Tagged: review
Dead Weight: A Zombie Apocalypse in America’s Dairyland!
I had the pleasure yesterday of watching ‘Dead Weight‘ a great little indie horror gem all the way from my home state of Wisconsin. I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect from this one and to be honest, I haven’t really seen too much in the way of cinema coming out of “America’s Dairyland”. I’d have to say that Dead Weight is much less of a horror movie than it is a drama set in an apocalyptic wasteland.
I could draw some comparisons obviously to The Walking Dead, as I’m fairly certain that writers and directors Adam Bartlett and John Pata are big fans (I’ve heard the DVD will feature artwork by original Walking Dead artist Tony Moore!) but this plays out as something much more than a mere carbon copy. Sure the story revolves around a small band of survivors of some sort of viral outbreak traveling a barren landscape and yeah they meet some ultra sketchy people along the way. What we are really witnessing is one man’s psychological breakdown as he desperately travels by foot to reunite with his lover in a small northern Wisconsin city.
The movie shows flashbacks of Charlie (Joe Belknap) and his girlfriend Samantha (Mary Lindberg) before tragedy struck while at the same time following him on his journey to reunite with her after these events. I really loved the contrast between the warm colorful flashbacks and the cold, grey, dismal look of Charlie’s journey in the aftermath. Who would’ve known that Wisconsin would make such a convincing setting for a zombie wasteland?
The film really looks great too, the locations chosen really give you a feeling of dread and isolation which makes it that much more tense when other survivors enter the equation. What also grabbed me was the tightly woven story, which I might add has it’s fair share of twists and turns, something I truly appreciate in my cinematic viewing when done effectively. The short explanation for what may have caused this tragedy was also an interesting addition to the plot as it unfolded.
Dead Weight is pretty light on the violence and we barely see a “zombie” in sight anywhere throughout the movie. To me that’s great, as I’m quite honestly pretty burnt out on the zombie genre at this point. It seems people are still cranking out zombie movies by the boatloads these days, jam packed with, shoddy gore, CG blood and weak ass plot lines. That’s exactly why Dead Weight succeeds, its unique character study plays out quite differently than most zombie flicks.
Without giving too much away, I’d say this is a pretty true to life tale of how people might actually act in this type of situation. Sometimes there are no real heroes and people act simply off of their own emotions and selfish motivations, making the idea of a situation like this much more hopeless and bleak. Something this movie did a great job of portraying. That’s not to say the movie was flawless, the flashbacks were well put together but I really wasn’t fully convinced of the love and emotion Charlie and Samantha had for each other. In fact the two of them together felt a bit off at points. It would have been nice to really feel exactly what made Charlie go against all odds to try and reunite with her.
Plain and simple Dead Weight is a great slice of cinema from Wisconsin! An intriguing story and solid acting by all involved. This was a true independent film and the first for Adam Bartlett and John Pata. I was truly impressed that they pulled off a horror drama, I consider it quite daring as most people on a small budget in this genre go for the tired “over the top” zombie comedy. So kudos for putting some real heart and emotion into a memorable zombie film. That alone is an incredibly tough thing to accomplish in the sea of undead movies flowing onto the shelves these days! I’m pumped to see what these guys do next, I’d say they’re going to be putting the cheese state on the map of movie making in a big way in the near future….
Dead Weight will be released nationally on DVD and VOD January 21st, 2014. Look for it here soon on Netflix too. Check out the trailer:
‘Shout! Factory’ Rules My 80’s VHS Nostalgia!!
There are movies way back from when I was a kid that I never thought would see the light of day on dvd. I’ve fond memories of going to the video store (back in the 1980’s when everything was VHS or Beta!) on the weekend and picking out movies with my friends on our parents video store cards. Mostly what I remember most are the amazing VHS box cover art from the 1980’s and how excited I was to get back home and watch the movies! We had to be sneaky around our parents because a lot of these movies they would’ve never allowed us to watch. It’s funny to, looking back because most of these movies we were sneaking around with were incredibly cheezy horror, action or sci-fi flicks that most people today think are nothing more than laughable cinema. To us though that shit was fully legit!
