I’ve been waiting a while to see the movie ‘Zombie‘ and ‘Dead Alive‘. I was suprised a while back to find out that critically acclaimed director Peter Jackson, of Lord of the Rings fame, produced a Zombie flik. As a huge fan of his work I had to get Dead Alive. The reviews for the movie were all good so I rented it and now here is mine:

It’s tough to evaluate the technical quality of a movie like this. The whole thing is a gag, a parody on the whole Zombie genre. Yes there is cheesey stop motion, cheesey puppeteering and unreal amounts of blood, but that is the whole point now isn’t it? The camera work is seemless (unlike the first movie I watched, Zombie) and overall the production is very professional, but you have to be looking for a fun experience to really enjoy this one. Think Evil Dead and Army of Darkness.

The plot goes like this: Mom controls boy, boy meets foxy italian girl, mom hates girl, boy tries to dump girl and mom gets bit by rabid zombie rat monkey and soon turns into a zombie herself. The subordinate son spends the majority of the movie trying to hide her from the public while dealing with this girl, who lucky for him is not content with being put off once, twice or three times during this whole ordeal. Eventually the infection spreads and soon you have a classic zombie mob vs a few survivors scenario.

There are plenty of unique deaths in the movie and plenty of variation on the way the zombies are dealt with. There is even zombie sex and a little annoying zombie baby that you’ll want to punt across the room. There is no nudity that I can recall, which is rare for the genre. Overall if you liked Sam Raimi’s series, you’ll probably have fun with this one too.

I give it a 8.5B for b-movies.

This movie, from the creators of “The Matrix”, revolves around a masked freedom fighter known only as “V” who uses terrorist tactics to fight against his totalitarian society in the not so distant future. It is his lifelong goal to reveal a massive government consipiracy that is responsible for the death of over 80,000 people and the rise to power of the ‘High Chancellor’.

I could probably watch the movie a couple times and pull something new from it each time. Unfortunately I didn’t come away with the overwhelming desire to watch it again. There were a few good fight scenes and there isn’t a whole lot cooler than a sweet mask wearing super hero wielding daggers, but I couldn’t get past the thought that millions of people are going to look at this movie and try to compare it to what our own government is doing.

V sums up the theme of the whole movie in one line, “People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.” This is an idea I can hold on to. The dialogue is consistently good throughout the entire movie, but I remember coming away disappointed in the end as a one liner undid all that was to be praised thus far…

I give it a 6.5.

It’s a movie based on real events, set in the 1960′s. Anthony Hopkins plays the lead roll as an eccentric Kiwi who has spent the last 25 years of his life customizing a 1920′s Indian motorcycle. The story details his efforts in handcrafting pistons, tires and other parts in an attempt modify the bike from a top speed of 45mph to over 200, with hopes of eventually entering speed week in the salt flats of America.

This is definitely a feel good movie. Hopkins’ portrayal of Burt is inspiring. The way the old man is capable of befriending anyone while taking life in a very happy stride no matter the circumstance, leaves you wishing all the world was like this.