Showing posts with label Zombies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Zombies. Show all posts

Thursday, May 20, 2010

ZOMBIELAND: THE HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH

Little Rock: Who's Bill Murray?
Tallahassee: ...I've never hit a kid before...
I mean, that's like asking who Gandhi is.
Little Rock: Who's Gandhi?

This is by far the most clever and well written zombie movie ever made. In fact, among movies that start with a Z, this movie is the highest grossing ever. Box office gold. It's a post apocalyptic world, where zombies have taken over and zombies are notorious for not cleaning up after themselves. We meet Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) who is one of the few non-zombie survivors. He has survived so long because he has developed a 32 point plan for how to protect and defend oneself against the zombies. Along his quest to get back home to see if his family has survived, he runs into Tallahassee (a delightful Woody Harrelson) who is a buff, gun toting zombie killer.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

INVASION

INVASION NEEDS A GOOD DOSE OF PENICILLIN "My husband is not my husband." My movie is not my movie. See Nicole. See Nicole run. Run Nicole, run. I've seen this movie before: Invasion of the Body Snatchers, War of the Worlds, Children of Men, Stepford Wives, Planet Terror. INVASION is the answer to recent additions to the english language such as Pandemic, SARS and Avian Flu. It goes along in a quite and predictible plot-line. Nicole Kidman is Carol Bennell, a therapist who is having a really bad day. Her ex-husband wants to have their son spend the night and then goes and turns into a "zombie", then her friend does, her patients do and her special "best friend" as well. Most of the movie is spent in rapid running/speeding cars. Everyone's gone and turned zombie, there's no hope in sight until they all lived happily ever after. There is absolutely no connection between Kidman and her "love interest", Ben (Daniel Craig), and both he and her ex-husband, Jeremy Northam, were VERY convincing as zombies. The crucial part for Kidman in this film is not to fall asleep (and turn into a zombie). Too bad the movie didn't want the same from its viewers.
NOT a Pick: Mildly entertaining but nothing to lose sleep over.

Friday, January 4, 2008

PLANET TERROR

PLANET TERROR SURPRISINGLY TERRIFIC
I wasn't going to include this review because I know about my twisted preferences in films and I would consider liking this movie a bit twisted. However, it comes with credentials from director, Robert Rodriguez, the mind behind El Mariachi, Desperado, Sin City and so on. He and Quentin Tarantino paired up and each made their own "grind-house" film, which, in theaters, was shown together with fake movie trailers (as does this one). I don't know why they didn't release on DVD together, but really don't care. Someone's having fun with their biology homework and suddenly people are breaking out all over; literally, with actual gory, gut-wrenching breakouts and then they morph into some sort of zombies. Yeah, it gets pretty gross, but more in a booger/zit popping kind of way. This is a true action movie. Lots of things get blown up, set on fire or shot at with heavy iron. The cast is all star and no one gives a bad performance; Bruce Willis, Rose McGowan, Josh Brolin, Nicky Katt, to name a few. The fun part was seeing the regulars in Rodriguez's other films making an appearance, including Tarantino himself. There was not a bad actor in the bunch (although Fergie should keep with the singing thing) but the standout was our hero, only second to McGowan, El Wray (Freddy Rodriguez). He was commanding, brave and made some very funny one-liners. That's the second part to why I liked this film. Rodriguez wrote most of the script after he had placed the actors. Some of the lines or sayings are theirs and he just put that in their character. It wasn't a movie that took itself too seriously. Characters were instant messaging and using cell phones (before they were commonplace or even invented) including a good reference to the Food channel, also not around then. The extras on the DVD is worth taking a look at. Always look for Rodriquez's 10 minute film school. In all its gore, this was a fun movie to watch. Just don't plan on eating afterward.
Rating: Gory and icky, but also funny and entertaining. Bueno El!