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brahmulus
Reviews
Land of the Dead (2005)
World Premier @ Cinevegas
I will be attending the World Premiere of LotD tonight. There is an Award Presentation for George A. Romero which precedes the screening.
I'm looking forward to this and I have no fear of fresh and repackaged Romero...
As long as the zombies are slow, lumbering and easily underestimated.
"Theyr're Communicating" will hopefully only reference the most primal and basic of communication like when an army of ants know where the melting candy bar is, or when a school of fish all move in the same direction at the same time...
Use of weapons? Maybe. As long as its extremely special and rare (afterall we got a zombie using a weapon in the very first film that started it all.
These are just my pre-movie jitters talking, in the end I can barely contain my excitement... World Premiere... here I come...
(full report to follow)
P.s.
How long before the walking dead simply decompose? Anyone? ;)
Shock Waves (1977)
Not really Zombies
Though i can easily see why they would use zombies in the tagline or for marketing purposes... the cool thing to remember here is that these are not Zombies, as in Romero's undead clawing out of the grave, hungering for flesh and spreading the zombie plague.
They are in fact the direct results of the Nazi's infamous and esoteric SUPER SOLDIER experiments.
So these are altered humans that were bio-engineered to do battle, be hard to kill, live forever, not need to breathe or eat, etc...
Once this is taken into consideration, we see that it is a slightly unique approach to the genre and the standard Romero mythology should not be applied to these particular baddies.
and for all of the films short comings... man do those guys look bad ass or what.
Can anyone say... REMAKE!!!!
Jack the Giant Killer (1962)
I saw this movie on February 18th 2004 on Showtime Beyond
I always fancied myself a connoisseur of classic sword and sorcery movies, but this gem has some how slipped by me for decades. I was very glad I caught it recently on cable. Keeping in mind its 40 plus year old release, I'd have to say this film was pretty solid. Its antiquated effects only heighten its nostalgic value and fantastic feel, but i caution you to still watch this movie with a bit of mercy and leeway.
Surprisingly, the 'demons' in the castle were rather authentic and creepy in a very contemporary sense (check them out), as well as the marching dragon men guards on the bridge, and the make up of the evil witch alter-ego of the princess (complete with way ahead of their time Micheal Jackson Thriller giant yellow demon contact lenses) all of which came off with an eerie modern vibe.
I absolutely love how there were so many unique creatures always lurking about, like the Star Wars cantina scene or a Power Rangers episode. Kudos to the relentless onslaught of evil magical spells and fantastic beasts that were constantly thrown at the heroes until the end credits rolled. If modern screenplays/films of this genre were made with such attention to monsters and battles and true fantasy action versus all the other crapola thrown in to attract non fantasy fans... we'd be in good shape... and maybe even be privy to a simple great fantasy flick that is packaged in an actual 90 minute movie (remember those?)
A non stop eclectic mixture of characters from every conceivable fantasy realm and fairyland mythos intertwine in this flick for a most interesting watch indeed. Also, plenty of fun over the top dialogue about witches and demons and dragons and little people, plus more cheesy stop animation and I Dream of Jeannie dissapearing acts than you can shake your plastic Viking sword at.
A real treat that had previously escaped me, as well as an obvious pre-cursor to the pinnacle godfather of stop motion sword and sorcery movies... Clash of the Titans... all hail.
As a fun bonus, watch for the strange (real?) almost handicapped limp of the evil wizard Pendragon, as well as what appears to be some flaws in the colorization proccess during the demon vs. ship scene.
Sure you could rip this movie to shreds and pick it a part at will, but why? Its older than your mamma and a lot more fun. So grab a beer, gather the kiddies, and sit back and enjoy... and just keep thinking to yourself how this thing screams modern REMAKE!!!