So years have passed and many of those flicks have been forgotten right? WRONG!! Thanks to Shout! Factory we are getting a LOT of those classic movies released now on DVD! I recently had some extra money to blow and found two movies I’d thought would remain on VHS only forever. However not only did they have them both on DVD but they also came with three other movies each that I have never seen before, but fondly remember their cover art from back in the 1980’s!! First up is one of my faves as kid, The Eliminators!
This movie was featured a couple times at our Bad Movie Nights we have here in Pdx and it delivers the goods above and beyond every damn time! If you are looking for the ultimate movie to get wasted with your friends and laugh (and love at the same time) this is IT!
The DVD of this one also includes three other movies which I have never seen, “Arena” from 1989, America 3000 from 1986 & The Time Guardian from 1989. So for a mere $9.99 you’ve got quite an exciting quadruple feature!!
Second I found that they released “The Dungeonmaster” from 1985 which was also one of my all time favorite movies as a kid. Being eleven years old and seeing this one for the first time back then was a real treat. The movie is downright ridiculous but it’s jammed to the brim with stop motion monsters, puppets, animatronics, crazy action, adventure, Richard Moll in a cloak & a rock and roll battle against the heavy metal band W.A.S.P.!
This one should really be viewed as a double feature with Eliminators but the DVD also features 3 other flicks two of which I have never seen before! “Cellar Dweller” from 1988 which is a pretty cool little monster flick, “Catacombs” and “Contamination 7” from 1993. So if you love those old video store movies of the 1980’s as much as I do but don’t have a VHS player or access to these on video do yourself a favor and spend some time exploring the Shout! Factory website!
Survival Quest: Don Coscarelli’s Forgotten 80’s Wilderness GEM!
I had the pure pleasure the other night of watching a perfect 1980’s adventure flick I’d somehow never seen before! Survival Quest has got all the right moves to make it the ultimate 80’s flick for a movie that somehow slipped through the cracks into obscurity. Let’s count the things it has going for it, First it was directed than Don Coscarelli of Phantasm and Bubba Ho-tep fame, I mean I really don’t think I really need to go on, on that alone! But let’s continue, it’s also got Reggie Bannister, Dermot Mulroney, a young Catherine Keener and Lance Henriksen when it really meant something good when he appeared in movies. It’s got everything you want from the beloved era, an awesome score, incredibly hokey heartfelt moments (and there are many), some killer action and some laugh out loud ridiculous moments that only 1988 could give us in film making.
The premise simple, a group of mismatched people fly into a remote airstrip for a four week long survival quest adventure with team leader/guide/teacher Lance Henriksen. Sounds like fun huh? Well it might be except there’s also a troop of teenagers on the same land who’re being trained by a crazy, over the top, trigger happy survivalist who’s a cross between Eminem & Woody Harrelson!
This movie is non stop fun from the get go and never lets up in a way movies of today only dream of being. The survival quest soon ramps up to much more than enduring the elements of the wilderness. This is one of those movies that’s a real treat for anyone whom loves movies from the 80’s like Karate Kid or White Water Summer which actually would be the perfect flick to accompany this one as a double feature! What are you waiting for check this shit out-it’s on Netflix!
Goodbye 4th Edition hello “D&D Next”? Hmmm…
I recently just finished playing my first D&D 4th edition adventure, and though it was a good time I just personally wasn’t sold on the changes that were made to the game. I know 4th edition is old news now, but the reason why it took so long for us to finally try 4th was because we all liked 3.5 so much and the freedoms that come with those core rules. What they were trying to do with 4th was to make it more like playing a modern video game, which left for some stiff battle action amongst other things. It just wasn’t very interesting.
I’m getting ready to launch a new adventure where I will be the Dungeonmaster and we’ve all chosen to go back to playing version 3.5. Now though I play D&D more frequently than most gamers I’m not too up on all the new D&D merch and pre-written campaigns. All of our adventures are written by our DM, whomever that might be for each adventure. I like to think that we’re a creative bunch, we take it seriously but still like to socialize at times while playing, drink and smoke all while in the confines of the a candle lit basement. Just generally taking a real break from the real world.
So now I’ve just been hearing that D&D Next is the new thing for table top role players. So now just what the hell is D&D Next? It seems that Wizards of the Coast has had people downloading free play tests of this new edition. Supposedly “Next” is more of a throw back and combination of the previous editions. Thus far there is no firm release date for this new edition. I’ve heard some positive reviews for it, but at this point I’d have to be sold pretty hard on it to switch again to another system, obviously releasing new editions is a good way to make money but if it ain’t broken why try and fix it? here’s a few videos I found interesting about it!
