I Want A New Toy

This guy showed up a while back, but I lazed out on writing about him. I mentioned back in February that I was going to pre-order which I hate to do. When it comes to ordering things I revert back into a five year old and check the ship date with such regularity you would swear I had OCD.


His official title is Subject 805: Tactical Containment Unit Operator. I don't know what that is, but it looks cool on paper. He's from Sideshow Collectibles, and part of their original The Dead line.
If you're not familiar with Sideshow you should check them out. They make figures for a lot of licensed products and you'll probably see something you like.


Now, I have a lot of toys, but the pride of my collection are my 1/6th scale (12") military figures. I don't think I ever grew out of my original GI Joe phase as they were my faves as a child. There are several companies producing these such as Dragon and Blue Box. They are made to be as historically accurate as possible down to the slightest detail. Weapons may be metal with moving parts and removable clips. Buckles snaps and belts all work. Even the zippers are scaled down in size to make sense with the uniforms. All in all, they are true collectors pieces.

It looks like Sideshow Toys is giving this fanboy what he wants by creating an army of undead to battle the army I've been amassing over the years.



First thing you'll notice on 805 is the face sculpt. Sideshow did an amazing job. It is obvious that 805 is loosely based on Dr. Tongue, one of the first zombies seen in George Romeros Day of the Dead. The skin color is perfect, and the face wound is particularly gruesome. The darker red on the inside of the tongue suggests bruising from biting down on it too much.





805 is missing his left hand, and if there is anyplace I could pick nits, this is it. The arm is locked at an angle, I would have preferred it pose able. At least ship the figure with an optional arm.






The uniform is basic blood spattered BDUs and a tactical vest. 805 ships with a radio headset, machine gun and a stand with The Dead logo printed on it. Other items in the box are paper documents which are impractical and shouldn't be unpacked.

The figure is solid though as are all Sideshow figures and short of the left arm, can hold a variety of realistic poses.
I'm pretty pleased with 805 since it combines my favorite toy type with my favorite subject, zombies.


I have a pre-order in for Subject 1025: The Babysitter as well. I'm also going to try for a Comic Con Babysitter exclusive, but I'm not to hopeful as those sell out fast.

Of course while it's great to have a zombie figure, this could lead to complications.

No sooner do I get him on my shelf........

Get it off! Get it off!!

Ahhh!

Take it down!

Fire at will!

Kapow

Don't you die on me!

You did all you could.

Holy crap he's alive!

Grrrr, Arrggh!

Something tells me I'm going to have a lot more zombies before too long.


If anyone knows photoshop and would like to gore these up, feel free.
Let me know if you do

All photos in this post are Creative Commons,
Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share Alike


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

A Day In The Unlife...

Please bear with me as I’m working from a two week old memory, which in my dog years can be like months.

What can I tell you about Steve Miners Day of the Dead, the most grossly ill-named film this year? Actually calling this film Day of the Dead is like calling Friday The 13^th Wet Hot American Summer. If you’re getting the idea that this film has nothing to do with the George Romero 1985 classic you would be dead on and you should have done better on the SAT’s. It’s a shame really, cause the film had a lot going for it. The budget was definitely higher than you normally see on these types of films. Mena Suvari and Ving Rhames give the film a semblance of credibility. Even Steve Miners name, while mostly associated with television has a certain pedigree with a couple of Friday the 13^th flicks, Warlock and Halloween H20 under his belt. In fact, Day of the Dead would have been a much better movie under a different title and if they avoided making insignificant nods to the original by keeping the names and some settings intact. The potential was there, and as I said, it had a lot going for it and some parts were wholly entertaining.

Here’s the story rundown. A small town in Colorado becomes infected with a virus and is under quarantine. One of the officers (Suvari) has family in the town and accompanied by a communications officer Bud Crain (Stark Sands) drives into town to take her mother to the hospital. Soon the outbreak reaches critical and the town inhabitants become superhuman flesh eaters. Survivors band together and uncover a plot to create a super soldier while escaping the overrun town.

Ok, you might think. Sure it has nothing to do with the original, but it sounds like a good time, why all the negativity?

Right, fair enough, let’s start from the beginning.

Starting with the title. Let’s forget for the moment that there is already a film called Day of the Dead, heck, let’s forget there’s a Mexican holiday called Day of the Dead. Assuming these four words were never put together in a sentence in our current history, why does the bulk of this film take place at night? Now I know Dawn of the Dead did not take place at dawn though a key scene establishing the deads dominance does. Plus the title makes sense in building upon a franchise. For that matter the original Day of the Dead was primarily underground, but all the external shots were day shots, and besides Subterranean Silo of the Dead doesn’t have the same ring. A better title for this film would be Night of the Infected, or something along those lines.

