I am not sure I can top Jack or Mike’s thoughtful analysis of the film, nor would I want to, that’s not what I do. What I will do is offer up what I was hoping for and why I came away disappointed. When I first saw the trailers for Land of The Dead I was pretty darn psyched. The film looked like it was truly going to be about humanity’s last days on earth and how the zombies would finally get to finish their apocalyptic last supper.

In the trailer and within the pre-press for the film it seemed as if the city that was besieged in the film was the last outpost of living humanity. There is nowhere else to go, nowhere left to run. However, within the film itself, the existence of not one, but several other cities is alluded to. Not only that, but money apparently is still valuable in these other outposts, as Dennis Hopper’s villainous character attempts to leave his falling citadel with a few million in cold hard cash.
In general the tone of the survivors in the city just felt wrong to me. Even those left outside Fiddler’s Green are living a fairly cushy life considering the circumstances. Hell, they are taking pictures of themselves with pseudo-pacified zombies, betting on zombies in cage matches, playing paint ball! Not exactly taking things too seriously. I had expected those left outside the shining fortress to be as disenfranchised and desperate as the zombies themselves. Maybe they are supposed to represent an indifferent, decadent, and callous middle class, but who cares? I mean, even a decent amount of them survive. I don’t want to tell Romero how to do his job, but what kind of statement are you making in a zombie movie that has this many survivors? In Night Of The Living Dead we have no survivors, In Dawn Of The Dead we have two, and in Day of The Dead we get three. In this last film we get literally more than a truckfull. I could have accepted six to go with the general trend, but so many? It just doesn’t sit well with me. I really thought this would be the last installment of the Romero zombie saga, and it well may be, but I had hoped for something a little less hopeful.

Unleashed is one of the best movies I have seen in recent memory. I went into the theater expecting the usual martial arts movie treatment: a slight framework of a story to hang hopefully impressive and numerous fight scenes on. What I got was a fully realized, interesting, and engaging story with numerous incredible fight scenes. Originally called Danny The Dog the movie tells the story of Danny and his journey from boy to vicious dog to man. The details in this movie are what put it over the top. From the sound of flesh hitting flesh, to the relationships between the characters, everything seems right. Even when devices are used that have been over-played in other films, they seem believable and true for the tone and story. This is definitely Jet Li’s best film to date, and he does a great job as Danny. Bob Hoskins is wonderfully cruel as his “master” and even the unknowns in the film have memorable roles which they carry off beautifully. I plan on seeing it again soon.

Cube is an interesting movie with an original premise and plays strongly on fears most of us can relate to. Unfortunately, what it brings to the table in terms of atmosphere and intellectual horror is squandered by the inclusion of characters I found hard to like or care about. If you don’t know the plot of the film already, it is almost better to go in with as little knowledge as possible. In this way you can discover the secrets of the Cube as the characters solve them, which is a nice device to build tension and keep the viewer engaged. The Cube basically serves as both prison and execution chamber for the unfortunates trapped within. Those inside the Cube have no knowledge of why or how they came to be imprisoned, and their relationship to one another is unclear. Those trapped in the Cube include a police officer, a student, a doctor, an architectural engineer, an escape artist, and an idiot savant. Their roles within the Cube are interesting but I only really cared about one of the above characters and they didn’t make it. In fact, the ending of the movie for me was highly unsatisfying in many ways. It seemed almost tacked on and very few of the more interesting questions concerning the Cube are answered. There is a pretty good joke in the movie for folks who have seen the film Nothing, which was one of my favorite parts, but really it was kind of out of place and most folks won’t get it. I don’t expect to be spoon-fed the answers, or always relate to the personalities introduced in the films I see, but I just didn’t care who, if anyone, escaped the Cube. I liked certain aspects of the movie well enough (special effects, the ingenuity of the traps, etc.) to feel like I hadn’t wasted my time, but in the end I was disappointed.

First off let me tell you that I went into this movie with low expectations. I just wanted it to be entertaining and be somewhat true to the original Elektra story as seen in Marvel comics. Of course, I got neither. Jennifer Garner is as good a choice as any for the sleek assassin if you have to go with a known actor. She has the right body type and obviously can handle physical roles with lots of demanding action sequences. In fact, I really like her in the role. Unfortunately, the story is a mish-mash of old comics unfaithfully adapted with plenty of Hollywood formula added in to suck any edge or interest out of the plot. The producers went with a PG-13 rating and it makes the action scenes somehow terribly unsatisfying. I don’t need a lot of gore or anything, but all the scenes involving combat were either too short or simply never conveyed any real sense of urgency or drama. Usually I don’t feel like a movie needs to explain itself to the audience but it would have been nice if someone had explained why the members of the ninja assassin troupe The Hand dissolved into a noxious mist when killed. That part is true to the original comics as i remember them, but it just seemed silly that no one even blinked twice or commented on this phenomenon. Most of the villains were nicely designed and interesting but were often killed before I could even figure out what power they possessed. Most of the movie left me wanting. I felt like I had seen half a movie and most of the good parts must have been left on the cutting room floor. The movie just never felt like it fully developed. I wish they had done a straight adaptation of Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz’s masterpiece Elektra Assassin. That was a dark, exciting, and innovative story. I guess in Hollywood that would never fly.