Or if you have a few hours to spare you can watch this official game go down using D&D Next rules:
New “Marvel Knights” Comics Show True Potential!
Thus far with my limited budget I’ve decided to take a few chances on a couple of the new “Marvel Knights” limited series and I’m so far pretty damn impressed! I’ve been pretty bored with most of the super hero titles I’ve tried to keep up with and honestly have dropped almost all of them. I’ve first got to clarify I don’t get any promo or advance copies here to review, I’d LOVE to do reviews every week of all the new titles. I’m sure I’d find many that would blow my mind. I love all styles of comic books but I’d be liar if I said that I wasn’t first and foremost a superhero fanatic. I’ve tried many titles out there and it feels like perhaps we’re at another stale point in comics at least from the big two publishers. It seems to go in waves, but perhaps the whole super hero thing is a tad overblown these days with the huge shiny Hollywood blockbusters. It’s been reported that Marvel Knights this time around was launched to give some writers and artist with a more independent background a shot at giving some of the more popular heroes a slightly different feel.
Well recently I shelled out some cash for a couple of the new Marvel Knights titles which are right now just mini series. Last month I was pleasantly surprised to read Marvel Knights: X-men by Brahm Revel, who also was the writer artist of “Guerillas” which is now on my radar for must read comics. This X-men story was so impressive to me because of how well it’s smaller scale plot line played out(so far at least) in issue #1. Wolverine, Rogue and Kitty head out on a road trip together to a tiny backwoods town to investigate some child mutants that they believe may be in danger of being murdered. It reminded me of older X tales with a more personal storyline rather than some part of whatever big yearly extravaganza Marvel has planned to try and sell millions of books. It had me pumped to see where it will go next and Revel’s artwork as well was truly impressive with a darker, grittier feel to it. Reminding me that some of the best comic book stories don’t need to involve saving the world every day.
Yesterday I thought I’d give Marvel Knights: Hulk a shot as well, as I have been craving my Hulk fix for quite some time now. I’ve tried over and over to get into Indestructible Hulk but something about it just doesn’t click with me. I was pleased to find that this Marvel Knights Hulk was quite intriguing as well! Basically following Banner as he wakes face first in a river with no memory in Paris and is taken in by a local woman who tries to help him put the pieces back together of how he got there.
It doesn’t take long before things get crazy as some secret organization is hunting him down with giant Hulk like monsters. Like the X-men the story starts out small but it seems like this one is going to get pretty out of control. The art while not as impressive as the X-Men is solid but the story is thus far top notch and filled with mystery. I may have to check out more of these Marvel Knights books if they are of the same caliber. I think there is also a Spider-man MK book too. It’s nice at least to have a few superhero books to look forward to!
Filmage – The Story of DESCENDENTS/ALL: Delivers True Nerd Rage!
I was lucky enough to see the new documentary “Filmage” over the holidays, a movie I felt like I’d waited my whole life to see! Yeah it was that good and it chronicles the story of the legendary pop-punk godfathers the DESCENDENTS / ALL from their start in the late 1970’s. It’s about time that these guys get the recognition they deserve and it seems as if these days they are more popular than they’ve ever been.
If you don’t know who the Descendents are then this is the perfect place to start as Filmage is premiering now all over the USA. But plain and simple The Descendents are the BEST pop punk band of all time. They’ve influenced countless bands and if it it wasn’t for them It be a safe bet to say that a band like Green Day would have never existed. I pretty much sum them up as the ultimate in real teen angst. The true spirit of what it was like to be a nerdy teen with raging hormones. Growing up in the 80’s I loved punk rock but it wasn’t until I heard them the first time that I really found a band that truly spoke to me as a teen.
The Descendents said all of the shit that you were really feeling growing up, something a lot of the punk bands lyrically were maybe too macho to sing about. Yeah they were most definitely not politically correct, at times even sexist, incredibly sappy, often crude and totally immature but at their core just a band of heartbroken nerds with no punk rock image. They covered the spectrum of hardcore punk while at the same time ripping into shameless love songs simultaneously. How many bands can even pull that off today much less back in 1982?!
