So it's happened - the Zombie Apocalypse (caused by someone eating an infected burger) and everyone on Earth may now be a member of the undead.  

We're into the action quickly with a superb intro where Jesse Eisenberg introduces some of his "rules" for survival (#8 - Cardio, #4 - The Double Tap, and so on).  He soon meets Woody Harrelson - they agree on no names so for the whole movie they are known simply by where they are headed.  Harrelson is "Tallahassee", Eisenberg is "Columbus".  Tallahassee has no rules, except maybe if it moves just shoot it.  The group is complete with the arrival of Wichita (the gorgeous Emma Stone) and her 12-year-old sister Little Rock.

What can I say about the rest of the film - it's a road movie following the group across the country, and Tallahassee's quest for one last Twinkie. It's just wonderful bloody fun, turning the "run from the zombies" theme on its head as they take on the undead head on, even relishing the opportunity.  Cue many funny zombie deaths, and one absolutely hilarious cameo appearance - if you haven't had it spoiled on the Internet yet I suggest you keep it that way and be surprised, it is totally worth it, and kudos for this person to have agreed to do it, it is brilliantly played. 

Zombieland was originally intended to be a 24-part TV series, and the makers have said that this is basically the first two episodes rolled together.  I certainly hope we get to see more of this, it may well be my favorite movie of the year - just a blast from start to finish.  Totally tongue-in-cheek, very, very funny and without the lapse into seriousness that Shaun of the Dead suffered from (IMHO), this is one zom-com that is definitely worth your time

 

Tags: blood, movies, reviews, zombies
Categories: Movies | Reviews | zombies

Oskar is 12 and lives in a Stockholm suburb. He's an only child to a single mother, isolated and bullied at school, and dreams only of fighting back.  One evening, Eli and her "father" move in next door.  Eli is also twelve, but has "been twelve for a long time".  She is a vampire.

So begins the critically-acclaimed "Let The Right One In" - or "Låt den rätte komma in" in the native Swedish.

I loved this film - I'm not a fan of horror movies as such, certainly not of the output of recent years where the emphasis seems to be just showing as much carnage on screen as possible.  What I do like are suspenseful, dramatic, well-thought-out movies in any genre.  This ticks all those boxes and more.

Firstly the cinematography is gorgeous.  The landscape is comprised of snowy vistas, contrasted with the bleak estate housing where Oskar and Eli live.  It gives a sense of loneliness and isolation, adding only to the protagonists plight in our eyes.

Then the plot unfolds slowly over the 2 hour (almost) running time.  It's not a film for the MTV generation with short attention spans.  It's not kill after kill after kill, but this makes these scenes so much more effective when they do happen.  It comes as a shock, makes you jump, it's just brilliantly paced.  It's also sweetly romantic in an odd kind of way, Oskar and Eli's scenes together just make you smile - again adding to the shock when bad things happen.

The two children in the lead roles are superb - I don't know whether its the fact that they are speaking another language and I don't get the subtlties that native speakers would, but the performances seem much more natural than most English-speaking child actors around today. 

The movie is violent as you would expect, but much of the violence is seen at a distance, not shot with leering closeup.  Whoever did the sound design for the movie deserves praise too, the noises Eli makes when attacking her prey are really eerie.  We also see occasional flashes of "old" Eli in the child's face, really subtle but amazing use of makeup and effects.  The scene with the cats is also really well done - you know it's CGI but it's believable.

The last thing I have to mention is that yes it's a vampire movie, and no they DO NOT SPARKLE!!  They kill, they get bloody, they cannot eat normal food, they catch fire in sunlight.  One bite and you're infected and become one - none of the blood-swapping ("a whole big sucking thing" as Buffy once put it).  It's more of a disease.  We also see what happens when a vampire enters a house uninvited...  In general this movie treats the vampire myth with respect, and most closely reminded me of Kathryn Bigelow's classic "Near Dark"

All in all, big thumbs up for this.  The DVD is very well mastered, with a very clean transfer - I watched it upscaled on a 1080p projector screen and it looked fine.  I had considered going for the more expensive Blu-Ray but I'm glad I didn't as the standard-def is more than adequate.  The 5.1 surround track is great, and the subtitles are very clear.  There actually isn't a great deal of dialogue, so the film is easy to follow even for people who normally don't like to "read a movie".

Unfortunately, a Hollywood remake is in the works called "Let Me In".  I will be extremely surprised if they don't miss the point and ruin it. Even for all the assurances of the director that he loves the original, I can see the movie studios wanting to get the Twilight demographic and insisting on changes.  See this before that one appears next year, and you won't want or need to see the remake.

Trailer below

Tags: awesome, blood, geek, movies, reviews, trailer, vampires
Categories: Geek | Movies | Reviews | vampires

Cute Asian chick in sailor suit?  Check.
Big sword? Check.
Vampires? Check.
Plenty of flying about on wires? Check.

What else do you need to know???  Oh alright then...

BTLV (as it shall be known) almost disappeared without trace as it was only on at the local multiplexes for a week, I guess the 18 cert and the potential for subtitles and therefore having to pay attention to the film would have put a lot of "average" cinemagoers off - at least the ones I seem to get trapped in a room with for a couple of hours every few weeks.  As for me, well it kind of got my attention for the same reasons.  I like movies with subtitles, if its the native tongue on the soundtrack then I'd always rather have that than a bad dub - even in animation.

Luckily for all concerned then that BTLV isn't dubbed, but is in English anyway.  The film follow Saya, who is half-demon half-human and is "employed" by a shadowy group known as The Council.  This isn't particularly well explored, and in fact after a bit of in-fighting between some Council agents they seem to disappear completely.

Saya is trying to find Onegin, most powerful of all demons and the murderer of her father.  The Council put her into a school on a US miltary base in Tokyo where she tracks down a couple of demons masquerading as students, and saves the life of Alice, who then follows her around watching as Saya chops her way through hundreds of the undead.

So far, so Blade.  

Anyway, going much further with detail would cause spoilers but I suspect that even with the sparse information I've given here you can pretty much map out the rest of the film.  This is not to say that I didn't enjoy it - I did,  I'm just saying that the general plot follows some pretty well-worn sterotypes.

I thought the wire-work was particluarly well done, the fight scenes were clear and well choerographed.  The blood is CGI and quite cartoonish which lend the film a degree of unreality which is probably just as well given its anime roots, and it didn't bother me at all.  What did bother me was some pretty piss-poor CGI demons and some work towards the end of the film which just made it look very straight-to-DVD.  Shame really.

This hasn't been released in the US just yet, so I'll be looking out for reviews on the major movie sites in the coming weeks, but the Asian Blu-Ray and DVD are out in October.  I'm pretty sure I'll get the Blu-Ray as I think with a good transfer the movie will look lush, and its the kind of thing I could watch again on a bored evening. 

All things considered, I'd give it a 7.5 / 10, dropping to 6/10 if you don't usually like "this kind of thing".  I'll leave you with the trailer:

 

Tags: movies, reviews, japan, geek, blood
Categories: Movies | Reviews

...they do straddle the line between insane and awesome much more easily than any other nation on earth.  It's one reason I love a good Japanese movie, you just never know what you're going to get - except that it's unlikely to be like anything you've seen before.  Even when they do take other ideas, they always go to the Nth degree.  

So without further ado, I give you ROBOGEISHA!!!  (trailer is just a little NSFW)

 

Tags: movies, japan, awesome, trailer, robots, weapons, blood
Categories: Movies