My Own Recent Viewings

[dean]

Ok, I finally got around to watching something and posting about it.  Who would have thought?  I was a little jealous that everyone seems to have their own 'viewings' topic that I thought I should get in on the act.  I mean, come on, Scott even has his own 'partial viewings' thread... damn I'm slow...

Anyway, here is my own personal recent viewings topic.  Hopefully everything works out ok in the end!

Day of the Dead [George Romero 1985]

After finding this in the bargain bin at my local store for the great price of AUD$5.00 and learning that Land of the Dead was soon to touch down here soon, I decided now was as good a time as any to see Day of the Dead, the only Romero zombie film I had yet to see.

Basically, the world is occupied by the living dead, and a 'crack' military team and group of scientists are living in a secure bunker to try and figure out why the zombie infection spreads and how to live with the now over-abundant zombie population.  One scientists, lovingly called 'Frankenstien' has been experimenting on the zombie population and is also teaching his pet zombie friend 'Bub' to obey, just like a little doggie!  

Needless to say, everyone is a bit tense, resulting in a few grisly deaths and the army guys getting very violent and annoyed at the scientists, via crazy captain Rhodes [Joseph Pilato].  

As a zombie film, I'm sort of predisposed to enjoy it, and this movie didn't dissappoint in that regard.  I still liked Dawn of the Dead [both original and remake] a bit better, but there was still very excellent gore effects, great atmosphere and tension amongst the characters [being inside a bunker kind of made that work well too], and I loved Bub the zombie, and how his character reacted to the various objects Frankenstien got him to play with.

Overall I'd say 7.5 or 8/10 [I'm a little iffy on the whole thing still]

The Island [Michael Bay 2005]

Ok so I decided to indulge myself this week, I don't care for anyone's negative attitudes towards Bay [well justified as they may be] but I'm a sucker for sci fi and I have yet to find a movie with Steve Buscemi in it that I hated [although Armageddon came close].

Basic plot: In a supposedly post-apocalyptic world, people are living in a protective bunker from the 'outside contamination' and are waiting to go to the "Island'', the only non-contaminated outside area left.  Of course things are not as they seem, and two people, Lincoln and Jordan, escape into the real world to find out they are clones.

I would like to say 'resulting in hilarious consequences' but hey, this is all just an excuse for a lengthy action chase sequence.

Overall I enjoyed this movie more than most of Bay's films [The Rock is still one of my favourites] and it had some interesting ideas.  But yes, this is just a popcorn movie which was entertaining, but not mind-blowingly brilliant.  Some good action, and of course, Bay has a nice sense of visual style and some of the camera work was truly interesting.

Overall I'd say 7/10

Zombie Flesh Eaters [Lucio Fulci 1979]

OK, looking this up on IMDB after watching it became confusing as some things which are mentioned in the reviews were seemingly cut out of the version I watched but anyway, I'll do my best.

At a hospital, somebody is stealing body parts from cadavers.  First thought to be med student pranksters [the sneaky devils] later it takes a sinister turn as the staff find a 'native boy' stealing and eating body parts.  After further study, this group of doctors and scientists and a journalist and what-not decide to head off to the tropical island the boy came from in order to see why they are stealing parts of dead bodies.  Why they don't get the police properly involved may be another thing, but hey lets move on.

Basically, and here is my favourite part, there is an evil doctor on the island known as none other than Doctor Menard [I knew there was something fishy here] who is experimenting on the locals and raising the dead [which is where the zombies come in]

Of course the locals are heavily into cannabilism and the reporter and doctor teams are immediatly in danger, with the locals obviously unwilling to wait until their food is cooked, and they like to eat flesh.  Now escape, along with rescuing captured members of their party from Menard [that evil bastard] becomes the main point of the film.

Ok, this was an odd film to watch because of the earlier-mentioned editing, but I enjoyed the low budget gore effects.  Also of particular note is that the main character Anne gets naked a few times with seemingly no point to it in the plot. ''oh excuse me I have to go get changed,'' in the middle of a somewhat interesting conversation about human sacrifice was kind of odd but oh well.

Of course, later on she is captured and calmly has flowers painted on her by the locals who are planning to sacrifice her [I don't know about you but I kind of would like to run away instead of being eaten], then, just as she is tied to a stone block of some kind [which moves rather quick for something that should be really really heavy] the story focuses on the other main character who is in the process of trying to rescue himself from surgery by Menard [once again being an evil bastard]  

Of course he escapes, only to get chased by zombies, which for a movie with Zombie's in the title, you would assume they would be more of a presence.  Anne then later pops up out of nowhere wearing a type of burlap sack without so much as an explanation of how she escaped the clutches of the man-eating locals.

Overall I'd like to say I enjoyed this film, but I didn't really pay much attention to the plot unless someone was having their scalp removed or body parts eaten.  I was also a little annoyed at the lack of flesh eating zombies compared to the often showed cannibals.  I'd say it's for somebody who had nothing better to do with their time, but there's certainly better stuff out there.

4/10 [it was originally 5/10 but I've decided to deduct a point for how much this film is a rip off of Zombie Flesh Eaters.  I'll be damned if I'm giving a movie extra credit for shameless rip offs, unless it's in satire and completely bad taste.]



Post Edited (08-03-05 11:23)

[Mr_Vindictive]

Day of the dead is a decent flick.  I loathed it when I first bought in VHS years ago, but liked it much better when I picked it up on DVD.  Not a great flick, not a bad one.  Romero says it's his favorite of his films.

