Zombieland (2009) Review

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(More customer reviews)Let me start off by saying that I'm a huge zombie fan. Whether they're Romero's slow-moving shamblers or the fast-moving runners from Return of the Living Dead / 28 Days Later, I will give any zombie movie a try. Enter Zombieland, which when I heard about it, I instantly thought of that direct-to-DVD drivel you see on the rental store shelf that can barely pass as a B-movie. After watching the trailer however, I was genuinely intrigued. Luckily, my friend managed to get her hands on a few preview passes and what I saw was one of the most fun and enjoyable movies I've seen in years.
I'll say it now: This movie is NOT scary. If you go in expecting scares and frights, you're in the wrong place. While there's the occasional "boo" scare, Zombieland is a horror-comedy in the vein of Evil Dead II, The Return of the Living Dead, Shaun of the Dead, etc. As a matter of fact, the director was inspired by Shaun of the Dead to make Zombieland. The horror-comedy mixture is is a very hard thing to pull off, but this movie does it pretty well, leaning more towards the comedy.
The cast is great, with Woody Harrelson being the stand out. He is such a great tough guy and delivers some truly great one-liners that it brings back memories of his Natural Born Killers days. Jesse Eisenberg is the "goofy dorky guy" that keeps popping up in movies these days. He does a good job, but is nearly indistinguishable from someone like Michael Cera, who plays the exact same role every time. I liked this guy better because frankly I'm sick of seeing Michael Cera these days. Emma Stone (aka Jules from Superbad) plays a good tough girl and looks exactly like she did in Superbad, which isn't a bad thing. Abigail Breslin is fine, but she felt slightly out of place. There's also a bigger-than-a-cameo role by one of the funniest actors of all-time, but I don't want to spoil it here. Trust me, it's hysterical.
That's about it for the cast, except for the zombies themselves, which are very well done. They're gross, gooey, and vicious and the make-up and special effects look fantastic, especially now in the age of CGI crap. The movie does not skimp on the gore, so be prepared for a healthy serving of blood, guts, and zombie bites. The post-apocalyptic scenery looks amazing and really pulls you into the film. Zombie fans, you will not be disappointed.
The comedy is executed quite well. While whether something is funny depends purely on personal taste (pun intended), I think this movie balances gross-out humor, sight gags, witty banter, black comedy and plain-old "Number 2" jokes perfectly. One of the funniest bits is when Woody Harrelson's character rides a roller coaster while simultaneously wielding a shotgun and shoots zombies that follow him around the track. It was clever and a blast to watch. Think of your favorite comedy; Zombieland is probably not as funny as that, but it will definitely make you laugh. It's not the funniest movie ever, but it does an admirable job.
Other than that, I can't think of anything else to say. I have minor nitpicks, but most of them are standard horror clichés that didn't really take away from my enjoyment of the film itself. Do yourself a favor and check this one out, it's a great horror-comedy.


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Nerdy college student Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) has survived the plague that has turned mankind into flesh-devouring zombies because he\'s scared of just about everything. Gun-toting, Twinkie-loving Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) has no fears. Together, they are about to stare down their most horrifying challenge yet: each other\'s company. Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin co-star in this double-hitting, head-smashing comedy.

