WTF cat fight...

But see for yourselves.

Now, what the hell is going on here? Is this how cats always fight?

This scene has so much going for it... the crows flying around, the crazy catrobatics. Just overall, a nasty and vicious three against one throw down to the death. I almost feel bad for watching this but like what the fuck, this puts most movie fights I have ever seen to shame.

I can only imagine what happened next, but surely one of those four creatures didn't make it out alive.

The score is really key here too, so I thank whoever put this together.

I am content, as always, in the knowledge that I am not a good person.

XOXO

D-bag

Red Riding Hood...

  

As many of you know, there's a part of me that will probably never evolve beyond the mentality of a fourteen year old girl. And right now, that teenage girl inside me is quivering with excitement. 

Here's the trailer for Red Riding Hood:

Granted this looks like it could actually be a slight retuning of Twilight. Some of the shots look like they were lifted right out of that movie. Same director, so why not stick with what gets tweens wet, right? It worked on me.

And ever since Mean Girls, that teenage girl inside me has loved Amanda Seyfried, and that love only grew deeper with her delightful turn in the hugely underrated Jennifer's Body. She has dramatic chops, and though I have nothing against Kristen Stewart, she ain't no Amanda, that's for sure.

The trailer is quite nicely put together, and the shots suggest a nice aesthetic to me, so my hopes are pretty high right now.

Not too mention the near timelessness of the subject matter. This story has been passed down for hundreds of years and a fresh take with a bunch of fresh faces just might prove to be good. Also, depending on who's telling the story, the grotesquery of the tale varies, with some versions even having our little Red unwittingly cannibalizing her own grandmother.

So, they could take this in any number of directions. I do hope the love story elements don't drag the thing down though, but we'll see.

What this trailer looks like to me is a little bit of Twilight with a dash of Sleepy Hollow thrown in. Intriguing to say the least.

I just hope I don't cream my little red tween panties before March!

XOXO

D-bag

The Walking Dead: Guts....

 

The Walking Dead

Episode 2: Guts

Let me start by saying that I was more impressed with the first episode than my co-blogger, K-reel, was. From the moment I was introduced to Deputy Sheriff Rick Grimes, I liked him. The character development that played out over the episode only made me like him more.

His reactions to the situation he found himself in were quite believable and really served to humanize him for me. In the fear and disgust that flashed across his face as he encountered his first walkers and the pathos he obviously felt for the things, he really came across as a good man. Somebody I wished could be my dad, even.

And that I think, is one of The Walking Dead’s greatest strengths: that it is more a show about humans with zombies in it than it is a show about zombies with humans thrown in. There were several moments in the premier episode where I felt my heart being wrenched in my chest, they were so emotionally affecting. I won’t ruin them here, but really, you should all at least watch the first episode and see for yourselves.

From the moment Rick awoke in the hospital, the nightmarish world of the walking dead was painted so viscerally across the screen that I found myself drawn in and believing everything that was happening. The fact that this show has dramatic gravitas is what makes it so distinct in the genre, I think.

Though I like zombie action, with people running around, jumping off walls and butterfly kicking zombies in the head a la Resident Evil, I like real emotion too. And in a way, this show combines a little bit of both elements. Minus the flying kicks. At least, so far.

So, now that I’ve established I’m a fan of this show, let’s talk about its second episode, Guts. Spoilers follow, though I will try to limit them.

Guts takes up where Days Gone By left off, with Rick in a fair amount of trouble. He escapes, and hooks up with some other survivors. Tensions escalate within the group and we see that the walkers aren’t the only monsters here.

The mean, vicious side of human kind rears its ugly head and its just the kind of thing I think is going to happen when the zombie apocalypse arrives. People won’t be united, we’ll be just as divided as we were before, only now we’ll all be even more indignant because we’ll all have lost friends and family and will be waiting for the next time we have to kill something.

People who were assholes before are still going to be assholes, and you’re really going to have to be careful who you choose to travel with. I’d recommend staying away from large groups because of this fact, unless of course through some miraculous twist of fate you can stay with people you already know and trust.

Because as the world gets harder and more cut throat, people will too. We’ll all have to learn how to survive and that will inevitably lead to us all becoming more cruel. So, I’d say stick with as few people as you can. No more than five, that’s for sure.

Everybody’s going to be competing for limited resources, so the fewer people you have to divide yours up with the better. That is until you establish your own commune, a defended utopia where you will begin to rebuild the world. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

Anyways, back to the show.

As we continue to learn more about the survivors, the intricacies of their relationships begin to come to light and we start to get a sense of who they were before all of this happened. Likable or not, the characters here are vivid and full of life.

Rick of course, remains the moral compass of the show and it’s particularly interesting to see how his views on society change in a scene played out in the department store he finds himself trapped in with the other the survivors

The stand out among the other survivors introduced in this episode is quite obviously Glenn. And he is quite likable too, a nice sidekick to Rick. I always admire those who don’t bitch when it’s their turn to put themselves on the line for the group and Glenn really has his turn here. I hope that this will be the kind of person I will be when the dead begin to walk the earth.

