow-ish cadaver, suspended on a hook in the medical supplies warehouse, springs to life; 'split dogs' for biology are also resuscitated and start yapping and wagging their tails, while the yellow-fellow is dismembered and his parts bagged in plastic in a futile attempt to shut him up ["Rabid weasels" explains one of the cast members, when another sees the jittering bags].
The storyline once the 'fun' starts is classic horror stereotype, with the surviving humans trapped inside a funeral home as the zombies close in. A call to the US Army's emergency number on the side of the tank seems to promise an immediate response to the problem - and it does, although it's a little bit of a cop-out. Never mind, there's scope for a sequel, and you're probably ready to get off this macabre roller-coaster by then anyway. In any case, you won't remember this film for the conclusion, you'll remember it for the clever zombies and sharp screenplay, and the energy and style which carries the whole project from start to finish. Highly recommended.
**** outta ****
Directed by: Ken Wiederhorn
Starring: Michael Kenworthy/Jesse
Marsha Dietlin/Lucy
Thom Mathews/Joey
James Karen/Ed
Year: 1988
PLOT SUMMARY:
A group of kids discover one of the drums containing a rotting corpse and release the 2-4-5 Trioxen gas into the air, causing the dead to once again rise from the grave and seek out brains.
MY TWO-CENTS:
Funny ass movie. I have a modest affection for a movie like this. The script is as dumb as a box of rocks but the movie sets out to be a stupid horror comedy and successfully stays the course. The title identifies it as a sequel to The Return of the Living Dead, one of my all-time favorite guilty pleasures. This movie doesn't rise to be it's equal but I give it points for trying.
The story is pretty much in the title but I'll go into it as much as I can. In a small community a couple of kids start playing with a large metal drum that fell off of a military truck next to the town cemetery. Out of the drum pours a strange gas, which seeps into the ground and soon living dead rise and go looking for human brains. You can pretty well guess the rest.
The characters are pretty cartoonish. We meet: the kid who woke the dead, his sister, a cable installer and my favorite, a fun-loving graverobber [played by the always dependable James Karen], his reluctant assistant, the assistant's annoying Tiffany-wannabe girlfriend, and a jovial doctor. Karen breaks open crypts at the mausoleum and steals their jewelry having fun the whole way.
The movie seems less inspired by George Romero's Night of the Living Dead and more by Michael Jackson's Thriller video [to which there is a nod...FUNNY]. The living dead are all rotting decay and dripping flesh stumbling around like drunks at a frat party [I loved the scene where twenty of them pile into a convertible and zoom around town looking for brains].
Look, this is not great cinema. I love serious films; in fact I thrive on them. But once in a while I like a little junk food cinema. This is one of those horror films that doesn't take itself seriously and doesn't really even try to be a good movie. ROTLDP2 is a good time killer and never pretends to be anything else. Recommended for a great laugh.
*** outta ****
Directed by: Brian Yuzna
Starring: Mindy Clark/Julie
J. Trevor Edmund/Kurt
Kent McCord/ John
Sarah Douglas/Lt Sinclair
Year: 1993
PLOT SUMMARY:
Colonel Reynolds and his group of government scientists continue their work on re-animating the dead for military use. His son Curt and his girlfriend Julie use Dad's security pass to sneak in and watch the proceedings. Later when father and son have a disagreement, Curt and Julie take off on a motorcycle and Julie is killed in an accident. Grief-stricken, Curt takes her body to the lab and brings her back to life. Curt must help Julie deal with her new existence as military agents and local gang members try to find them.
MY TWO-CENTS:
Return of the Living Dead 3 is a low budget zombie sequel that takes it self too serious and ends up being more of a comedy than anything else.
The romantic approach to the story is dull, uninteresting and it ruins all the fun the viewer usually gets from this genre.
The FX are nothing amazing but they hold up fine even today. The direction has some good moments with Yuzna building some interesting suspense and tension but nothing very exciting. He also cannot prevent the action from slowing down being unable to maintain a rhythm that will keep the audience's interest!.
The acting is not as bad as could be expected but it's still pretty embarrassing. Basil Wallace delivers an interesting performance as the Riverman and is very obviously the best actor in the movie. J. Trevor Edmont however does a horrible job as the lead with Mindy Clarke being left to carry the movie with her small amount of talent but great beauty. And yes we get a little nudity.