As for Zombie Flesh Eaters, I'm not sure what film you saw, but it wasn't Fulci's Zombie.  I have it on VHS somewhere (haven't watched it in years), but I don't believe the film you described was Fulci's '79 opus.  

There is a Dr. Menard in the 79 flick, but I don't seem to remember anything about the flowers being painted on the woman, and I don't recall a child eating any parts in a hospital.

How did the film start off?  If I'm not mistaken, Zombie starts off with a sailboat in NYC that has zombies on board.  As for the rest of the flick, did it contain a scene of a zombie fighting a shark?  Or possibly an eye being gouged by a splinter?  Or my favorite - conquistador zombies!

If not, then the flick that you picked up might have been one of the numerous sequels.  Or, I could be wrong and just be forgetting the scenes you described.

[dean]

Well I'll be, upon further inspection I now realise that the film I saw was "Zombie Holocaust" 1980 film by Marino Girolami.

I rented it from quickflix, your standard run of the mill mail dvd service, and when I got recently Zombie Flesh Eaters, the dvd design looked pretty much exactly the same as Zombie Holocaust, so, since I wasn't paying much attention to the movie at the start, I just assumed I accidentally hired the same movie again.

Well, I'm glad I didn't send it straight back: now I have  another Zombie film to watch [this one's definitely Zombie Flesh Eaters, I just saw a very promising shark attack scene.]

Man I knew I would screw up my Recent Viewings thread somehow, now i'm going to have to fix it up!  Bugger...  This is what happens when 1) you don't pay attention to plot and 2) I am a fool.

Thanks for the heads up.  That bastard Girolami is a complete rip off artist: when I read the review for Zombie Flesh Eaters it seemed to vaguely fit in with the plot of Holocaust, and when the current review mentioned the Australian version was cut, i figured I had that version.  Next time I shall concentrate more...

[Mr_Vindictive]

Not a problem Dean.  I was starting to think that my memory was going. lol

Let us know how you like Zombie.  It's not my favorite of Fulci's flicks, but it's entertaining.

[dean]

Well after you mentioned my mistake, I started watching parts of Fulci's film, just to make sure I didn't go crazy myself, and it's quite astounding how much of a rip off Zombie Holocaust is: It even has the same main actor and other various plot points, such as the island of zombies and evil doctor and helper.  

Also, I happened to see a random shower scene in Fulci's film, in which a girl is watched by a zombie.  In Holocaust, that random scene where the main actress gets undressed, she is also watched by a native, although that's all, and it doesn't actually end in such a violent fashion as in Fulci's.

My god, no wonder why I got so confused... someone's lawyer should be having a field day with this one.

[ulthar]

dean wrote:

> I was a little jealous that
> everyone seems to have their own 'viewings' topic

I posted some recent viewings that don't really fit in the board partly to do my part to help overcome the summer slump.  Of the ones I posted about, only White Noise and Fnial Cut (which I have not watched yet) fit here.

At least yours were ON topic.  :)

[Menard]

Wha..wha..ah can't believe someone got Doctor Abrero confused with Doctor Menard. I'm speechless. I can't think of anything to say.....

.....okay, we all know that is never going to happen.


Actually, several so-called professional movie reviewers have made that same mistake, confusing the plot of ZOMBIE HOLOCAUST/DOCTOR BUTCHER M.D. (Frank Martin/Marino Girolami) with ZOMBIE: FLESHEATERS/ZOMBIE/ZOMBI 2/ISLAND OF THE LIVING DEAD/GLI ULTIMI ZOMBI (Lucio Fulci). I have many times read in a movie review guide about Doctor Menard raising an army of the undead. Unfortunately, most of these reviewers are using the same review.

Now think about it. Is it possible for someone with the name of Menard to be evil?

(I heard that!!!)

[dean]

>>>>ually, several so-called professional movie reviewers have made that same mistake, confusing the plot of ZOMBIE HOLOCAUST/DOCTOR BUTCHER M.D. (Frank Martin/Marino Girolami) with ZOMBIE: FLESHEATERS/ZOMBIE/ZOMBI 2/ISLAND OF THE LIVING DEAD/GLI ULTIMI ZOMBI (Lucio Fulci)

that makes me feel less like a fool.

>>>ah can't believe someone got Doctor Abrero confused with Doctor Menard

Ok I'm back to foolish again... :-P

>>>Now think about it. Is it possible for someone with the name of Menard to be evil?


So you're not THE Menard?  Bugger, we were all assuming you were a butchering extreme psycho who loved nothing more than a good raising of the dead!  And here I thought we had a celebrity in our midst, but instead we have a third rate hack!

Wait a second, that was wrong, our Menard at least has the wit of an extreme psycho who loves nothing more than a good raising of the dead.  And killing kittens, can't forget that.

[Derf]

dean wrote:


> Wait a second, that was wrong, our Menard at least has the wit
> of an extreme psycho who loves nothing more than a good raising
> of the dead.  And killing kittens, can't forget that.
>

I think this is WAAAAAAAY more than we needed to know about Menard.

[Menard]

Derf wrote:

> dean wrote:
>
>
> > Wait a second, that was wrong, our Menard at least has the wit
> > of an extreme psycho who loves nothing more than a good raising
> > of the dead.  And killing kittens, can't forget that.
> >
>
> I think this is WAAAAAAAY more than we needed to know about
> Menard.
>


LOL!! That adds a certain definition to killing kittens.