The Walking Dead

Based on the Hit comic series by Robert Kirkman

Release Date: Debuted Oct 31, 2010 on AMC
Rated: TV MA
Run Time:  60 Minutes
Episodes: 6(at this time)
Genre: Horror


A television series involving zombies? How could anyone pull this feat off? No way they could take what Robert Kirkman has been splattering on the pages of his hit comic series "The Walking Dead" over the past several years. The blood is not a rarity nor is the maturity of this series so could anybody really bring this to the small screen and make it worth the time of day?

The first episode is in the books now, things could easily change but my thoughts from this first hour and a half that we have been given is not something to be scared of.

I must say that without a doubt anything can happen in the next five episodes that could change my thoughts on this debut series, but I want to just give this series a review based off its first episode, which is a bit crazy to do, But i have my opinion and I dont mind sharing my braaaaaiiiiinnnns with you all.

TV is one thing I dont often check into, I have no currently active series that i truly follow, After "Lost" finished up I wasnt sure if i would have anything to really put my Tivo to use with. But Now that Frank Darabont (Man behind  "The Shawshank Redemption and most recently one of my personal favorite films "The Mist" Not a bad track record) has put plenty of effort into the 90 minute pilot for AMC.

But has the thought of a zombie tv series sunk in yet? Think about all the violence that is in movies such as "Dawn of the dead" or "28 days later" Could you imagine a show like that? Maybe on Showtime or HBO right? But not on cable.... Well AMC seems to be the go to channel for your mature content these days.

The series opens with a bloody child zombie and a nice headshot to finish her off, It instantly told me that AMC doesnt plan to treat this show poorly it will put all its effort into making it a worth while series with all the same content that you may see in popular zombie films and of course the hit comic series.

Without spoiling much the first episode introduces us to the main character of Rick Grimes played by Andrew Lincoln who isnt a house hold name, So right off the bat the casting may not get peoples attention, This actually might be the downfall to the series is the lack of true star power, Could it be that new stars are bore from the tragedy of the undead? Only time will tell when it comes to a TV Series, but not much you could really tell from one episode but I have to say Andrew has the look and seemed to fit the role thus far.

Rick Grimes is a sheriff's deputy from a small town who ends up getting shot while stopping a car chase, he awakes in a hospital alone with no answer to his cry for help. As he makes his way around the abandon hospital he slowly realizes the world has changed since the last time he was awake. Soon enough he finds his way to the streets which are just as lonely as the hospital was, Until we meets up with a father and son duo who inform Rick that the world has been infected by the Walking Dead.

As hard as it is to believe he must find his family as any hero knows his family is waiting to be rescued from this nightmare. The show seems to cover issue one of the comic pretty well.  Rick finds himself in search of his family only to end up in the big city. He is not alone.

The soundtrack looks to be a winner as the very calm and creepy music or lack of fits the new world that rick finds himself in now. The background sound is amazing at times you can just tell that the character is not alone that something is hiding in the shadows, The music is not about ripping your face off its more so a slight stabbing that just adds to the horror of things.

Something that plenty of people had brought up was the Comic series is black and white and how would that effect the TV Series if at all? Well of course the show is not black in white by any means, The red flows as crimson as you'd expect it to. But at the same time the series has its own feel to it, It has a very gritty feel to it, not your normal viewing experience it brings things more so down to earth, things dont seem to pop out oddly its more of a real effect that keeps you in the world of the dead.

Either way the Story, Sound, Look and Maturity are all things that make this series a Must watch thus far. Things could change as Days go by.

The only thing that might worry me is some of the casting with no huge names to hold the cast together these guys need to bond and bring each other together as family we will care about. We want to see them survive and keep on breathing. Hopefully Carol(the son) can be a stand out actor as he has plenty of air time ahead to shine bright.

I have Faith. Thus far it is an amazing adaptation of a great comic series. If you enjoy Zombies or end of the world situations or maybe just want a more mature series to watch, this would be the one to keep your eye on.


This is defiantly a hard little rant to post as its only based off the pilot episode and my fandom of the comic series but of course as always I would like you to judge it for yourself.
one thing is for sure....I hope the dead keep on walking.

Zombiemania Review

 "............."