The writer however should get some credit for the bad acting. The dialogues are painful, the characters empty stereotypes [the Latinos are almost insulting] and especially Curt is one of the most idiotic, useless and irritating characters of all time.
The story is amazingly boring, and the romance almost takes front stage pushing the Zombies and the gore back. Of course there's a lot of blood but the romance is always there, with the `I love you, everything is going to be alright' routine repeated over and over again! Please, it's a zombie movie! We want chases, we want dead people slaughtering and being slaughtered! What is this? Garbage that's what it is.
After a while it gets unintentionally funny but still it's just a bad movie. Nothing good at all to mention. If you want an exciting bloody and action packed Zombie movie look elsewhere because not even the zombies are very scary here. It's all a waste of time! Boring, boring, and BORING.
* outta **** [for the nudity]
Directed by: Paul Anderson
Starring: Milla Jovovich/Alice
Michelle Rodriguez/Rain
Eric Mabius/Matt
James Purefoy/Spencer
Year: 2002
PLOT SUMMARY:
A virus has escaped in a secret facility called "The Hive," turning the staff into hungry zombies and releasing the mutated Lab "Animals" that they were studying. The complex computer shuts down the base to prevent infection. The parent corporation sends in an elite military unit, where they meet Alice, who is suffering from amnesia due to exposure to nerve gas. The military team must shut down the computer and get out, fighting their way past zombies, mutants, and the computer itself, before the virus escapes and infects the rest of the world. Alice must also come to terms with her slowly-returning memories.
MY TWO-CENTS:
The Playstation game Resident Evil [and its sequels], was so atmospheric, cinematic and downright scary that it begged to be made into a movie. Video game movies have a rap for being bad and it's true. Most of them are. Of course, most of them are written and directed by unimaginative hacks and constructed in studio boardrooms to shake some cash out of the kids who play the games. Paul "W.S." Anderson guy [not to be confused with the brilliant Paul Thomas Anderson] seems to have cornered the market on making video games into movies - bad movies. The guy is a hack who couldn't direct his way out of a paper bag. He's given a promising set-up from the games and before it's all over Anderson will reduce our crisp atmospheric story into a cheap trainwreck of quick editing and flashing.
On one level I understand Anderson's thinking. The games were based on George Romano's Night of the Living Dead so a Resident Evil movie is essentially a remake of NotLD. So he apparently decided the "better" way to go would be to dump the horror and turn this movie a glossy, techno action flick. At first it seems alright. The movie is the 2nd act of Resident Evil 2 - a high tech underground facility is producing a zombie virus, virus gets out, crew become zombies. The first few minutes are the most well done of the movie. We actually feel a little for the doomed crew [we hear one asking another for a date]. Then we get the now stock head-stuck-in-the-elevator-doors gag and it's all downhill from there.
Well, that's not true, he has a few decent gags here and there: a bit involving a grid of lasers, a flashback sequence that makes no sense but looks good and a nifty final shot. The best scene in the movie involves Jonovich and a pack of zombie dogs. She jump-kicks one in the face. The bit is so absurd, it's fun. If the rest of the movie were like this and didn't take itself so seriously we might have something here. The acting is as B-movie as it comes all the way around. The script is rock bottom. The single best thing about Resident Evil is Marilyn Manson and Marco Beltrami's thumping, driving techno score. Also is the ending, which in my honest opinion, is one of the BEST endings I have EVER seen in a movie and gives me hope for the sequel, Resident Evil:Apocalypse. That coupled with those few decent scenes makes this Anderson's best movie and the second best video game movie to date. Maybe I expected more since I loved the games so much. I guess for what it was, the movie wasn't all that bad. Recommended for entertainment value only.
**3/4* outta ****
Directed by: Danny Boyle
Starring: Cillian Murphy/Jim
Naomie Harris/Selena
Brendan Gleeson/Frank
Megan Burns/Hannah
Year: 2003
PLOT SUMMARY:
A powerful virus escapes from a British research facility. Transmitted in a drop of blood and devastating within seconds, the virus locks those infected into a permanent state of murderous rage. Within 28 days the country is overwhelmed and a handful of survivors begin their attempts to salvage a future, little realising that the deadly virus is not the only thing that threatens them.