Let’s jump to the talent. Mena Suvari worked pretty well with what was given her, but that wasn’t much. It’s hard to buy this cute as a button pedophiles wet dream as a military officer, and where did she find form fitting BDU’s? The last thing I should be thinking while watching a zombie flick is “damn, did she always have that butt?”, but think it I did, and in most situations this would be a perfectly rational thought, just not when flesh eating ghouls are active.
For the record, I now believe every Suvari film should have at least one view of her rear. Get that in the contract!

Ving Rhames was underused. He had little more than a cameo, and his end was off camera so there was no Ving Rhames bad-assery to be had.

Nick Cannon, the current Mr. Carey? Well mom always said if you have nothing nice to say. He bugged the hell out of me and every scene he opened his mouth in dragged painfully. Dude, I loved Drumline….what happened?

Actually the standout for me was Stark Sands as Bud. Why they would change Bub to Bud is beyond me, but his lovesick tame zombie was great. He was both menacing and likeable just as Sherman Howards Bub was in the original with a bit of Billy Connolly as Fido thrown in.

Everyone else in the film did an ok job, but like Suvari, just didn’t have a lot to go on. AnnaLynn McCord as Nina stands out among the supporting cast, and I may have bought her in Suvaris role as she seemed tougher and older at times. Fan favorite Christa Campbell also makes an appearance.

Day of the Dead breaks a lot of rules. The “zombies” are closer to the rage affected of the 28 Days film. Once infected, they quickly get sick and, I assume, die. Faster than you can say flesh eating bacteria, their skin starts splitting, lesions form and tad ah! Instant Zombification.

Along with the new undead appetite comes some super agility. Zombies jump from windows, leap 12 feet onto victims and somehow gain the ability to crawl across ceiling grids that would never support their weight. For awhile there I thought I was watching Marvel Zombies. Yet for all this newfound great power, they were not capable of pulling a 110 lb girl from an air duct by her feet when she was within arms reach, nor could they catch her if she got a 10 foot headstart.

Any zombie picture will stick to at least one, in my opinion, unbreakable rule. When a character gets attacked, they must without exception, show up as a zombie later in the film. Romero established this in Night by bringing Johnny back, and it’s a damn good rule. Main characters in this film are bitten or whisked away never to be seen again. C’mon, not even the main “villain” Dr. Logan shows up for our heroes to take down. That’s just unforgiveable.

Don’t insult the fans intelligence. We love Troma films. It doesn’t take a lot to make us happy, but simply reusing character names from another film doesn’t make it a remake or a reimagining.

Zack Snyder understood this with his reimagining of Dawn of the Dead and not only did he give Dawns (original) four male leads, I’m counting Tom Savini, cameos, He also cleverly named one of the malls shops after the female lead Gaylen Ross. Fan appreciation does not go unnoticed, neither does insults.

While I’m being insulted, guess why Bud (Bub) the horny docile zombie won’t kill. Take a minute, think about it……don’t know? He’s a frikkin’ vegetarian. I kid you not. That would make the safest place in the US during a zombie war Berkley Ca., some parts of Seattle and Colorado….where this damn movie takes place! Me, I’d probably hop the first flight to India myself.

Don’t even ask me about the promo art. I don’t get it. A zombie puking? It’s not gross or scary.

Bottom line. If you love zombie flicks and want slightly higher than average production values Day of the Dead may be for you. You’d better leave your preconceptions at the door though cause it has absolutely nothing to do with the original.

If you’re an easily riled purist, you may want to avoid this film all together. Oddly, if you’re not a zombie fan but love B movies than you may really enjoy it as well since it’s closer to a cheesy action film. At least it didn’t put me to sleep.

Of course that could be attributed to Mena Suvaris butt………

Read You Loud And Clear

I'm ashamed to admit that I'm like a lot of people out there in that I love to read, but hate reading. Uh, wait a minute...how can that be possible?
Let me explain. I read a lot. I frequently visit news sites such as Newsvine and the Onions A.V. Club and Kotaku. I have several magazine subscriptions, and a stack of comics I can no longer keep up with that I add to on a weekly basis. Unfortunately, on the nights I do try to curl up with a book, it's everything I can do to stay awake for ten minutes. Not because reading or the book bores me. I am assaulted by so much material all day long that by the time night rolls around my eyes can barely stay open.
I also try to keep up with all other aspects of geek culture like movies, tv, video games and music.
Before the internet claimed my soul, I easily read a book a week. I took public transportation, and left my gameboy at home. I read as I walked narrowly avoiding passers by. When I waited for someone, I would pull a book out and let the time pass. I didn't jump on my cell and call everybody I can think of to waste a few moments with. Maybe Amazons Kindle is the way to go.
As hard as it is to find time for some hardcore reading, I'm also not much of a fan of audio books. I have gone the audio book way on rare occasions. I knew I would never read The DaVinci Code, but wanted to know what all the hype was about. I listened to it unabridged during my morning training runs. This was multitasking that I could live with. I'm toying with doing the same with Ayn Rands Atlas Shrugged. It'll probably take me a thousand miles to finish the thing though.