Director: Donna Davies
Release Date: January 3, 2008
Rated: Not Rated
Runtime: 57 min


Some of my favorite movies of all time fall under the horror realm of film, Most of which happen to be Zombie features. Such as Night of the living dead and Shaun of the dead(among plenty of others)

One reason for my enjoyment of the zombie movies has to be the look and feel that they swarm you with, The art that goes into what the undead looks like, how they change with time or how everyone looks different. Always amazing and normally that could be a reason to enjoy a zombie film all in its own.

A nice example would be the work done by Tom Savini in Dawn of the dead 1978. He does some amazing work as do other folks that find a living working on the living dead.

Besides having the art feel to a zombie movie most of the time you can find some underlying message in the film which can jump from racial to government power or greed(falling in line with the works from George Romero) You have the option to take your own view on a zombie film, Blood thirsty monsters or are we the monsters?

The little rant that i have been typing is coming from a movie i just watched that is entitled "Zombiemania" it is a documentary from Donna Davies about the impact that zombies have had on hollywood or how hollywood has impacted zombies.

Its very well made talking about Early age zombies to the ones Romero made famous in his films to the new age runners that Snyder has made famous this decade. But the film doesnt focus just no the movies, We actually find some undead in books and video games.

The dead have infected our entertainment.

No doubt about that, I very much enjoy the dead in most every occasion that i find them in(Porn being the odd man out here, Looking at you Porn of the dead)
What really stood out for me was seeing my Favorite Author and one of my Favorite directors both in the same movie, Something that I never really thought i would see. Given my favorite author is famous for his Zombie novels but he still doesn't have the fame i think he deserves. The man being Brian Keene, Author of the book "The Rising"

George A Romero has plenty of screen time in this film to tell his story of how he didnt mean to make the Zombies that are now called "Romero Zombies" and his thoughts on copyrighting material and just some nice little tidbits from the man behind the undead.

Max Brooks of World War Z fame also has plenty of time to talk and i must say he is a funny guy and knows how to speak to the camera when he is given the time. If you dont own World War Z or The Zombie Survival Guide, Please go and pick them up now.

This documentary has plenty of people giving their thoughts on the transformation of the undead in hollywood and just in general. It does run fairly short in my mind but gives plenty in that time. A very cool movie I highly recommend to anyone who enjoys Zombies.

Really this wasn't a review, I dont see much of a negative in a documentary about zombies.
This is one of the best movies that i have seen on Netflix in awhile, I say go and eat this one alive.

The Crazies (2010) Review

 

Fear Thy Neighbor

Director: Breck Eisner
Release Date: 26 February 2010 (USA)
Rated: R
Runtime: 101 min

This is a remake of the 1973 movie of the same name by George A Romero (Night, Dawn and Day of the dead films and others) so in this fact alone it has a lot to live up to in my eyes. But then again the remake of Dawn of the Dead by Zack Synder in 2004 proved to me that you can change a classic and give it your own personal take, So will Breck Eisner be able to do the same in 2010?

The movies plot is near the same, This time around our main character is the town sheriff played by Timothy Olyphant (Hitman, Die hard 4, Deadwood) instead of a firefighter. Anyways we start out with what we mostly saw during the commercials and advertising campaign, Baseball. We see almost the whole town is in attendance for the home towns baseball game where everyone is have a great time until a local farmer walks onto the field holding a shotgun. Things get a bit tense and end up with a dead farmer in front of everyone in attendance.

We find out pretty fast that something is indeed in the water at Ogden Marsh, The sheriff tried to warn the mayor and get things figure out but of course things go horribly wrong. People start going crazy and kill each other.

The one thing i do want to point out this isnt a zombie film from my point of view, i see it more as a 28 days later type, They may or may not act or look as the Undead but they are more or so infected by a deadly virus. This virus that spread in the towns water supple doesn't take any time to bring the town to its knees.

Quickly the Government comes in to get their mess under control, People are taken to camps and others that are infected are taken to the high school, which leads us to one of the better scenes in the movie, A pitch fork is involved.

I dont want to go too much into the movie then i already have but it does have plenty of worth while scenes. Including the funeral home or whatever it was, the crazy doctor was a very creepy guy and one of my favorite earlier scenes in the movie. Also the Bus stop area towards the end of the film. The deaths in the movie may not really be the best or at the top of the gore factor but still some pretty decent showings.