MY TWO-CENTS:
28 Days Later could best be described as the thinking man's zombie movie. It is a literate post-modern take on the genere. Gone are the voodoo and toxic waste the we settled for in the past, these zombies are the by-product of experimentation on animals. In the film a group of animal rights activists break into a lab to liberate some animals, unfortunately they also liberate a blood-born virus that induces a zombie-like rage. Within 10 to 20 seconds of contact with an infected person's bodily fluids you are infected as well. Within 28 days all of Britain has succumbed to the rage-virus.
Enter Jim, our films protagonist [deftly portrayed by Cillian Murphy], he has just awakened from a coma into this world and must cope with a world who's rules of survival have changed. Eventually he hooks up with a small band of survivors who try to find someway out of this madness.
Alex Garland's script capture is highly inventive and although the dialogue tends to be predictable, he does add a nice darkly comic edge. Anthony Dod Mantle paints an amazing picture on screen that is at the same time rich and vibrant and dark and foreboding. Some of the acting is below par, particularly from the soldiers of blockade 21. However, Naomie Harris is superb as the pharmacist tough-girl Selena.
Despite its flaws 28 Days Later is still an excellent film. It takes many of the conventions of zombie movies and turns them on their collective ears in order to create a swift , yet tense film. It's one of a few recent western made horror films to truly pack a punch in the scare department. All and all, I'd have to recommend 28 Days Later to any fan of the genre and to movie-goers looking for something unexpected.
***1/2* outta ****
Next time, I'll review the movies starring everyone's favorite Hockey mass murderer, Jason. Later.
By the way, I'm on Scene 12 [of 17] of Dtv if anyone cares LoL.
Directed by: Dan O'Bannon
Starring: Clu Gulager/Burt
James Karen/Frank
Don Calfa/Ernie
Thom Mathews/Freddy
Year: 1985
PLOT SUMMARY:
When a bumbling pair of employees at a medical supply warehouse accidentally release a deadly gas into the air, the vapors cause the dead to re-animate as they go on a rampage through Louisville, Kentucky seeking their favorite food, brains.
MY TWO-CENTS:
I love films that can be watched as either part of or parody of their genre, and that is Return of the Living Dead in a nutshell. It uses Romero's 'Living Dead' films as its inspiration but refuses to be enslaved by their understated realism, changing the content to suit the medium - and in this case it's B-grade teen-scream horror, coupled with a healthy gobful of black humour. In Romero's films the zombies were unthinking survival-machines, shuffling around in pitiful mimicry of their former lives; indeed you almost felt sorry for them. Not so in this film: these zombies are grotesque, cackling, devious and evil - they don't just want to eat your body, they specifically want to gobble your brains, and they tell you this at every turn. We've regressed from Romero's social commentary into the land of creepshow comic-books.
It's still a hell of a lot of fun, mind you, watching these walking talking corpses, in various states of decay, chasing dwindling numbers of 'real' people. The premise itself is clever enough, having some kids stumble on an old army tank that contains probably the worst [and slimiest] of the zombies; the chemicals released into the air when the tank is opened subsequently initiate a plague of the beasties. And there are some great scenes that make you laugh and wince at once - a naked, yellow-ish cadaver, suspended on a hook in the medical supplies warehouse, springs to life; 'split dogs' for biology are also resuscitated and start yapping and wagging their tails, while the yellow-fellow is dismembered and his parts bagged in plastic in a futile attempt to shut him up ["Rabid weasels" explains one of the cast members, when another sees the jittering bags].
The storyline once the 'fun' starts is classic horror stereotype, with the surviving humans trapped inside a funeral home as the zombies close in. A call to the US Army's emergency number on the side of the tank seems to promise an immediate response to the problem - and it does, although it's a little bit of a cop-out. Never mind, there's scope for a sequel, and you're probably ready to get off this macabre roller-coaster by then anyway. In any case, you won't remember this film for the conclusion, you'll remember it for the clever zombies and sharp screenplay, and the energy and style which carries the whole project from start to finish. Highly recommended.
**** outta ****
Directed by: Ken Wiederhorn
Starring: Michael Kenworthy/Jesse
Marsha Dietlin/Lucy
Thom Mathews/Joey
James Karen/Ed
Year: 1988
PLOT SUMMARY:
A group of kids discover one of the drums containing a rotting corpse and release the 2-4-5 Trioxen gas into the air, causing the dead to once again rise from the grave and seek out brains.
