Zombie Trifecta - Part 1

By Taryn Shick 

It is my belief that there is no greater creature, real or imagined, than the zombie. More misunderstood than Frankenstein’s monster, more sinister than a Werewolf and far creepier than any vampire, the zombie burrows deeper into the human psyche than all other monsters combined.

With the release of 28 Weeks Later, I thought this would be a good time to explore the legend of the zombie. I will do so with a review of the aforementioned film; a DVD review of another zombie film, Versus; and a book review of The Book of the Dead, The Complete History of Zombie Cinema. This is the first in the series.

28 Weeks Later

Starring: Robert Carlyle, Imogen Poots, Mackintosh Muggleton, Rose Byrne, Jeremy Renner, Harold Perrineau
Written by: Rowan Joffe, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, Jesus Olmo, Enrique Lopez Lavigne
Directed by: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo

28 Weeks Later is the sequel to 28 Days Later. Weeks picks up as indicated after Days, exploring the damage done to London after an outbreak of a Rage virus that leaves its victims in a zombie-like state. The difference is that these ‘zombies’ are much faster than average zombies.

We begin with a modestly revamped London that has managed to contain the virus with the aid of the U.S. military. The story then follows Tammy and Andy, a brother and sister, aged about 17 and 12 respectively, as they attempt to survive a second outbreak of the virus.

The film is highly disorienting. This is done with an absence of music, chaotic camera movements and close-ups and virtually non-stop peril. It seems to be an attempt to show the lack of control that such a situation could yield with particular regard to the inability of any military force to even do so. If this is so, it succeeds very well.

Although I respect the intent and the style of the film, I did not like it. I found it to be severely lacking in character development, especially with respect to its predecessor, 28 Days Later. There is no true central character and definitely no strong personalities. I was unable to relate to any one character and thus unable to care about any one character. This fact made it hard for me to care about the story; hence, my dislike of it.

As far as this film’s impact on the legacy of the zombie, I dismiss it. A viral infection does not a zombie make. But as with 28 Days Later, it still packs a decent punch of social subtext. I take it to be highlighting the ineptness of the military to control such a situation and its preference for the safety of the group over any individual rights.

 

Overall grade: C

Zombie grade: F

The Host (Gwoemul) Review

By Taryn Shick
Starring: Kang-ho Song, Hie-bong Byeon, Hae-il Park, Du-na Bae, Ah-sung Ko
Written by: Chul-hyun Baek, Joon-ho Bong, Won-jun Ha
Directed by: Joon-ho Bong

The Host is a horror film that follows one family’s quest to save a little girl from a monster that has taken her. The monster hails from the Han River, thanks to an ignorant scientist who dumps several chemicals down the drain because the bottles are too dusty.

The little girl is taken by the monster. Her often incompetent and usually sleeping father, her grandfather, her uncle and her aunt who happens to be an Olympic archer, join together to save her.

The monster is CGI. Much of the dialogue is subtitled. But the characters are endearing; very likable and often amusing. There are some great scares and plenty of tension. There’s even a little subtext, though not really that subtle. The monster is reported as having contaminated anyone who it has come in contact with (and not killed, of course) with a deadly virus. Military action is to be taken. But protests are mounted and it is possible there is actually no virus, much like there were never any weapons of mass destruction. The creation of the monster by the dumping of toxic chemicals might be a nod at pollution and the environment. But it might just be a neat way to create a monster.

I really enjoyed The Host. I like the strong female characters, even the little girl. No whimpering bimbettes or helpless damsels in distress here.

The monster has a neat way of flipping on the bridge of the river it hides in to get around.

But the best thing about The Host is style of the film itself. There were many shots that built up the scares. Often, a scary moment would be taking place, and before you knew how it would end, we cut to another scene. For example, the monster attacks. It’s advancing on a potential victim. It’s about to strike, and then…we’re in another location. What happened? You don’t know! Some might find this annoying. I thought it was a brilliant way to add to the suspense.

