I have been doing a lot of pondering since yesterday's post.
Things like "How would I explain Zombieland to my parents?". Arguably, not the most profound of thoughts, and indeed why would my parents even care? It turns out that my dad found the Zombieland commercials very funny and after seeing the flick, I could see him enjoying it. But Dad finds ideas such as vampires, mutants and zombies silly and childish (Dad is very practical) so how would I hook him?
It hit me like a tornado in a trailer park: zombie movies are the new westerns.
All the westerns* I was forced to see by my parents were about loners or a ragtag group of loners battling the elements and savages to survive in an unfamiliar and unforgiving new land.
Transpose a post-zombie apocalypse for the wild frontier, zombies for savages, trucks for horses, machine guns for a trusty sidearm, keep the loners and bang! Shane (of the Dead). High Zombie Noon. Shoot-out at the Zombie Corral. Far Zombie Country. River of No Returning Zombies. The Good, The Bad and The Zombie. The Last of the Mochicans Eaten by Zombies. They Died with their Boots On.
In Zombieland your have the older loner (Harrelson) passing on his wisdom to a "greener" loner (Eisenberg), much like many of the later John Wayne westerns. 28 Days Later is about survival in the new world order, similiar to many old school western movies.
Zombies are a "safer" target than the indigenious folk of yesteryear. And you can kill zombies with impunity and humour (try doing that, Kevin Costner!).
Saddle up boys! The shooting is getting better and better!
*I'm talking about old school westerns from the '30s to '60s, both movies and tv shows, not the post-modern reinvention of them by Eastwood and Costner et al, late last century.
Showing posts with label zombies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label zombies. Show all posts
September 30, 2009
September 29, 2009
A Tale of Two Movies
Hello true believers (or at least cynically informed). I have two movie reviews for you today, if Jewel will let me type and stop butting my arm.
District 9
This was a dark, gritty and bleak movie, told documentary style, about our first contact with aliens and how we treat them. It's location (Johannesburg, South Africa) and director/co-writer (South African Neill Blomkamp) sets it apart from the usual Hollywood genre films. As such, the actors are unknown (to North American audiences), their characters are rarely sympathetic, the ending is bleak (to say the least) and the apartheid themes are not hard to miss. Think "Flowers for Algernon" meets "Robocop". Ok that was very trite and does not convey the complexity of the film or the underlying theme that humans easily forget the crimes of the past and therefore repeat them. Highly recommended but not for the faint of heart.
Zombieland
We received advance passes for this flick last night (thanx Happy Harbor!) as it doesn't open till this Friday. And wow. I haven't laughed so hard at human degradation and misery since Shaun of the Dead. This was an engaging and hilarious "zom com" (zombie comedy from the Brits), Hollywood style. Andrew didn't think it was possible to make an original zom com since Shaun but he was pleasantly surprised. And so was I.
The basic story can be easily seen thru the commercials: very few people have survived the zombie apocolypse and those who have are ruthless, cutthroat, crazy and neurotic. Of course this ragtag bunch get together for a cross country journey to an amusement park for the youngest member (played by Abigail "Little Rock" Breslin) so she can have a bit of a childhood amidst all this death. The road trip is full of personal revelations and amusing zombie kills. I felt kinda guilty enjoying the violence as much as I did, but there it is. I can't go into too much more detail as it would ruin some delightful surprises that were cleverly kept from the commercials and online chatter.
I have never been a fan of zombie flicks but have quite enjoyed Shaun of the Dead, Pontypool and now Zombieland: each one quintessentialy of their country but still universally funny. And in an interesting turnabout, in the British and Canadian versions, order is eventually restored and things go back to "normal"; in the American Zombieland, order is not restored; chaos is the new world order.
The cast (all four of them) was amazing, although Jesse "Columbus" Eisenberg may be in danger of being typecast to theme park movies. The chemistry between the two male leads (Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson) infused the flick with a modern Odd Couple hiliarity. And an aside about Tallahassee: Wow. Psycho hot. Crazy redneck with a brain and a heart. We need to see more of him!
It is also great to see Emma "Wichita" Stone again after Superbad and The Rocker. She is a really talented actress who held her own against wunderkind Breslin and over the top Harrleson. She is an actress who is going places (not just Pacific Playland).
Two enjoyable and different movies. One will make you think, one will make you pee your pants with laughter. You decide which is which.
District 9
This was a dark, gritty and bleak movie, told documentary style, about our first contact with aliens and how we treat them. It's location (Johannesburg, South Africa) and director/co-writer (South African Neill Blomkamp) sets it apart from the usual Hollywood genre films. As such, the actors are unknown (to North American audiences), their characters are rarely sympathetic, the ending is bleak (to say the least) and the apartheid themes are not hard to miss. Think "Flowers for Algernon" meets "Robocop". Ok that was very trite and does not convey the complexity of the film or the underlying theme that humans easily forget the crimes of the past and therefore repeat them. Highly recommended but not for the faint of heart.
Zombieland
We received advance passes for this flick last night (thanx Happy Harbor!) as it doesn't open till this Friday. And wow. I haven't laughed so hard at human degradation and misery since Shaun of the Dead. This was an engaging and hilarious "zom com" (zombie comedy from the Brits), Hollywood style. Andrew didn't think it was possible to make an original zom com since Shaun but he was pleasantly surprised. And so was I.
The basic story can be easily seen thru the commercials: very few people have survived the zombie apocolypse and those who have are ruthless, cutthroat, crazy and neurotic. Of course this ragtag bunch get together for a cross country journey to an amusement park for the youngest member (played by Abigail "Little Rock" Breslin) so she can have a bit of a childhood amidst all this death. The road trip is full of personal revelations and amusing zombie kills. I felt kinda guilty enjoying the violence as much as I did, but there it is. I can't go into too much more detail as it would ruin some delightful surprises that were cleverly kept from the commercials and online chatter.
I have never been a fan of zombie flicks but have quite enjoyed Shaun of the Dead, Pontypool and now Zombieland: each one quintessentialy of their country but still universally funny. And in an interesting turnabout, in the British and Canadian versions, order is eventually restored and things go back to "normal"; in the American Zombieland, order is not restored; chaos is the new world order.
The cast (all four of them) was amazing, although Jesse "Columbus" Eisenberg may be in danger of being typecast to theme park movies. The chemistry between the two male leads (Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson) infused the flick with a modern Odd Couple hiliarity. And an aside about Tallahassee: Wow. Psycho hot. Crazy redneck with a brain and a heart. We need to see more of him!
It is also great to see Emma "Wichita" Stone again after Superbad and The Rocker. She is a really talented actress who held her own against wunderkind Breslin and over the top Harrleson. She is an actress who is going places (not just Pacific Playland).
Two enjoyable and different movies. One will make you think, one will make you pee your pants with laughter. You decide which is which.
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