MY TWO-CENTS:
Funny ass movie. I have a modest affection for a movie like this. The script is as dumb as a box of rocks but the movie sets out to be a stupid horror comedy and successfully stays the course. The title identifies it as a sequel to The Return of the Living Dead, one of my all-time favorite guilty pleasures. This movie doesn't rise to be it's equal but I give it points for trying.
The story is pretty much in the title but I'll go into it as much as I can. In a small community a couple of kids start playing with a large metal drum that fell off of a military truck next to the town cemetery. Out of the drum pours a strange gas, which seeps into the ground and soon living dead rise and go looking for human brains. You can pretty well guess the rest.
The characters are pretty cartoonish. We meet: the kid who woke the dead, his sister, a cable installer and my favorite, a fun-loving graverobber [played by the always dependable James Karen], his reluctant assistant, the assistant's annoying Tiffany-wannabe girlfriend, and a jovial doctor. Karen breaks open crypts at the mausoleum and steals their jewelry having fun the whole way.
The movie seems less inspired by George Romero's Night of the Living Dead and more by Michael Jackson's Thriller video [to which there is a nod...FUNNY]. The living dead are all rotting decay and dripping flesh stumbling around like drunks at a frat party [I loved the scene where twenty of them pile into a convertible and zoom around town looking for brains].
Look, this is not great cinema. I love serious films; in fact I thrive on them. But once in a while I like a little junk food cinema. This is one of those horror films that doesn't take itself seriously and doesn't really even try to be a good movie. ROTLDP2 is a good time killer and never pretends to be anything else. Recommended for a great laugh.
*** outta ****
Directed by: Brian Yuzna
Starring: Mindy Clark/Julie
J. Trevor Edmund/Kurt
Kent McCord/ John
Sarah Douglas/Lt Sinclair
Year: 1993
PLOT SUMMARY:
Colonel Reynolds and his group of government scientists continue their work on re-animating the dead for military use. His son Curt and his girlfriend Julie use Dad's security pass to sneak in and watch the proceedings. Later when father and son have a disagreement, Curt and Julie take off on a motorcycle and Julie is killed in an accident. Grief-stricken, Curt takes her body to the lab and brings her back to life. Curt must help Julie deal with her new existence as military agents and local gang members try to find them.
MY TWO-CENTS:
Return of the Living Dead 3 is a low budget zombie sequel that takes it self too serious and ends up being more of a comedy than anything else.
The romantic approach to the story is dull, uninteresting and it ruins all the fun the viewer usually gets from this genre.
The FX are nothing amazing but they hold up fine even today. The direction has some good moments with Yuzna building some interesting suspense and tension but nothing very exciting. He also cannot prevent the action from slowing down being unable to maintain a rhythm that will keep the audience's interest!.
The acting is not as bad as could be expected but it's still pretty embarrassing. Basil Wallace delivers an interesting performance as the Riverman and is very obviously the best actor in the movie. J. Trevor Edmont however does a horrible job as the lead with Mindy Clarke being left to carry the movie with her small amount of talent but great beauty. And yes we get a little nudity.
The writer however should get some credit for the bad acting. The dialogues are painful, the characters empty stereotypes [the Latinos are almost insulting] and especially Curt is one of the most idiotic, useless and irritating characters of all time.
The story is amazingly boring, and the romance almost takes front stage pushing the Zombies and the gore back. Of course there's a lot of blood but the romance is always there, with the `I love you, everything is going to be alright' routine repeated over and over again! Please, it's a zombie movie! We want chases, we want dead people slaughtering and being slaughtered! What is this? Garbage that's what it is.
After a while it gets unintentionally funny but still it's just a bad movie. Nothing good at all to mention. If you want an exciting bloody and action packed Zombie movie look elsewhere because not even the zombies are very scary here. It's all a waste of time! Boring, boring, and BORING.
* outta **** [for the nudity]
Directed by: Paul Anderson
Starring: Milla Jovovich/Alice
Michelle Rodriguez/Rain
Eric Mabius/Matt
James Purefoy/Spencer
Year: 2002
PLOT SUMMARY:
A virus has escaped in a secret facility called "The Hive," turning the staff into hungry zombies and releasing the mutated Lab "Animals" that they were studying. The complex computer shuts down the base to prevent infection. The parent corporation sends in an elite military unit, where they meet Alice, who is suffering from amnesia due to exposure to nerve gas. The military team must shut down the computer and get out, fighting their way past zombies, mutants, and the computer itself, before the virus escapes and infects the rest of the world. Alice must also come to terms with her slowly-returning memories.