I read World War Z by Max Brooks when it was released in hardcover. I love this book, if you haven't read it, you're denying yourself a good time. I actually wanted to read it again, but I've already explained my difficulty with time management, and stacks of reading material.
That's when I came across the World War Z podcasts. Thinking they were a related podcast, I downloaded them. (there are 10) The podcasts are excerpts from the audio book, are free, and they hooked me. The World War Z audiobook plays out more like a radio drama and less like a reading. Imagine an NPR show devoted to survivors of a zombie war. Max Brooks plays the role of the interviewer. His voice is pleasant and professional as he questions his subjects who walk us through the oral history from patient zero in China to the monument in Yonkers erected in our victory over the undead.
The subjects are not lacking in talent either. Alan Alda, John Tutturo, Carl and Rob Reiner, Henry Rollins, Jurgen Prochnow and Mark Hamill who's voice talents are flawless are possibly the most recognizable names in the credits, but everyone does a great performance. You can find a full cast listing at the Random House World War Z page. Since the book travels the world, some of the accents may seem campy, but I think this is done more to give us a feel of the accent without making the dialogue incomprehensible.

This version is abridged, obviously the attention to statistics so important in the book are toned down. I also found myself missing the section of the book that takes place on a German sub, and a floating community of ships. I don't know why sections were cut, but for an audio book the budget must have been huge.
I listened during my commute, and the story is done in 6 hours.

Brad Pitt has won the right to produce World War Z the movie, and J. Michael Straczynski (Babylon 5, and many many comics) is currently working on a script.
The problem is, there is so much material, that nearly any story can be expanded to a film. Todd Wainios battle at Yonkers and his trek across America, or Christina Eliopolis' trials after falling from a plane over Louisiana swampland (if she does appear in the film and is not played by Christina Ricci then the casting director should be shot as a zombie), T. Sean Collins story of protecting the rich and famous holed up in a webcast paradise is also chilling enough to be it's own feature. Like The Walking Dead, World War Z would make an excellent limited series, maybe eight to ten one hour long episodes in documentary style.

World War Z is written by Max Brooks and published by Random House
Even if you have read the book, the audio book adds a different layer to the story and is well worth a listen.
The audio book won an Audie award in 2007 for Best Multi-Voiced Performance.
I have seen the audio book for as little as $15. at Barnes and Noble.
Download it from ITunes for $19., or torrent it (not recommended (ineedtosaythat)). You won't be disappointed.

Shooting The Dead

I promise this is the last zombie related post till the next zombie related post.

(I dig zombies, what can I say)
This is, in a sense the second part of my day with Diary of the Dead review, so if you have not read the previous post, please go back and do so. Think of it as a “choose your own adventure” story for the really really lame.

Done? Good.
I’m going to try to avoid spoilers, but let’s be realistic; it’s a Romero Dead film. It’s not if zombies get the main characters, it’s when.

Here’s a shocker, I thoroughly enjoyed George A Romero’s Diary of the Dead. Romero has returned to his roots of guerrilla film making bypassing Hollywood and making the picture he wanted to make, and it shows.
The films tone more closely resembled the original Dead films Night and Dawn in the sense that Romero has hit the reset button on the genre he’s created and brought us back to the first days of the zombie epidemic.
Diary of the Dead takes place in a world without Resident Evil or Evil Dead, if there’s a George Romero counterpart in this world he’s still working for PBS. There are no known zombie rules in Diary of the Dead. No one automatically goes for the head shot, or get’s the now clichéd idea to head to the nearest mall, a bite is just a bite and certainly not deadly. As our heroes learn, Romero’s rules of the dead are in place and it’s only through trial, since there’s no room for error, do they discover what those are. One thing that bugged me in the Dawn remake was only a bite would turn you, but as the one legged priest in the original Dawn said “When the dead walk the earth señors, we must stop the killing, or lose the war” Any dead body will rise in Diary, which ups the ante considerably for our survivors.