The only issue I have with The Host is the sentiment of the film that any animal who kills a human should be killed. Maybe so, but then any human who kills a human should be killed, too. I don’t see humans as superior to animals; in fact, most of the time I think of us as inferior. I believe humans and animals should be treated equally. So I didn’t agree with this tone of the film.

However, the ‘animal’ in the film is a monster, and I will subscribe to the tradition of the horror genre to kill the monster. But I have to ask, who is the real monster? The scientist who dumped the chemicals? The creature itself? The military?

Even if you’re not into the subtext like I am, The Host is a fun film. It delivers scares and suspense without a lot of gore in place of a story. Very well done.

Grade: A-

Spiderman 3 Review

 

By Art Michalski

Starring: Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, Thomas Haden Church, Topher Grace, James Franco
Directed By: Sam Raimi
Produced By: Stan Lee, Joseph M. Caracciolo Jr, Kevin Feige
Genre: Action/Adventure, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Adaptation and Sequel
Release Date: May 4th, 2007
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sequences of intense action violence.
Distributors: Sony Pictures Releasing

Let the summer movie race begin as the web-slinging Spider Man comes back for a third (and possible final) time. It’s pretty hard to top the stellar first two installments of this series; but the third movie goes for broke and comes up just a little short of the first two, but still very entertaining.

The third chapter begins as Peter Parker (Maguire) is still excelling in college and struggling to make ends meet in New York City. He’s planning on proposing to girlfriend Mary Jane Watson (Dunst), who is getting her first shot at a Broadway play. In between watching his woman in her play, Parker must get into his alter ego to take on his former best friend latest super villain Harry Osborn (Franco). But in the third installment, his former friend is the least of his problems; Parker must worry about petty thief Flint Marko (Church) transforming into the mammoth villain the Sandman and rival photographer Eddie Brock (a hit or miss Topher Grace).

Whew, does that sound like a lot of plot to burn through in 150 minutes or what?

Let’s just get my criticism of Spidey 3 out of the way first. With that past paragraph; this reviewer just touched on the tip of the iceberg as far as the plot is concerned. There are various other storylines going on (such as the reopening of Uncle Ben Parker’s murder case and Harry’s amnesia for half the movie) that makes your head spin at times. With past Spider Man’s, we’ve had a one on one battle between Spider Man and his foes. In Spidey 3; three villains seems like too much and didn’t leave as much time for plot development as the last two movies.

But the movie still gets a good amount of character development in; with the conflict of Harry’s love/hate relationship with Peter; Mary Jane’s struggles as she tries to make it, and the backstory behind the Sandman’s character. The most interesting and entertaining storyline is Peter’s struggle with using revenge as motivation, and adopts a more cocky and testy attitude, compared to the quiet and timid Peter Parker in past movies.

Maguire has played Parker to perfection in the three movies; even if he looks a little goofy in a goth-lite look for a small portion of the flick. It’s very refreshing to see Franco as the carefree and happy Harry for some of the film, compared to the sour, vengeful Harry we’ve seen through Spider Man 2. Church is good as the somber Sandman/Marko, but this reviewer can never shake the vision of Church as anything but the dim-witted Lowell from the TV show Wings. Same thing with Grace; he will always be Eric Foreman from That 70’s Show, even if he gets a few funny lines in this movie.

Dunst and Bryce Dallas Howard (as Parker’s potential love interest Gwen Stacy) are fine in their roles, even if Dunst spends most of the time crying throughout Spider Man 3. Director Sam Raimi has done another fine job with the third movie, but one also thinks that this movie could have been two separate movies. Spider Man just became Grindhouse!

Even with the sarcasm, Spider Man 3 is destined to one of the biggest movies this summer and even with the numerous subplots going on, provides closure to many of those plots and makes a Spider Man 4 completely unnecessary.

