Yay free weekend! Big lineup today, so let's get started:
Night of the Living Dead: Wow, this movie made me feel really bad for the state of minority characters in movies over the last, well the entire history of cinema. The main character turns out to be a black guy who behaves as you'd expect any practical thinking man in a desperate situation to act. At no point is his "blackness" a conversation point or a "character trait." He's just a man who happens to have a dark skin tone. What made me so sad about this movie was just how normal he was and the fact that I noticed it. He isn't the first one to die, he doesn't make jokes about not being the first one to die, he isn't forced to speak in awkward slang, and there are no awkward attempts at race relations in the midst of the zombie apocalypse. He's just a dude trying to help board up a house and develop a survival strategy. Even the token asshole character isn't racist, he's an asshole to everybody, including his own wife. I guess what I'm saying is that this movie should be included in any film class that studies representations of race in cinema. As for the other parts of the film, the gore effects are pretty impressive for the time period, and the movie is very well paced. I must admit, I got a kick out of the scenes with the news reporters. It was very amusing for me to see a news station where they were simply trying to report the facts to viewers and convey information to them. It's just straightforward,"there's some weird stuff going on, stay safe and await further instructions....Ok, the stuff is really bad, please head to a safe zone as quickly as possible.....here's how to kill any zombies you come across and how to dispose of the bodies." No commentary, no twitter crawl, no pundits yelling for attention.... As far as the news goes, I'm pretty sure the people of the 1960's would do much better in a zombie apocalypse than we would. The more I think about this movie, the better I like it.
B : It would rate a little higher, but Barbara and her brother bug the crap outta me.
Black Sunday: Italian Director Mario Brava's movie about vampire witches. Some cool gore effects in an otherwise very forgettable movie
C-
The House at the End of the Street: Ever see a movie that is so bad that you just turn it off and read the synopsis off of IMDB and then you realize that the time it took you to read a synopsis that dumb was still too much of a life suck. And then you bother to blog about said cinematic turd and you think, "WHAT THE HELL I'M I DOING WITH MY LIFE!?"
F-
Dredd: So I'm starting to learn that the 5 star rating system on Netflix has been calibrated to my tastes and that after gathering data on my viewing habits for about 6 years now, it has developed a pretty great batting average when it comes to recommending films. Dredd is the latest example. This is a fantastic action movie. If you are in the mood for a gorey, goofy, but not too goofy shoot-em-up, check this out. The best part? Olivia Thirlby plays the female rookie who can take care of herself. There is not damsel in distress motif here, just lots and lots of 'splosions.
A
Carrie (2013) This remake is far, FAR superior to the original. There. I said it. If you disagree, watch them in the order they were released. The original Carrie doesn't hold up at all. Sissy Spacek is the bright spot in what is an otherwise unwatchable movie. While not as otherworldly looking, Cloe Grace Moretz does an awesome job in the title role and her surrounding cast, if not oscar-worthy, is at least competent. Julianne Moore is a more terrifying Margaret White, and she delivers several cringe-worthy moments. The special effects are obviously much improved over the original with the level of destruction edging closer to the book. If you wrote this off as a cheap, money grab remake, you should really give it a shot. And if you don't like it, I dare you to rewatch the original and tell me with a straight face that it is a better film
B+
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