The Dead Just Keep On Coming

Coming Right For You!

In even more zombie news. The Hollywood Reporter announced that George Romeros original zombie opus Dawn of the Dead is going 3D! I really don't need another reason to see this film in the theaters but here it is. My mind is already racing at what a 3D treatment will do for certain scenes, chopper zombie anyone, and the true horror here is that we'll have to wait a year to find out. Let's hope they push this up and we see a Halloween release.
For the full story and an explanation of the 3D Dimensionalization process go here.

Summertimes Blues

With summer coming on fast it's time to say goodbye to all my TV friends. Normally this wouldn't be the case as summer replacement shows would kick in. The writers strike screwed all that up and some shows have been canceled (4400, Dead Zone etc.) and some like FX's The Shield and Rescue Me have been delayed. So what's a media whore Geek like myself to do?
Fortunately, there are so many movies I want to catch up on that I shouldn't be hurting too much.
As most of you know, DVD's come out on Tuesday. Yesterday saw the release of a couple of things I'm excited for, and one I'm slightly curious about.

Right out of the gate, probably one of my more anticipated releases. George Romeros Diary of the Dead. If you've been following my ongoing manifesto, you'll know I braved the crushing traffic of Northern Va., and endured the most interminable wait on a movie theater snack line ever to see this film. If you haven't read my NorVa adventure go here. True, I had some issues with the movie, but I still sported a zombie stiffy for this reboot of my favorite franchise and of course I highly recommend it.
Here is my review.
The disc is packed with extras so I'm excited for that as well and will probably watch at least once with the commentary on. There are also featurettes, Romero talking about his inspiration and many others. I know I should wait for the eventual Bluray release, but I'm all about the instant gratification.

Tying in with Diary of the Dead is the 40th Anniversary release of the one and only Night of the Living Dead. I know most of us have this film in several different forms. My understanding is this is the one with Romeros seal of approval. Personally, I own pretty decent copies of this movie, but I will still rent this for any extras I may have missed. Romeros name on this edition leads me to believe he may actually make some money from this one after letting the film slip into public domain. If you don't own this film, pick it up. If you do, now might be a good time to rewatch it. We can all stand around the pyre and blow out the birthday zombies together.


Finally, while it's true I was born in the 60's. I consider myself a product of the 80's and was just entering adulthood in 1982 (still in my teens) and had no idea how a degenerate angry punk rocker was going to fit in...anywhere. Fortunately someone took a chance on a little show called Square Pegs which was the Freaks and Geeks of my time with a much better soundtrack. This show gave us our first glimpse at the fashion icon that is Sarah Jessica Parker, the much much cuter Amy Linker (god I feel like such a perv right now), Jami Gertz (Star from Lost Boys - tell me you didn't have a crush, I dare you!) and valley speaking New Wavers (totally, totally). The show only ran for one season, but it was all we needed. I don't think I could have taken Square Pegs: the College Years where Muffy develops an 80's style coke habit. Does it hold up today? I for one plan to find out. I don't think I'll break down and buy the set, though Amazon is listing it for a budget friendly 25 bucks, but I'll definitely put it on my Netflix list.

You know, maybe the summers not looking so bad after all.

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………

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.

Frustrations of the Dead

While most guys were feeding their honeys semi burnt toast and undercooked pancakes for breakfast in an attempt to be forgiven for the years past transgressions this past valentine’s day weekend. I convinced my wife to travel 100 miles north to Alexandria Virginia to catch George A Romero’s newest zombie flick Diary of the Dead. If you’ve been reading this blog you already know I’ve been a wee bit excited to see this film, and nothing says I love you like a healthy dose of shambling carnivorous undead.

Before I get to the promised review I have a few things I need to get off my chest. Now anyone who knows me will tell you I am the epitome of laid back. Nothing phases me, Charlie’s as serene as they come. Then they will burst out laughing and take a step back to avoid the oncoming lightning bolt. Demons will start putting on snowshoes and parkas in preparation for quick frost coming hells way.

Ok, so the ride was pretty uneventful, we made great time and traffic was what I expected it to be. We get to the theatre, the AMC on Swamp Fox road and one out of six of the ticket kiosks were in working order. There are 21 theaters in this place and I pre-purchased to avoid standing in line. Fortunately, as I said we made great time and this didn’t slow us down too much.

Let me just say, I have a few pet peeves. Blinker negligence is one of them, as is parking two feet from the curb. These however are minor irritants. Since when, may I ask, is standing in line for 18 minutes acceptable anywhere other than the DMV, or to get concert tickets? I just drove 90 minutes; all I want is a salty snack and an ice cold beverage. Let me start with concession stand guy, let’s call him J, (he knows who he is) The only way I can describe the alacrity with which J moved is to compare him to the old man Tim Conway played on the Carol Burnett show. My god time actually moved backwards around him to give the impression of forward motion. Now J, buddy, if you’re out there, maybe there is some physical reason you cannot move as fast as, say a crawling infant on valium, and if that is the case I am truly sorry for singling you out, but did you ever think that maybe the fast paced world of food service is not for you? Give the ticket window a try, at least you get to sit.