GRADE: B

Review - Next

Title: Next
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Julianne Moore,
Jessica Biel, Tory Kittles, Michael Trucco
Directed By: Lee Tamahori
Produced By: Gary Goldman, Jason
Koornick (II), Ben Walsbren
Genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy,
Thriller and Adaptation
Release Date: April 27th, 2007
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for intense
sequences of violent action, and some language.
Distributors: Paramount Pictures

Based on Phillip K. Dick short story The Golden Man, Next is the story of Cris Johnson, amagician with a talent that allows him to see into the near future. FBI agent
Callie Ferris wants his help to find a stolen nuclear bomb but Cris just wants to find his soul mate. Enter Jessica Biel as Liz. For some reason Cris can see farther than two minutes in regards to her. Why, who knows? Liz gets kidnapped by the baddies and used as a decoy to draw attention away from the bomb. Can Chris and Callie save Liz and the world? Who cares?

Next is a perfect example of a good movie ruined by a horrible ending. If I didn’t know better, I would say that I had saw a test screening and not a press screening. With some great effects and some that aren’t so great, and an ending that just left me feeling cheap and used, Next will not be the next hit for Cage and Co.

***SPOILER ALERT***
(HIGHLIGHT TO READ)

I can’t go on without telling it as it is. The
last 45 minutes or so of the movie never happened. Yep, that’s right. Cris was
just looking into the future. Which I don’t mind so much as they established
that when dealing with Liz, he can see further than two minutes. What I can’t
stand is that after that big reveal, he decides to do things differently and
help Ferris from that point and that is the end. We never find out how things
actually turn out!

***END SPOILER***

Cage plays the everyman very well. He isn’t extremely handsome, doesn’t have a radio announcer voice, but he does have a bit of charisma. In Next he is a bit of a schlub (you have to be to be a performer in Vegas don’t you?) and is not above using his ability for personal gain. Julianne Moore isn’t quite on top of her game here but with a plot as out there as this one it doesn’t really harm the overall effect of the film. Biel’s performance is good but lacking development and I find it kind of absurd that she falls in love for Cris in
one day and is willing to wait a week or even a month for him, but that is a standard in movies today.

All in all a very frustrating film because it really tries to be a good movie. It just needs an extra 15 minutes to finish everything up. I cannot recommend this movie whole heartedly but if you do decide to see it be warned that you may find the end extremely disappointing. It actually ruined the film for me.

Keep reading,
Mitch E.
mitchemerson@hotmail.com

East Lansing Film Festival 2007

By Taryn Shick

This year was the 10^th anniversary of East Lansing’s Annual Film Festival. Held on the campus of Michigan State University, the festival is known for showcasing many great feature and short films, especially those made in Michigan.

In addition to having films on campus, this year several films, including the documentary Jesus Camp, were shown at Celebration Cinema in Lansing. This may give the festival help in reaching a wider audience. I love seeing the films on campus. I am a Spartan alumnus, so I enjoy the nostalgic aspect of being back on campus grounds. But parking can be a challenge for some and the classroom seats are not the most comfortable accommodations. So to be able to see some of the festival films in the comfort of a stadium-seating style theater is sure to appeal to many.

I attended the festival on Saturday, March 24 and Sunday, March 25. The following is a synopsis of the films that I viewed. Each feature film is accompanied by a short film. This is what I love most about East Lansing’s Film Festival. Sure, you can view probably a million different short films on any number of amateur film sites. But to be able to see them in a theatrical setting is much more fun.

 

Short: Zombie Prom

This is a musical singing about the events of a love-struck high school rebel who plunges to his death into a vat of toxic waste only to return as a crooning zombie. RuPaul stars. I like a little camp with my zombies, but this was almost too much. Set in the 50s, the film pays homage to a time when zombies and music both were simpler. I admire the combination of the zombie genre with the musical and ultimately as a comedic satire. My favorite thing was how Jonny was labeled a rebel because he refused to spell his name with the traditional “H”, as Johnny. The use of alternating between live action and comic strip narration works really well for this story.

Grade: B

 

Feature: Severance
This is a horror/comedy that follows a group of arms dealers on a team-building weekend in a remote, wooded area. The film hails from Britain, the country that gave us the horror/comedy Shaun of the Dead. But Severance is a much darker horror comedy than Shaun. My favorite ‘funny’ moment is when a member of the team gets to prove his theory that a severed head is conscious for moments after decapitation. He is decapitated, his head rolls away and stops. We see him looking about; he sees his headless body; we go back to him, smiling with a look that says,