The make up design is really good, specially as the virus spreads and infects the body for a longer period of time, thats when things get truly crazy. We get a scene later in the move at the Sherrifs house with some infected and i must say the make up was truly freaky. The CGI wasn't have bad towards the end of the film, but we did get a satellite view off and on in the movie that did seem to kind of take me out of the movie a bit but it wasn't anything horrible.

I really enjoyed the sidekick deputy played by Joe Anderson, i think he stole the show in the whole movie hands down. if for any reason i would just recommend the movie for the relationship of the sheriff/deputy that takes place in this movie. For a horror ish film i think they did a very excellent job.
We dont see too much new in this Horror thriller but we get a solid amount of action/thriller and freaky bits off and on in the movie to keep most peoples attention but toward the later half of the movie things defiantly pick up. I would have to say after the pitch fork scene things get fun and crazy.

I'm happy that George A Romero was brought on as a Producer for the movie as that made it feel a little bit more alright with me to have a remake, not that most people would even notice a thing like that.
This isnt a great movie but its a decent remake, with a solid pacing that gives us story over more gore then most films, its a movie that wants to more or so tell you a story instead of shoving blood and guts in your face at all times. Which i really like that in a movie.

I would say over all give this movie a try if you enjoy Thrillers with a bit of Zombie ish action, But remember its more along the lines of 28 days later then it is Dawn of the dead.

If you dont check out the crazies I wont hunt you down or put anything in your water supple. But no harm in giving it a chance.

Dead Snow

Ein! Zwei! Die!

Director: Tommy Wirkola
Release Date: 23 February 2010 (DVD premiere)
Runtime: 91 min
Rated: Not Rated
Language: Norwegian
-Subtitles: English

Zombies, Teens, Nazi's and in the Snow, What more could you want in a movie? Dead Snow is the latest Zombie movie to make my Must own list. Its not too hard to honestly do that because i very much just enjoy zombies period. But thankfully this movie is better then alot of the other stuff.

Normally you wouldn't really need a story for a zombie movie or well a horror movie even, This time around...Well okay so its nothing groundbreaking when it comes to the plot of the film. But....

The plot of the movie is a group of friends head out to a snowy cabin in the Norwegian Alps to party it up, drink and have all the sex they can imagine. This of course changes when the teens find out that the they have planed their party on an old battle ground from World War 2. The Nazi's are not very happy about this...Maybe if they had invited them to the party it would have been cool.

The run time on the movie is about and hour and a half in length, just long enough to build a tad bit of character and to give us a backstory into the zombie's mind. Then they bring on the gore. Plenty of time to bring us some exciting movie magic.

Cast isnt very big as we have a group of friends, but one of the friends doesn't make it in time for the party and the other decides its in his best interest to go find her. We also have the Zombie Nazi's of course along with the crazy old man who must tell the story of the snow covered land.

The story does have a few solid laughs from time to time, Almost a perfect blind of laughs and gore for a zombie film.  the Make up effects are pretty solid for a low budget zombie film and some of the scenes shine over others, as do most kills seem to get worst as time goes on. Without spoiling it too much, The amputation scene is amazing and is my favorite part of the whole movie, This scene alone i think is worth the view of the film.

I really enjoyed the last act of the movie, it makes the movie stand on its own by not really falling victim to the same old story, Given the very end might still make you smile and remember a few classic films, but it still added its own flair to the party.

I do want to point out that this movie is not on the level of say "Shaun of the dead" as that has a way different type of humor and of course a more laid back comedy side to it then Dead Snow has. So if you are heading into this movie expecting Simon Pegg to make you cry...You will be deeply saddened.

This is also the first movie I have reviewed that is Not in English, it happens to be in Norwegian,  As i enjoy foreign films alot and do plan to review more in the future. I know this sadly limits the views the movie will get but it still has English Sub's which i hope will allow people to give it a go.

Over all the movie is worth a solid view, I also do plan to buy it, As i find myself to be a die hard zombie fan. But the movie does seem to dance around the idea that it is a parody or typical teen party film. I found plenty of laughs and solid gore in the movie to give any Horror or zombie fan the go ahead view.



Nothing beats The UnFrozen Dead, let them warm up to you.