So here we are waiting for an interminable length of time. The impatient people behind us are starting to encroach on our personal space earning baleful stares from me and Tere. Finally, there are two people ahead of us, we can see the light at the end and the woman at the counter doesn’t…know…what…she…wants.

C’mon, really? We’ve been standing here for how long and you don’t know what to order? You do know this is a theater right? The choices are somewhat limited. There’s no menu really to speak of. I can understand not knowing if you’re in the mood for nachos, but not knowing what you want after standing here all this time, were you sleeping? She changed her mind so many times, and I watched J go back and forth at a glacial pace. Tree Ents were waving their branches in frustration (look it up, it’s from the Lord of the Rings)

I actually had to step off the line to curtail the oncoming tirade I was about to unleash. I have never wanted to slap food out of someone’s hands more than I did when she walked past me with enough snacks to feed three, and if I were younger I would have gladly done so even at the price of a ticket. (I also would have done it if someone was filming cause nothing important happens if it’s not filmed – ohhhhh, foreshadowing)

I’m gonna skip the part where the couple behind us decided to talk through a good portion of the movie because ignance is ignance, at least they didn’t bring a baby.

Oh, people, just for the record, leaving your phone on vibrate is nearly as annoying as leaving the ringer on. You know that fly in your room that keeps you awake half the night? It’s quieter than your vibrating phone. C’mon, it’s not new technology. Turn the sounds off. If your wife is pregnant and you’re expecting her call what the hell are you doing at the movies?

Northern Virginia is like a roach motel. You can get in, but don’t expect to see any signs to get you out. We actually had to consult the map to get on the highway that was less than a ¼ mile away as there were no signs ANYWHERE! It took sheer luck, and fifteen minutes of circling to find the on ramp and fortunately it was going the right way.

Needless to say I would rather fly to New York to see movies Richmond may never get than to go to northern Va. for an afternoon.

Thanks for letting me rant/whine. Let me know what bugs you. Maybe I’ll start a list, as long as “bloggers that waste my time with pointless whiny rants” isn’t on it.

In the meantime enjoy this clip of Tim Conway, you only need to watch the 1^st few minutes to get the J experience.

I’ll review the movie tomorrow….promise.

Don't Zombies Have Anywhere Else To Hang Out?

Most people that know me know there are two things I find entertaining, video games and zombies. Specifically zombies in film, comics or video games. I've tried zombie literature but after about thirty pages of "uhwahhh", "grrrrrr" and "br-a-i-i-i-nssss" I tend to lose interest. Zombie vocabulary is a little too limited to allow them to write books, and they're horrible typists, fingers keep getting stuck between the keys and popping off. The exception being Max Brooks amazing World War Z, and the Zombie Survival Guide of course, but he's not a zombie....yet.
So a mix of zombies and video games usually leaves me giddy, but when I see my favorite things cheapened by senseless lawsuits, well lets just say I get a little dead inside. (pun intended for those keeping score)
New Line Cinema and the MKR Group, current rights holders to George A Romero's Dawn of the Dead are claiming copyright infringement against Japanese game publisher Capcom citing the video game Dead Rising rips them off.
Let me lay the similarities out for the uninitiated. Both properties have zombies. Both properties have humans. Both properties have a shopping mall.
That's about it.
Dawn of the Dead (the original) is a film about four desperate people trying to survive an unimaginable apocalyptic situation of unknown origins by taking refuge in a shopping mall.
Dead Rising is a video game on the XBox 360 system about a photojournalist trapped in a shopping mall for three days who uncovers a plot to zombify the world. There's a much bigger story to Dead Rising that involves the governments attempt to mass produce beef, but you get the idea.
Where Dawn of the Deads violence was unforgiving and brutal, Dead Rising is almost comical. Anything in the mall can be used as a weapon including giant Lego heads, golf balls and the ever trusty chainsaw.
Dawn of the Dead has a feeling of despair and solitude. Dead Rising has a new person to save around every corner, and the most dangerous foes are living humans driven mad by their situation.
While it is clear that Dead Rising is influenced by Dawn of the Dead, they have about as much in common as Godzilla 2000, Cloverfield and Ghostbusters. At least those three were the same medium.
I think I should also mention, Dead Rising has been available since 2006 and included a disclaimer on the cover "This game was not developed, approved or licensed by the owners or creators of George A Romero's Dawn of the Dead".
I have to wonder why New Line doesn't go after the wholly enjoyable Hong Kong comedy horror film Biozombie which also features humans battling zombies in a shopping mall. Oh yeah, they're not as ilthyfay ichray as Capcom.
Capcom has since fired a preemptive strike and are seeking a declaratory judgment that the idea of humans battling zombies in a shopping mall cannot be protected under copyright standards.
Now, considering George Romero got completely screwed in allowing Night of the Living Dead to fall into public domain. I'm all for giving the man his due. However, George has nothing to do with this lawsuit. I wish the folks at New Line could see how this kind of action cheapens the whole franchise and could adversely affect Diary of the Dead which was released in a limited run today. If anything George should countersue New Line, and while he's at it endorse Dead Rising, and go after Atari for the horrible licensed Land of the Dead: Road to Fiddlers Green game.
While I can't imagine New Line winning this waste of legal resources, the action may be enough to delay work on Dead Rising 2, which I imagine will take place nowhere near a shopping mall.
Dead Rising is currently available as an XBox 360 Platinum Hit for a budget price.
The original Dawn of the Dead is available in several formats including a pristine blu-ray edition and as angry as I am with New Line, if you haven't seen it, what are you waiting for?
This weekend I'm driving 90 minutes north to see Diary of the Dead......I hope to review on Monday.
Have a nice weekend all.