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Review

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(More customer reviews)Well, well, well; so after taking the remake rights, remaking the film for illiterate American consumption, retitling it Quarantine, milking the built in horror box office numbers, and releasing the DVD they are finally releasing the real film now that all of the money to be made off of this one has been snapped up by the major studios. Refusing to release a film in the USA until they can remake it and scrape up every last penny to be made just to deny the original creators their fair share of the profits for their work is vile, people. I hope you were smart enough to leave Quarantine alone and wait for the real thing. This is why hardcore film fans own region-free players. Don't settle for a copy of a copy of a copy or that is what we will continue to get. Support the original works so they can get the theatrical runs and treatment they deserve some day. Subtitles will not scorch your precious little eyeballs, foreign languages will not harm your ears, and watching a non-American cast should not upset you that much. A great film is a great film and it shouldn't have to be re-shot, dumbed-down and rendered creatively bankrupt for you to enjoy it.
Oh, right; I was going to review the movie. Sorry about that.
"REC" is a Spanish horror film that follows the trend of films like Cloverfield and The Blair Witch Project by having the entire story told through the lens of a constantly-filming camera and throws in some of 28 Days Later's mad intensity to create a film that is annoyingly familiar in execution, but still a must-see. The execution here is fantastic and the end result is as frightening as any of the films mentioned above.
In "REC", a young, beautiful reporter hosting a late night show is doing a story about firefighters working the graveyard shift entitled "While You're Asleep". After a meet-and-greet and a few fluff segments our heroine Angela and her cameraman, Pablo, follow the firefighters on a routine call. They end up inside of an apartment building where a call was placed about a disturbance. They head upstairs to check it out and see an old woman standing motionless in the dark, her clothes bloodied. This sort of thing seldom ends well. After some doings transpire, the residents, firefighters, policemen, and reporter duo find that the building has been sealed off and is surrounded by police threatening deadly force. BNC (Biological, Nuclear, and Chemical) protocol is in effect on the entire building and nobody is getting out. Nobody seems to know what's going on. Then the killing starts.
"REC" is unoriginal on several levels; essentially a hodgepodge of concepts and techniques that have come before, but it is damned effective because it only steals the best. If you didn't like the style of "Cloverfield" or Diary of the Dead then you are unlikely to enjoy this either. In fact, the camera might be even shakier on this one. You'd think with a supposed pro handling the camera, the picture would be more stable. While there is nothing approaching the deep, dark, cutting social statements of Romero's work, there is a little bit to chew on. While interviewing residents, Angela finds one man matter-of-factly rambling about his "Chinese" neighbors (they're Japanese) and their disgusting eating habits while essentially implying that they must be the root cause of the rumored infection. This is so very true to life it almost hurts. Blaming the foreigners never gets old no matter what country you live in. A very nice touch. As the story unfolds and the characters start to unravel, the pace of the film picks up substantially. The result is several minutes of pure chaos. The mystery infection can take minutes, hours, or days to manifest symptoms, making everybody in the building a liability. Talk about tension.
While the pacing is a bit slow at times, there are some amazing scenes. Before I saw "REC", there had been only a few children in cinema history that truly frightened me. Add another to that list. Jaw-dropping performance. The final act is a masterpiece of suspense and intensity. With the power cut and the police outside practically waiting for everyone inside to die, Pablo and Angela -with their camera as the only available light in the building (genius)- attempt to escape upstairs, hoping to find an attic leading outside. What they find is a supposedly abandoned room that contains the answers to the story's mysteries and one of the most terrifying apparitions ever seen in a horror film. There are some amazing shots, genuine scares, violence with a little gore, and plenty of screams along the way. My God, are there screams. I have to say that in spite of the fact that much of this had been done in previous films, I wanted more of "REC" and am looking forward to the sequel. Not the inevitable remake sequel. The film is a short hour and fifteen minutes and the ending was annoyingly abrupt and ended with lame music, but hey nobody's perfect.
Either you enjoy these kinds of films or you do not. For fans of the emerging shaky-cam horror genre, this is for you. If you're not a fan, either skip it or take some dramamine beforehand; this one's not for the faint-hearted. A lesson in low-budget intensity is this movie. It is unexceptional considering what has come before, but it is executed well enough to make it well worth a watch. Consider "REC" a rec.
Additional message from the soapbox, incoming...
Let's face it, people: foreign horror is kicking our tails. It has been for a decade at least. If we want America's sleeping horror giant to wake up again, we've got to stop supporting the sub-par recycled garbage that is piling on top of it. That means saving your cash for the films that deserve it -independent, controversial, hardcore, R-rated, uncompromising HORROR- and forsaking all others. No Tara Reids or Paris Hiltons, no PG-13s, no Paul Andersons or Michael Bays, and no more God-cursed remakes. Take the money for that ticket and again I implore you to go buy a DVD of the original works instead. It'll make you a real American hero.

