Adrian Graham
Land of the Dead
George A Romero’s Land of the Dead (2005) is a satirical zombie action horror flick. There’s a slightly uneasy relationship between its political critique of George W Bush‘s USA versus Hollywood action movie cliche. The film was released almost in the middle of George W Bush‘s two terms as US president. The zombie hoard is a frightening antagonist, on a par with the corrupt elite led by the baddie, Paul Kaufman. His instinct, when the city falls into collapse, is to pack a bag stuffed full with money. As if that will save him.
Notes
- Vivarium is a weird film. I used to find weird films more compelling, but I prefer things to make more sense these days.
- Timeline is a 2003 film based on Michael Crichton’s 1999 novel of the same name. In my search for truly bad films, this could well be one of the worst. My fascination with cinematic turkeys is figuring out the process that lead to them being so bad. No one sets out to create a turkey. Usually, it’s a perfect combination of a number of things. In a desperate rush to get to the action, we have a sub-Stargate time portal and various action scenes shoehorned into a plot. But, without the satisfying setup it all seems pointless.
- The Persuader is what I’d call as classic Jack Reacher story. It starts with an introductory action set piece. Then it goes into mystery mode. (In this case it’s very Hitchcockian.) Finally, it turns into an action thriller.
- Honey Boy (2019) is a low budget character-based story. The problem with Honey Boy is that it flits between two stories. I came away without feeling like either of the stories had been satisfactorily explored or resolved.
- I watched Little Joe (2020) with an open mind. Not being sure what to expect, my only preconception was that I was watching a science fiction horror film. It’s part of a wave of horror films that are not particularly frightening, but more psychological. The handling of the subject matter is interesting (there’s a hint of Little Shop of Horrors with, The Day of the Triffids with, The Body Snatchers).