Field Of Screams

Well, this past weekend I finally went to see Cloverfield. I was reluctant at first. After all, reviews were all over the place, and history has shown us that anything with this much of an internet buzz usually fails to live up to the hype. Remember Snakes on a Plane? Exactly, no one does. Then there were all the gripes about the shaky cam, really? If you are bothered by the shaky cam, then you do not spend enough time on the internet. We are exposed to far grainier poorly shot video than this on a daily basis, and we love it so much, we send it to everyone we know. If anything I was amazed at how well thought out each shot had to be. The shakiness of the camera was a character in itself. In a movie lacking a soundtrack it was the camera work that told us when we should be tense and when to take a breather. I’ve seen a lot of comparisons to Blair Witch, but I think Cloverfield is a more intimate claustrophobic film. No easy feat in the middle of a normally bustling city like New York. Where Blair Witch relied on perception to deliver scares, Cloverfield shows you everything.

Being a New York native, I’m glad I didn’t see this movie back home. I’ve read about some angry New Yorkers walking out of the theater and I can see why.
See, New Yorkers have always felt a degree of invulnerability. Back home nothing can hurt me. I can fall asleep on the subway, yell at a random stranger for bumping me in the street, run across midtown traffic without fear, because in some way New York protects its own. That was until 9/11.
9/11 affected the sense of security of every New Yorker who was in the city at the time. It left a lot of us bruised and reeling. Cloverfield brought me back to that time. At one point the main characters are separated, just across the street from each other by a wave of soldiers and vehicles rushing by firing guns and missiles. The noise is frightening, the bursts of light from the guns is frightening. Our heroes are separated by less than 20” and it may as well have been a mile.
My wife and I both thought of the armed National Guard that stood along 14^th Street and in the subways during the days following 9/11.
Films that have tried to deliver the emotional impact of that horrible time in New York have not even come close to the desperation and helplessness as Cloverfield has.
I’ve read a bunch of reviews of Cloverfield that have blasted the film for the same reasons I liked it. I wonder where those reviewers were during 9/11? Did they walk home across the Williamsburg Bridge among people covered in ash unable to take their eyes off the column of smoke a couple of miles away feeling very small?

Another gripe I’ve read is that the characters are not entirely likable. It’s true, they were average 20 somethings. There wasn’t anything to really like or dislike about them. That was the frikkin’ point. They weren’t heroes, they weren’t special they were just..themselves. If anything the actors deserve credit for being so believable in their normality. When was the last time you watched a war documentary and thought hey, there’s a soldier I want to hang out with? The film lets you know right at the beginning. This is found footage – no spoilers there. At that point you know enough to not to get too emotionally vested in these people. The real star in the film is the camera. The people are just a support system.

Cloverfield was one of the scarier movies I’ve seen in a long time. The film is fairly light on gore but heavy on special effects that pay off. I’m not saying it’s for everyone, but neither was The Exorcist when it came out. I think time will prove Cloverfield a true classic and it will be hailed alongside films like The Exorcist, Jaws and The Shining as a true innovation in horror. Cloverfield may be the definitive horror of this decade. Tailor made for a culture reliant on YouTube, 24 hour news channels, and reality programming.

I only wish this movie had not hit before George Romeros Diary of the Dead coming on Feb 15^th as Romero is using a similar camera technique, and there is no doubt that unfair comparisons will be made. I’m a huge Romero fan and it would be a shame if his film suffered from negative reactions to Cloverfield.

If you’re a geek and haven’t seen Cloverfield, chances are you’re going to wish you had, and if you’re like me and prefer walking through the subway tunnels at night rather than wait for that local that runs every half hour to go 2 lousy stops,…..you will...never…do…that…again.

Cloverfield was directed by Matt Reeves and written by Drew Goddard.
It was produced by J.J. Abrams.
It stars Lizzy Caplan, Jessica Lucas, T.J. Miller, Michael Stahl-David, Mike Vogal, Odette Yustman and New York City.

Plus one big ass monster……..