There is a reason that this episode is called Guts, and let me just say it is pretty sweet. And by sweet I mean disgusting, excuse my somewhat twisted sensibilities. The survivors do something I’ve read about in zombie fiction before, but it really is quite different to see in live action.

Let’s just say it involves a little bit of dress up, and a lot of pulverizing.

As the episode draws to a close, the show’s two separate storylines grow closer to intersecting. This will provide quite a lot more human drama, though plagued of course, by the used-to-be-human drama provided by the constant threat of a walker taking a bite out of you.

Catch episode three, Tell It to the Frogs, tonight on AMC. Or stream it later!

XOXO

D-bag

Monsters...

I really do have to give writer/director/cinematographer Gareth Edwards huge props for creating a beautifully shot, intricate film such as this on such a low budget.

Edwards wrote, directed and created all of the special effects for this indie sci-fi outing about a world where a space probe collecting samples of extraterrestrial life breaks apart during reentry over Mexico, resulting in the introduction of alien life on Earth and the quarantining of half of Mexico itself.

Jump ahead six years after that fateful event, and that’s where the main drive of the story lies: in two Americans trying to find their way back home through the infected zone.

And this film really is quite beautiful. The locations and the actors and the framing of the shots really are incredible. Edwards really has an eye for cinematography and the sense of proximity and journeying he creates here really made me feel as though I was alongside the two leads, journeying through the rubble of a place that is becoming more alien with each passing day.

The main characters are likable and much of the supporting cast was drawn from locals, resulting in a kind of authenticity that is hard to come by in cinema today. The special effects are astonishing for a film shot for just about half a million dollars, and though some elements come across as obviously computer generated, they fit into the scope of the situation well enough.

This movie though, is not scary. Or even all that exciting. It’s as much a road movie as it is a love story, and though the love story elements are well done and I found myself caring about the two leads and the journey they are embarking on, I was left wanting more tension, more violence, greater chaos and upheaval.

But that’s just my own sensibilities clouding what is otherwise a very well made and lucid film.

The extraterrestrials here are never all that threatening or frightening, instead they are used more as a catalyst that necessitates the journey through the infected zone that the two leads end up taking.

The aliens are not malicious, they are framed here as wild creatures who have happened upon a world they don’t fit into, which is a very intriguing idea in its own right. Though not really a good fit if you’re looking for a wild or scary ride.

If you are willing to look past that though, there is a great story here with some socio-political commentary thrown in. It also boasts a clever ending that will leave you second guessing what you’ve just seen.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie. Though it really isn’t a movie about monsters at all, but about the effect they gave on a world and a people who don’t know what to do with them.

I give this film three out of five bio-luminescent, road wary thumbs up for being so seamless in its execution and doing something different than your average sci-fi film: creating a believable world where the monsters may not be who or what you think they are.

XOXO

D-Bag

Zone 261...

So, here's a trailer for an upcoming Swedish zombie film.


ZONE 261 - Trailer from ZON 261 on Vimeo.

Interesting to say the least. The zombies seem to be a cross between the runners pioneered in the wake of 28 Days Later and the intelligent pseudo zombies of the later Resident Evil games, as they seem to be able to wield weapons.

Apparently, the film is as much about xenophobia and immigrant-native tensions as it is about zombies. I didn't see any of that here, but hey, who knows!

The effects are obviously digitally painted on, but they look good enough. The fact that there are four survivors and the circling camera angle is very reminiscent of the trailers for the Left 4 Dead series, particularly the second entry--which is an amazing game by the way.



All similarities aside, I really love me some melee action. And from the pipes and bars the characters grab here, I hope we can at least look forward to some good old fashioned zombie clobbering.

Side note, when the zombie apocalypse happens, always have a good melee weapon with you. Meaning something to beat things off with. Like a crow bar, for example. No real need to aim, just swing batter-batter and you're likely to hit something and force those teeth away from you. Also, if you're in a hurry, you can always just use your melee weapon to cripple the zombies and make it so they can't pursue you.

With stabbing weapons there's a greater risk of blood splatter, which means a greater risk of contamination. Humans are fleshy and full of bones, so there's also a chance your bladed weapon will get stuck in the zombie and you won't be able to get it back out. Not that bladed weapons aren't useful, but make sure to keep a melee weapon too. Bash and run, that's what I always say!

Back to the trailer. As many of you know, I am a sucker for strong female characters and the look on the lead girl's face here when the horde shows up leads me to believe she is just the kind of hard bitch I like.