Well Filmage gives us the full scoop into the minds of these guys, their lives, their struggles and transitioning from the Descendents into the much less popular outfit ALL back in 1987. The movie was made by true Dents fans and it shows by how much care was put into this documentary. Filled with amazing vintage footage of the band, incredibly personal interviews, hilarious animated sequences and interviews with the likes of Dave Grohl, Mike Watt, Mark Hoppus, Keith Morris amongst many others whom cite the band as having a huge influence on them.
It’s funny, sonically awesome and emotional as we follow the struggles of the band members lives up to current times. The movie in the end is really the full story of Bill Stevenson, the bands only constant member throughout Descendents and ALL while also filling us in on his time as drummer for Black Flag from 1982-1985.
It’s his journey as the band leader and all of the friends along the way that helped make his dream a reality. It tells us exactly why the band is finally getting the attention they deserved all these years. While watching it I was almost glad they never hit the big time, as the band always stayed true to their signature sound til this day. We also get a great glimpse into ALL’s struggle to fill the shoes of the bands most valuable musical weapon, Milo Aukerman, the ultimate nerd front man.
I don’t wanna give away to much of the story but I put this up there on the same level as “A Band Called Death” one of the years best rockumentaries. So check this out if you’re jones’n for the full story of the greatest melodic hardcore band of all time-you won’t be disappointed!
Check out the trailer:
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Trailer…not so Amazing…
The Amazing Spider-man 2 trailer dropped today and I swear I’m trying to have an open mind about it! But True Believers, let’s be honest, if you are an actual real comic book fan of Spider-man then I know you agree this movie’s shaping up nicely to be a giant flaming Electro-cuted sticky Green Rhino-cerous TURD!!
I’m not gonna spend too much time on this depressing topic, because it’s really not surprising at all. Thus far it looks more like a pilot to a video game than to an actual movie. This trailer sports some downright uninspired CGI and some simply wretched versions of the some of Spidey’s most famous villains!
First we’ve got a CG version of Jamie Foxx as Electro flying around like the tooth fairy sporting his new bad ass American Apparel hoodie…
Next we’ve got Paul Giamatti as ‘The Rhino” driving around a tank with horns looking like a reject out of a Michael Bay Transformers flick.
Lastly what angers me most is this new “Green Goblin” or as I like to call him: lame James Franco Goblin version 2.0. Seriously we get another shot of having an awesome Green Goblin, one of the most amazingly rad looking comic book villains of all time and you give us THIS stupid shit AGAIN?!!
Wow we’ve reached new lows here with Spider-man. I guess at the very least Spider-man looks like Spider-man, I mean they cant fuck that up right? Add on a story that looks like it was Sam Raimi’s rejected first draft for Spider-man 3 and we’ve got a total clusterfuck for true Spider-man fans. What a shame. Oh yeah in case you all think I’m just a big whiny baby here’s what the villains of Spider-man 2 should have looked like..
and…
and finally…
Finally people quit telling me that they couldn’t make these costumes work because they would not translate to film well. This is a movie of a comic book, we don’t need it to look real world style. It’s based on a fucking comic book. What’d be so wrong with keeping it that way?
The Shaolin Cowboy deliver’s the Ultimate Zombie Massacre!
I just recently started reading The Shaolin Cowboy from Dark Horse Comics and so far it’s a blast. I’ve been familiar with the title and years ago browsed through the comic thinking that for the art alone, that it looked like something that I’d love to read. Well about six years ago was when the seventh and at that time the last issue was released. I forgot about the book, and honestly with comic books being around four bucks a pop it sometimes isn’t a matter of wanting to read a title, but choosing what I can afford. If it were up to me I’d be reading or trying out dozens of titles weekly.
Well last month I saw The Shaolin Cowboy was back in a new mini series and this time I decided to give it a shot as honestly I’ve had a hard time getting into my favorite superhero books lately for whatever reason. Well I’m happy to say the book is delivering on a different level than I’m used to. Shaolin Cowboy doesn’t really seem to have a real plot, I could tell this by the weird “the story so far” section that preceded issue #1. The comic book is a strange dream like tale that is a real feast for the eyes! It’s artist Geoff Darrow is hands down one of the best, if not the best in the industry.