MY TWO-CENTS:
The Playstation game Resident Evil [and its sequels], was so atmospheric, cinematic and downright scary that it begged to be made into a movie. Video game movies have a rap for being bad and it's true. Most of them are. Of course, most of them are written and directed by unimaginative hacks and constructed in studio boardrooms to shake some cash out of the kids who play the games. Paul "W.S." Anderson guy [not to be confused with the brilliant Paul Thomas Anderson] seems to have cornered the market on making video games into movies - bad movies. The guy is a hack who couldn't direct his way out of a paper bag. He's given a promising set-up from the games and before it's all over Anderson will reduce our crisp atmospheric story into a cheap trainwreck of quick editing and flashing.
On one level I understand Anderson's thinking. The games were based on George Romano's Night of the Living Dead so a Resident Evil movie is essentially a remake of NotLD. So he apparently decided the "better" way to go would be to dump the horror and turn this movie a glossy, techno action flick. At first it seems alright. The movie is the 2nd act of Resident Evil 2 - a high tech underground facility is producing a zombie virus, virus gets out, crew become zombies. The first few minutes are the most well done of the movie. We actually feel a little for the doomed crew [we hear one asking another for a date]. Then we get the now stock head-stuck-in-the-elevator-doors gag and it's all downhill from there.
Well, that's not true, he has a few decent gags here and there: a bit involving a grid of lasers, a flashback sequence that makes no sense but looks good and a nifty final shot. The best scene in the movie involves Jonovich and a pack of zombie dogs. She jump-kicks one in the face. The bit is so absurd, it's fun. If the rest of the movie were like this and didn't take itself so seriously we might have something here. The acting is as B-movie as it comes all the way around. The script is rock bottom. The single best thing about Resident Evil is Marilyn Manson and Marco Beltrami's thumping, driving techno score. Also is the ending, which in my honest opinion, is one of the BEST endings I have EVER seen in a movie and gives me hope for the sequel, Resident Evil:Apocalypse. That coupled with those few decent scenes makes this Anderson's best movie and the second best video game movie to date. Maybe I expected more since I loved the games so much. I guess for what it was, the movie wasn't all that bad. Recommended for entertainment value only.
**3/4* outta ****
Directed by: Danny Boyle
Starring: Cillian Murphy/Jim
Naomie Harris/Selena
Brendan Gleeson/Frank
Megan Burns/Hannah
Year: 2003
PLOT SUMMARY:
A powerful virus escapes from a British research facility. Transmitted in a drop of blood and devastating within seconds, the virus locks those infected into a permanent state of murderous rage. Within 28 days the country is overwhelmed and a handful of survivors begin their attempts to salvage a future, little realising that the deadly virus is not the only thing that threatens them.
MY TWO-CENTS:
28 Days Later could best be described as the thinking man's zombie movie. It is a literate post-modern take on the genere. Gone are the voodoo and toxic waste the we settled for in the past, these zombies are the by-product of experimentation on animals. In the film a group of animal rights activists break into a lab to liberate some animals, unfortunately they also liberate a blood-born virus that induces a zombie-like rage. Within 10 to 20 seconds of contact with an infected person's bodily fluids you are infected as well. Within 28 days all of Britain has succumbed to the rage-virus.
Enter Jim, our films protagonist [deftly portrayed by Cillian Murphy], he has just awakened from a coma into this world and must cope with a world who's rules of survival have changed. Eventually he hooks up with a small band of survivors who try to find someway out of this madness.
Alex Garland's script capture is highly inventive and although the dialogue tends to be predictable, he does add a nice darkly comic edge. Anthony Dod Mantle paints an amazing picture on screen that is at the same time rich and vibrant and dark and foreboding. Some of the acting is below par, particularly from the soldiers of blockade 21. However, Naomie Harris is superb as the pharmacist tough-girl Selena.
Despite its flaws 28 Days Later is still an excellent film. It takes many of the conventions of zombie movies and turns them on their collective ears in order to create a swift , yet tense film. It's one of a few recent western made horror films to truly pack a punch in the scare department. All and all, I'd have to recommend 28 Days Later to any fan of the genre and to movie-goers looking for something unexpected.
***1/2* outta ****
Next time, I'll review the movies starring everyone's favorite Hockey mass murderer, Jason. Later.