Just who are our survivors?
A group of film students and their teacher are out in the woods of Pittsburgh filming a mummy picture when the first news reports start coming in. Finding the dorms deserted and not knowing what to do, they load up in an RV and try to get to their respective homes.
Jason who wants to be a documentary filmmaker controls the camera through most of the film. I say most because one of the themes of this film is the camera as a safety net and at times as an addiction. Where Hud in Cloverfield seemed to keep the camera going out of shock, Jason operates obsessively, needing to create his movie The Death of Death which is the true film we are watching. While he may hide behind the tenet of needing to get the truth out, it’s really about how many hits his MySpace page gets. Don’t get me wrong, Jason isn’t a bad guy, he’s doing what he believes is right, and that belief includes a strict non interference policy. At one point he’s charging the camera battery when he hears shots coming from the direction his girlfriend Debra had gone. Unable to leave the camera you can feel his relief when Debra appears at the doorway. What happened? He asks. If it didn’t happen on camera, it didn’t happen she replies.

Like all of Romero’s Dead films, Diary has a somewhat heavy handed social commentary to make. Unable to trust traditional news media, information publication falls into the hands of the bloggers and the YouTubers, but it’s only a matter of time that all this information and all this news spinning becomes noise and you can no longer tell what truth is. Where does our responsibility lie? Is it our role to prevent atrocities or document them?

I wish I could tell you who played who, but with a cast of newcomers and my lousy memory for names I can’t. What I can tell you is each character was fleshed out just enough to let you know them. One thing I love about Romero films is his short story approach to characterization. Unlike another writer/director named George who creates great characters but can’t get them to live on screen, Romero’s written characterization is basic, and it’s in front of the camera that they become real people. Our group meets up with a mute Amish man in one of the movies funnier and terrifying moments. Romero captures everything you need to know about him within a few minutes of screen time and I find myself caring about what happens to him. The same goes for another band of survivors we meet who have organized with military precision under the leadership of an ex national guardsman. The lead guardsman was great and I’d love to see Romero tackle another film just about these guys. You can see how a society like the one in Land of the Dead could form from survival groups like this trying to rebuild.

Romero also dips into his own bag of tricks to give us little nods to previous Dead films. From soldiers cleaning out an apartment building, complete with a resident shouting “don’t go in there” (a direct nod to Dawn) to a home being overrun as in Night and a zombies guts spilling out as it attempts to rise (dream sequence from Day). Romero reminds us that somewhere a woman named Barbara just lost her brother, and a guy named Steven is still flying his helicopter for a local news channel and everything is going to hell.

My nits to pick are small. With Romero returning to his roots I would have liked to see more “live” gore effects. The whole film was shot in 23 days and many of the effects were added digitally. Since the film was financed without a studio backing it this saved Romero a ton of money, but I found myself missing latex chunks torn from necks and torsos being ripped into as condoms filled with stage blood erupt and paint the actors. One effect involving hydrochloric acid really took me out of the moment as it was clearly digital.
I also found it difficult to tell how much time had passed and how much distance has been traveled. Unlike Cloverfield, The Death of Death is an edited film, and while that eliminates complaints over how long it takes to get from downtown to 59^th street on foot, it also eliminates our timeline. I’m assuming that our group is on the road for several days, but I could be wrong.

The makeup however, by Greg Nicotero was top notch and the first zombie in particular reminded me of why I love these films.

So to wrap up, George A Romero’s Diary of the Dead is a must see for fans, and I’m hoping it gets a bigger distribution. If you’re a casual fan or new to the zombie genre, this reboot will show you what makes Romero the king, and why nothing is scarier than a slow zombie.

George A Romero’s Diary of the Dead is in limited release.
For a list of theaters click here.

Where Have All The Cowgirls Gone?

I have one question for all of you. When did the Japanese develop dream reading technology, and why are they reading my dreams? Ok, technically that’s two questions, but bear with me. I’d been cruising around kotaku.com the other day, which is a great site for video game news when I found this intriguing image.

Turns out there’s a pretty popular (wonder why) videogame series in Japan called OneeChanbara. Roughly translated to big sister sword fighting, Oneechanbara features a bikini wearing cowgirl sword fighter named Aya battling hordes of zombies who bleed so much if you don’t clean your sword regularly it gets harder to wield.

I’ve never played these games, though they may be coming to the states for the Nintendo Wii and X-Box 360. None of this, however is important. The fact that this franchise is now a LIVE ACTION MOVIE is.

Aya is joined by Saki the schoolgirl and Reiko the cop who are also playable in the games. I own a lot of wacky Asian cinema, but this one may take the cheesecake. Just look at these shots and tell me you won’t be searching for this on ebay.

This may just knock the Dark Knight from my number one spot of most anticipated film of 2008……enjoy.

One more thing....

Thank you Japanese dream reading technology…..

Zombie Apocalypse...Are You Ready?

I usually buy my calendars about 1 week into the New Year when they're 50% off. Guess they had me figured out this year by offering a calendar I couldn't wait for. I bought the desk version and I can't wait to see how the year turns out.
I just hope the dead don't start walking till 2009 when I'll be fully prepared.
Remember, it's not if you survive, it's how long you survive.