Issue #2 was a surreal treat, it featured thirty three straight pages of zombie carnage as the Shaolin Cowboy hacks, slashes, punches and kicks his way through a horde of undead, swinging a bo staff rigged with two chainsaws on each end. It’s a beautiful massacre and not a word is spoken in all thirty three pages. Darrow has claimed this book is his excuse to “draw whatever he wants” and the character “does whatever he wants”, I say that’s more than ok with me, I’ll be back for issue 3 and hopefully the last seven issues will be released in a trade soon.
Lastly, while reading the recent issue I’ve decided that they should consider making a movie based on this book. It’s clearly evident that The Shaolin Cowboy should be played by Sammo Hung. He’s the perfect age and look for the part, and I can only imagine him choreographing these bizarre fight scenes. From Sammo’s back catalog of weird ass movies I’d say he’d be perfect for the part and hell maybe even as director. I said it here first!
Comic Book Cover of the Week! Bill Sienkiewicz & The New Mutants!
Here’s on of my fave covers from the 1980’s era New Mutants. Issue number 19 from 1984 always stuck in my head clearly because of the incredible skills of Mr. Bill Sienkiewicz! Seriously, this guy’s artwork is some of the most unforgettable in comic book history. The comic master of the abstract, you always know you’re getting something special when his name’s attached. Back in the mid 1980’s he did some incredible artwork for The New Mutants, most of which was very dark, jagged and gritty. It further set the tone of the mutant based books in the 80’s as just that. Something a little more hard edged than the regular superhero books. This is one of my faves from that era of the New Mutants but believe me all of his cover artwork for the title is breathtaking. He’s a true comic book legend in every way….
“Curse of Chucky” is the Ultimate Franchise Sequel!
I saw “Curse of Chucky” last night, the sixth installment to the franchise and the second BEST movie of the series! I honestly didn’t know what to expect from this one, except that it was reffered to as some what of a reboot and that it was going to bring back a more frightening version of ol’ Chuck than the last two movies which to be quite honest I wasn’t much of a fan of. Really for me the first two are the only ones I’d ever, up to this point, I have any desire of watching again at all. That being said I was fairly certain I’d be in some way disappointed here with Chucky in 2013. I really couldn’t have been more wrong, as ‘Curse’ not only delivered the goods but exceeded my expectations and packed a punch full of surprises to boot!
This one once again, helmed by Don Mancini, who wrote all six films (but only directed my two least favorites) brought the story back to basics. I wouldn’t be lying if I said this one felt like a straight up reboot when it started out, but believe me this one’s got more to it than meets the eye. The story starts out relatively simple, handicapped Nica (Fiona Dourif, Brad’s daughter!) lives alone with her mother in an old creepy mansion and receives a strange package in the mail-guess what’s inside? Yep-A Good Guy Doll!!
Shortly thereafter Nica’s mother is found dead and soon the rest of the family arrive to meet up for the funeral and stay the weekend at the old creepy house. Nica’s young niece Alice takes a liking to the Good Guy doll and then as you might guess mayhem ensues. Now that’s about all I really need to tell you plot wise, it’s really best if you don’t know much more than that. What I can tell you is that it’s the perfect film to bring the franchise back to what it’s best known for which is some good scares like only Charles Lee Ray (Brad Dourif) can deliver. This installment brings back the horror that has been missing for so long but neatly serves as the perfect end to the franchise while also opening the door to possibly one more movie?
Now onto what people had been fearing since the preview hit for this a couple months back, that Chucky was going to be CGI in ‘Curse’. Well fear not, he’s still fully done with puppetry and animatronics as Fiona Dourif tried to set the record straight back in July on her twitter page. There are a couple very short sequences that may or may not have been CG animated to some degree, but 99% of the FX you see are hands on puppetry, fake blood, latex, castings, old school 80’s style gore. The proof there lies in the special features which are definitely worth watching. So what we have here is a great direct to dvd release, which I feel should have made the theaters.
Curse of Chucky fully connects to the original 80’s Child’s Play, I’d like to call it the “Rocky Balboa” (meaning Stallone’s last Rocky movie he made in 2006) of the series. If they never made another Chucky or Child’s Play film ever again this one would be the perfect stopping point. But if you stick around til after the credits, for the awesome yet somewhat confusing(?) finale you might agree there could be one more story to tell here! This Halloween Chucky is back on TOP!!
Universal Dork 