What if zombies could not only run a la Dawn Of The Dead (2004), but speak, drive cars, shoot guns, and work as a group? If you are looking for the answer to this question you need look no further than The Rising. Our hero Jim searches for his only son Danny amidst the horror of an all out war between the living and the dead. But these living dead are no slow moving, brainless Romero knock offs, these undead have a lot more going for them. Brian Keene has provided us with a more cunning variety of undead that doesn’t discriminate and eat just humans. Goldfish, squirrels, dogs, heck even a deer or two will do in a pinch. Additionally any dead animal or person will “reanimate” regardless of whether it was a zombie who put them in the grave. This leads to a lot, and I mean a lot, of roaming zombies out there, including flocks of bloodthirsty undead birds, motorcycle zombie gangs, etc. The author brings some really interesting and new (at least to me) ideas to the zombie genre. His sense of pacing and the scenes of action he creates really make the book a quick and fun read. Some might be upset by the endng, but I loved it!

No. It’s not a book about how zombies can survive in these changing times, it’s a book about how their human counterparts can survive varying levels and severity of zombie attack. If you’re like me and you have recurring dreams of the zombie apocalypse, isn’t it only right and prudent that you go out and purchase this book? The advice contained within is a veritable treasure trove of tips, myth busting facts, eyewitness accounts, and how-to projects that every zombie fearing paranoid cannot do without!

I know what you’re thinking. Oh look! Another post from Mark about zombie related material. How refreshing! Let me just say I don’t want to be known as the “zombie guy” or “that freak who loves zombies” or anything like that. I simply have been on a little bit of a zombie kick lately. OK? Now that we have that squared away, let me tell you a little bit about The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman (story) and Tony Moore (art). First off the artwork is amazing, especially the pages where Moore gets to use the whole thing for one big piece. The images are black and white but that never prevents the artwork from delivering it’s share of ghoulish blood soaked imagery. I really like the story, but so far (remember this is only volume 1), there haven’t been too many surprises. Thematically the story takes its cues from many zombie and horror films where humanity is portrayed as worse than the monsters they are fighting. The protagonists deserve the fate they have been subjected to because they cannot rise above their own natures. This is not the first time we have seen this subject treated in this manner, but execution trumps originality in my book. I want to be entertained when I read something like this and The Walking Dead delivers. I am looking forward to the next volume and that should be recommendation enough.

If you like to be scared and you can handle a little bit of gore (OK, a lot of gore) then I heartily recommend this movie. The plot is basically the same as the original George Romero version from 1979. Although the basic ideas are the same, the execution is where these movies really diverge. George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead , especially in todays light, is fun and funny, but rarely elicits the type of visceral horror it might once have conjured from it’s intended audience. In 2004’s Dawn of the Dead, it’s as if the most horrific elements have been supercharged. The zombies move quickly and with greater purpose as opposed to the slow shambling dead of Romero’s film. The gore is much more realistic and frightening. I could describe some of my favorite scenes of splatter, but as with earlier reviews I rather whet your appetite than give you a full description. The pace of the movie is similarly sped up and the first twenty minutes of the film is well done with a great panorama of the horrible events unfolding around the film’s main character. Those scenes intercut with news footage had me almost convinced that I should begin boarding up the doors and windows on my house and prepare for the zombie apocalypse.

Even casual fans of video games are most likely familiar with the Grand Theft Auto series. These games are well known for pushing the limits in terms of gameplay and good taste. GTA: San Andreas is no exception and looks to be the best of the series thus far. I have only had a chance to play for a few short nights, but this game has already exceeded my expectations. I was hoping for the game to be an extension of or slightly better than GTA: Vice City, but it is much more than that. The game has slighly better graphics, weapons, control, etc., all expected. But the huge size of the environments (cities & countryside) and the sheer amount of things you can do in the game is simply mind boggling. I think it will take me most of the winter to finish the game and I can pretty much forget about buying any new games for awhile, or eating, or sleeping, or having real social interaction with humans. The story is pretty cool and somewhat similar in theme to other GTA stories, you play CJ, a guy who is a stranger in his own neighborhood and needs to get his ailing gang and family back on it’s feet. You need to finish missions to get further on in the game but you could probably play for hours without ever going on one since you have a variety of side games including old favorites like vigilante, taxi, ambulance and fire engine missions, racing, unique stunt jumps, etc. There are also a ton of new side games/missions, like tagging up your hood, finding oysters, working out, customizing your clothes, car, etc., going out with girlfriends, competing in lowrider contests, riding your bike, playing pool, etc. I think you really could spend days completing all this stuff. Needless to say this game is a real winner and if you are even thinking about buying it you should just go ahead and do it. Well worth the money. See you in the Spring!

I was first introduced to Uzumaki through the now defunct manga magazine Pulp. I was immediately captured by the strangeness of the story and the exquisite linework of it’s creator Junji Ito’s artwork. Unfortunately, the friend I had borrowed the magazine from stopped receiving Pulp around the second installment of the story and I did not know where to get it! It took about a year of thinking about this story for me to finally order all three volumes from Amazon. Once I received the books I never stopped reading until the end of the story. Every chapter grew weirder and weirder, the townsfolk succumbing one by one to the mysteries of the spiral, the main heroine’s plight growing ever more hopeless. The only criticism I have for the entire series is the end. It is even weirder than all that goes before it and feels a little like the author ran out of gas and tried to tie it all up rather quickly. However, this does not detract from the power of the story or the quality of the art. Uzumaki will be loved by horror and manga fans alike.