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From Executive Producers who brought you Quarantine, comes the movie that inspired the terror. A beautiful TV reporter (Manuela Velasco, Law of Desire) and her cameraman are doing a routine interview at a local fire station when an emergency call comes in. Accompanying the firefighters to a nearby apartment, the news team begins recording the bloodcurdling screams coming from inside an elderly woman's unit. After authorities seal off the building to contain the threat, the news crew, firefighters and residents are trapped to face a lethal terror inside. With the camera running, nothing may survive but the film itself.

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Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010) Review

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(More customer reviews)Yes, Paul W Anderson, the director of Resident Evil Afterlife 3D, used the same Fusion 3D camera set up as Avatar, evidenced by the film credits and 3D featurette on the 3D Blu Ray, which also plays standard 2D. The 3D as a result, looks excellent and better than most 3D films out there, excluding Imax's Studio Nature productions. From the opening to the end, everything pops out far greater than you might have seen. The rain in RE:A3D looks spectacular and the depth really shines as though you're "in the movie". This is what 3DHDTV was made for. If you miss this and own a 3DTV, your loss if you like action movies.
The movie has elements of the Matrix's fight scenes and slow motion, with The Walking Dead's zombie infested city. The film covers Alaska, Tokyo and Los Angeles. The opening action scene is a highlight and really slick, packed with blazing machine guns and acrobatics. There's also a Axe man scene worth buying this disc for alone, and a cool but short end fight scene with RE5's Albert Wesker. The story is a basic "escape plan" movie, but in the RE style. This is the best one so far IMO.
The featurettes are 47 minutes total, and informative, including cast interviews. There's also a screen in screen presentation, director commentary track, deleted and extended scenes and more.
Overall, if you own or eventually plan to buy a 3DHDTV, buy this version for a few extra bucks, as it plays in regular 2D on regular HDTV's and players and looks great in 2D, but exceptional in 3D.
Movie: 8/10
3D: 9/10
Extras: 7/10

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The fourth installment of the hugely successful Resident Evil franchise, Resident Evil: Afterlife is again based on the wildly popular video game series, and will this time be presented in 3-D. In a world ravaged by a virus infection, turning its victims into the Undead, Alice (Milla Jovovich), continues on her journey to find survivors and lead them to safety. Her deadly battle with the Umbrella Corporation reaches new heights, but Alice gets some unexpected help from an old friend. A new lead that promises a safe haven from the Undead takes them to Los Angeles, but when they arrive the city is overrun by thousands of Undead - and Alice and her comrades are about to step into a deadly trap.

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Tales from the Darkside: The First Season Review

