Small town, hapless folks, average day, and a comet. All of which are the menu for a brutally satirical zombie film known by horror fans as “Undead.” The low budget Aussie production has become renowned among horror fans as one of the better zombie films to come around in years, and they’d be right. Aside from the masterpiece “Shaun of the Dead,” The Spierig Brother’s film manages to be both creepy, and utterly twisted a concept hard to accomplish with zombie fare now an utterly tired genre. What occurs in “Undead” is the typical, yet unpredictable. A bunch of comets crash in a small town, and now all the residents have become brain eating zombies—don’t you hate when that happens? Now, the remaining survivors, a bunch of officers, a model, a pregnant nurse, and a bayou hunter, have to find their way out and figure out how to stop the epidemic.
Category Archives: Movie Reviews
The Quiet (2005)
The whole concept behind “The Quiet” is that our main character Dot (subtle) is a deaf mute that lives among the upper class after her parents died. Dot is a deaf mute yet she still narrates every twenty minutes. This is not introversion of our main character stuck in a world she doesn’t want to be in, this is just an excuse to give Camilla Belle dialogue even though common sense would entail her character not speaking. It’s explained later that Dot could speak and hear once, but not anymore. Which is no excuse to give her narration. If you want us to believe this girl is now in a world where sound and communication can no longer exist, don’t undermine it with rambling narration.
The Bourne Supremacy (2004)
“The Bourne identity” took me by surprise; it was certainly a most welcome surprise. “The Bourne identity” and “The Bourne Supremacy” are two different movies, and the Jason Bourne from both movies are different people. Now here, he’s no longer a man discovering his past, now he’s just a man struggling with it and the severity of his crimes and deeds he performed as Jason Bourne, he’s a ghost of the past struggling with his unforgiving demons of his past, and he’s a ghost who can not escape them no matter how hard he tries.
Doogal (2006)
“Doogal” is basically representative of everything that’s wrong with CGI animation. Everyone is out to be as hip as possible and mimic the success of “Shrek,” that they lose touch with story, characterization, and plot elements the audience can enjoy. I always tend to give the animated films the benefit of the doubt and half the time I’m rewarded. “Doogal” was punishment. It has all the basic principles of a kid’s film but no idea how to get in touch with the heart animation should have. There’s the rabbit Jimmy Fallon singing “You Really Got Me,” and the leader of the land watching the landscape while “It’s Magic” blares in the background. By the time the eighteenth pop culture reference was spewed out in the first ten minutes, I was ready to pack it in.
Fei ying (Silver Hawk) (2004)
The audience for “Silver Hawk,” will be split in two groups. One group will despise it for being the usual fluffy science fiction blockbuster malarkey, while the other group will enjoy it for the guilty action and camp. And you can’t really blame either for their thoughts. Michelle Yeoh’s actioner “Silver Hawk,” makes no bones about itself. It’s a really ridiculous and utterly moronic action film. You can see that by the fact that only within a minute the action begins without much preamble to recollect. Silver Hawk leaps over a bridge on her motorcycle and gets to work. Like a “Matrix” fan girl, Lulu Wong is a vigilante who, with her silver outfit, sneaks around stealthily, dons some odd sunglasses, and kicks the asses of anyone who dare confronts her during a mission.
Mission: Impossible III (2006)
You just have to appreciate Paramount’s willingness to continue the “Mission: Impossible” franchise in the face of lackluster stories, with very good directors who fix the series to their own styles, yet keep the spirit. There was Brian DePalma’s overrated and cerebral original installment, then John Woo’s brainless, nonsensical but fun sequel, and now, as a last ditch effort, we have J.J. Abrams, creator of one of the most popular spy shows of all time, “Alias.” They have the right idea in mind. Spy movie, recruit spy show director. Voila. Instant magic. Instant magic? Not particularly.
Just Friends (2005)
Director Roger Kumble is wise enough to allow Ryan Reynolds to go hog wild in displaying his talent for slapstick and silly comedy. Reynolds has always had a talent for comedy, except he’s always been restrained such as films like “Van Wilder.” In “Just Friends” he seems to be allowed to go as ridiculous as he wants, and manages to derive a ton of laughs, with mere facial expressions and delivery of one-liners. From there mere opening shot of a young version of the film’s character singing in to a mirror, except grossly overweight and donning curly hair, is an instant laugh grabber, and Reynolds doesn’t seem to let up throughout the movie.