Also, how quickly is the little zombie girl becoming a cliché? I mean really, they're popping up everywhere these days.

xoxo

D-bag

The Walking Dead: "Days Gone Bye"

Apologies to all (5 or so of you), as I’ve been off the radar for some time, due to my move to Korea.  I’ve been busy, with almost no time to fully contribute here at The Stuck Thumb.  I haven’t had much time to seek out things that spark my interest enough to write about, to be honest, but I’ll spare you the gory (I fucking hate puns) details, and get at this.

The Walking Dead.  I’m going to reiterate just how long I’ve been waiting for a television series dedicated to zombies.  In consequence of this wait plus a few months more, after I viewed the trailer, I may have had high expectations for this pilot.  In all honesty, I think that maybe nothing could have matched these expectations.  My expectations are likely just unrealistic.

Now, I’m not saying this pilot isn’t worth a watch, because it absolutely is!  I genuinely enjoyed watching this episode.  I’ll say in advance to this post, I’m going to reveal a lot about what’s going on in this episode.  You’ve been warned.

The opening scene is of the utmost importance.  Here, we see the main character pull up in a police car to overturned and abandoned vehicles.  We know what’s up.  Among these abandoned vehicles, we see abandoned toys that reveal to us children have likely been killed and/or turned, we see a rotting corpse in a car, we see an abandoned gas station.  All of the go-to creepy elements.  We hear some shuffling as the protagonist investigates the area.  The shuffling leads us to a little girl.  Though we immediately know she is what is later referred to as “a walker”, it isn’t made completely obvious until she turns around.  Before this happens, the main character identifies himself to her as a policeman and that she should not be afraid.

The fact that this character is in full uniform is something I find kind of ironic, and dare I say satirical.  The fact that all authority goes out the window in the case of an apocalypse, makes this guy look like kind of a moron.  Maybe it’s the only thing he feels he’s got going at this point, maybe he’s still in denial, who knows.  When it comes down to it, no one’s going to listen to a damn word this jackass in the police uniform says.  This uniform will not mean anything to zombies, nor will it mean anything to the living.  I’m unsure if this was done on purpose by the writers.  Either way, he shoots this fucking zombie kid in the head.  Has the commonly used zombie child tactic lost most of its’ shock-value in this day and age?  I can’t be certain, but I think it was a solid opener for this series.

We backtrack a few weeks? A few months?  The time lapse is not revealed.  We see what happens to this character, his coma, his trek home when he awakes.  We see some pretty gory stuff, including half of a corpse dragging itself along the grass with its’ spilled intestines dragging along behind.  This is where I felt they were going to take the series seriously enough.

You can’t half-ass this zombie shit.  Zombie films do not typically include sex, so you’ve gotta jam-pack it with gore and violence to get the viewers.  It’s a bit more of a challenge.  Many of these vampire movies and television series will use sex as a ploy.  Vampires are sexy now?  When/why the fuck?  Maybe a bit of a cheap move?  That’s another story.

So, this man awakes, learns of his surroundings, and has gotta learn to hold his own against this breed.  A man and a boy he meets let him practice in their front yard.  Something I wanted to make note of during his practice session was the brief appearance and use of a hard, transparent face mask while beating in a zombie head.  Now, this is something very practical that I haven’t thought of using before.  Along with open wounds, and I feel this is just as important, one should be careful of the eyes and mouth.  If any infected blood gets in there, you’re just as fucked.  Sure, it’s not often where writers will avoid a full on zombie attack to infect someone through mouth or eyes, but it certainly happens.  Don’t you remember? That’s how the father died in “28 Days Later” - a small drop of infected blood in his eye.  Imagine dying that way when the zombie apocalypse actually hits.  Embarrassing.

Anyway, back to the plot.  We find that this character has left behind a family.  A wife and a son.  Nearing the end of the episode, we find the protagonist convinced his family is alive.  Clothing drawers are empty, they’ve packed items of sentimental value.  He parts with his company and sets off on a mission to find them, like almost any other person would do, sure.  What I’m uneasy about is the fact that the audience finds his wife and child to be alive AND that he’s almost made contact through radio with them.  Chances of these people being alive would be slim.  Chances of contacting, or rather stumbling across these people again would be even slimmer.  Adding to this situation, we find the wife to be involved with another man.  This makes things even more complicated, and I’m maybe a little nervous this series will turn out a little more dramatic than need be. 

Maybe my problem is that the writers didn’t build a relationship for viewers to see between these characters before the apocalypse.  I don’t give a shit if they find each other, to be honest, and I’m betting the majority of the viewers feel similar.  One thing I respected about - and my apologies for constant comparisons to - “28 Days Later” is that they didn’t make it about the protagonist searching for anyone of importance to him, aside from his parents in the very beginning whom we find have committed suicide anyway.  The plot of the movie was based almost entirely on the protagonists’ survival along with the small group of people he met on the way.  Well, hey, that seems more realistic.

Anyhow, I’ll leave you with those thoughts.  Overall, I am intrigued to see how the next few episodes turn out.  Maybe you’ll hear more from me on this as the season progresses.

XOXO

(It’s about bloody time) K-Reel