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(More customer reviews)News of the release of Darkside's first season on DVD was long awaited. Unfortunately, the product ultimately delivered was a tremendous disappointment. Please be aware that all of the show's original music has been changed here for every episode as far as I can tell, with the exception of "Inside the Closet", which is presented with its original score. In all fairness to the producers of the set, this music alteration is mentioned on the back of the DVD case, along with a statement about some episodes that may be modified. However, these facts are stated nowhere in the amazon.com product description, so many buyers may find this out after the fact.
It appears that music library licensing has forced the producers of this set to strip the series of all of its original soundtracks. I find it somewhat difficult to believe that compensatory arrangements couldn't have been made with the original composers or their families in order to allow for this music to be included in the DVD release. Consider the DVD release of The Twilight Zone, for example. Beyond the 4 or 5 major composers that contributed music to that series (Herrmann, Goldsmith, Constant, etc), there were a plethora of other musicians that contributed little musical cues, as confirmed by the new Zone book by Martin Grams. With this in mind, the Zone DVDs still present all of the original music from the series. Again, I find it difficult to believe that the producers of the Darkside DVD set could not have done the same.
I personally would have paid $20 to $40 more for the set if it included the original music. For me, the inclusion of altered music makes the DVD set utterly unacceptable and unwatchable. For all of its campiness, low production value and overall marginal episode quality, I really feel that the music of this series was well written and indispensable. Some viewers, and especially anyone new to the show, may not care about the altered soundtrack. However, for anyone with even a casual admiration for the series, I would think that the changes made here will be of great concern.
Regarding the picture quality of the DVD release, it appears that no effort was made by the producers to improve upon or re-master the video. This being said, I would not say that the visual quality is poor. It is at best average, but does not take away from the enjoyment of the viewing experience. That said, it is my opinion that the visual quality of the program as aired on the Sci Fi channel is better than what one would get with the DVD release. If nothing else, this is still disappointing.
There are two other very minor issues that I would like to mention. This is really nitpicking on my part, but hopefully it can be of value to someone. First, the commentary by creator George Romero that is advertised in the product description appears to be nothing more than bits taken from an interview done with him around the time of the creation of the series circa 1983. In other words, Romero has not been actively involved in contributing any new material to the DVD release, which he could easily have done. This is in a way deceptive advertising, as the product description leads one to believe that Romero provided new commentary for the purpose of the DVD release. In addition, this supposed commentary appears as an option for only one episode, the pilot "Trick or Treat". My initial impression after learning of the inclusion of commentary was that Romero would sit down and review at least 5 of the most well written episodes of the season. The second gripe is virtually meaningless, but something that was still disappointing. The show's commercial bumpers are not included in the set. This is trivial, but I cannot help to again reference the DVD release of The Twilight Zone, which does include all of the original show bumpers as each episode went to commercial. In virtually every way, the Zone DVD release is IMO the model for which all other TV programs should strive. Unfortunately, this release came nowhere near to satisfying what the fans of the program deserve.


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TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE:FIRST SEASON - DVD Movie

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Soap: The Complete Second Season Review

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(More customer reviews)SOAP was amazing when it aired, and it still has a lot going for it. The slapstick scenes are impeccable, the comedy is brilliant and sharp, and the heartwrenching scenes are so well done! It's the story of two sisters and their respective families - Jessica Tate and Mary Campbell. In true soap opera form in this second season someone is convicted of murder wrongly, everyone seems to have an affair, several people have near nervous breakdowns, somebody gets kidnapped by aliens, impossible love rears its head several times, and somebody forgets who they are! This doesn't even BEGIN to cover all that happens!
SOAP moved at lightning speed doing what most soap operas take years to develop. I watched it back in the days it was on, and I was afraid it would not hold up well. Guess what? It does! SOAP was funny because of the characters not topical discussions. Sure there are plenty of 70s touches - the costumes, the way the show looks, but it's still funny and moving. The ensemble was unbeatable!
The DVD gives you 23 episodes spread out over 3 discs. You also get an unaried PILOT, and a featurette with the creators. It was the FIRST show to have a content warning before it aired, the first show with an openly gay character (Billy Crystal as Jody Dallas), and it's soooooo irreverant and politcally incorrect! Black jokes, gay jokes, veteran jokes, talk about orgasms, talk about infidelity, talk about impotence, mental health issues, hookers, politicians -- I could go on and on with the tabboos this show broke! It seems a little less sensational here in 2004, but it's still something special. Too bad they didn't put more on the discs - COMMENTARY FOR SEASON 3 PLEASE!, but the show itself is well worth the price! Is the picture quality poor? Not too bad but you do see some flaws, but that may be because of the way networks taped shows back then. SOAP was never high on production values, just high on its own giddy satire! Like video laughing gas!

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SOAP:COMPLETE SECOND SEASON - DVD Movie

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