Land of the Dead

I was looking forward to watching this, being a fan of apocalypse-type movies. With regards to other zombie movies, I enjoyed the remake of Dawn of the Dead, was disappointed with the original Night of the Living Dead (I think it's overrated), and was mildly entertained, yet also disappointed with 28 Days Later. So I was curious to see how Land of the Dead would rate.

Imagine what a world would be like months or even years after a zombie outbreak. This is what this movie is all about. Entire cities are abandoned and in ruin, completely overrun by the undead. The remaining human survivors band together in encampments protected by walls and electric fences, protecting them from the zombies.

A class society exists, with the more well-to-do humans staying together in a megaplex building, containing all sorts of luxuries and security. It is controlled by a shady businessman played by Dennis Hopper. Supplies and resources need to be gathered from the ruins of civilization - a dangerous task that is accomplished by mercenary teams led by Riley and Cholo (John Leguizamo). They have this super tank-like vehicle named 'Dead Reckoning' to protect them against the zombies.

Things go wrong when Hopper rejects Leguizamo's application to live in the megaplex complex, as it's supposed to be for the rich only. So Leguizamo decides to take Dead Reckoning for himself and threaten to destroy the megaplex.

You have the usual zombie/undead parts such as guy thinking the coast is clear, then out comes the zombie who gives a quick bite, and it's all over, with either his companions decide to shoot him before he turns into an undead himself, or him being eaten alive by zombies. These scenes are usually shocking and brutal, and there are lots of them in this movie.

However, the impact of the 'eaten alive' scenes don't have the shock value of similar scenes from the Dawn of the Dead remake. It's because no effort was made to build any emotional bond between the audience and the character. I think this was the intent on the part of director George Romero though, he probably wanted to keep the theme light and fast.

It's because of this that I feel that Dawn of the Dead is the superior movie of the two. The Dawn remake feels more realistic, and has more of the apocalypse feel. Land is more like a typical horror/action movie. In fact for some reason I couldn't help but think of Robocop while watching this, as you had your superhero-like characters in Riley and Cholo, and a supervehicle that had its own name.

An interesting plot line was the one which shows how the zombies evolved to become smarter. They were led by a somewhat more intelligent zombie named 'Big Daddy' who felt empathy toward his fellow undead, could communicate with them, and eventually lead them to take over the walled city. So while the humans adapted to life after the undead invasion, the zombies also did some adapting of their own.

Romero fans will enjoy this movie. It's mindless, the characters are shallow but fun, and there's plenty of gore, but done in a good way as to not upset anyone. Some may say there's some social commentary and message being communicated in this film, but naaah, it's just a fun zombie movie.

Rating: 3/5 * * *
Textbook undead film.

Lady Vengeance

Occasionally, I'll take a chance and watch a particular movie, one that I know little about, gambling that it will be a good one and potential classic. Sometimes the gamble pays off, and sometimes it doesn't.

Lady Vengeance seemed to me to be a relatively safe investment. It had a lot of glowing reviews by people who seemed to share my movie interests, it was directed by Chan-wook Park of Oldboy fame, a movie which I liked, and had a revenge plot similar to Kill Bill Vol. 1 and 2, which I also enjoyed.

Safe bet right? Unfortunately, no. It started out nicely, with interesting plot about a girl accused of kidnapping and murder, and sentenced to a women's prison for more than a decade. While incarcerated, she befriends some of her inmates and earns their trust through various means such as helping to kill other inmates who were victimizing them, and taking care of them while they were sick.

The problem is, the movie is too slow. And I thought it got too artsy and cute. It tries to inject humor where it shouldn't, and gets over melodramatic in parts where it seemed unnecessary. I found myself getting bored, and felt cheated as some parts just stretched out too uncomfortably long.

The worst parts where the ones with the female inmate oral sex. Usually lesbian scenes are nice, but not this one, ugh. And the final extended overly long climactic scene where the families of the victims get to take revenge on the main kidnapper. In a revenge movie, the actual revenge scene would be the best part, but this one just got me depressed after I turned off the DVD. It also made me feel like I wasted two hours.

In obligatory Asian Extreme Horror movie fashion, this ends with some weird scene which I guess is supposed to be open to interpretation and make the viewer think. I didn't find it weird though, I just didn't care. In fact, this just might be the one to turn me away from the whole asian extreme horror genre which is looking more and more repetitive and depressing rather than scary.

I guess the only scary thing about this is how it got all those glowing reviews and praise from the so-called asian horror fans.

Rating: 1/5 *
Watch this if you're too happy and want to become depressed.

Point Break

Point Break is exactly what a fun movie should be like. You've got the good cops and the bad surfers, throw in some social commentary, add cheesy lines and good action, have best friends become archenemies, and the result is a cult classic.

The basic story starts with a series of bank robberies being perpetuated by criminals wearing former Presidents' masks. Then the good cops are assigned to investigate, namely Keanu Reeves aka FBI Special Agent 'Johnny Utah' (what a great cop name) and Gary Busey. The villain is a mythical surfer dude named 'Bodhi' (a great villain name) played by Patrick Swayze. All three characters are larger than life - you actually believe they're real. And I'll go out on a limb to say that these are still the best roles that Reeves, Swayze, and Busey had ever played.

The chemistry between Utah and Busey's character is funny and intense. They gave Gary Busey all the funny lines, my favorite being "Utah, get me two!". Johnny Utah and Bodhi also have a special relationship, as friends and archenemy, sort of like Superman and Lex Luthor. Utah starts out as this Type A Mr. Stress personality, until he meets and befriends Bodhi, who teaches him a lot about his philosophy towards life.

Bodhi has a couple of great quotes in this film. He talks about people who "are inching their way on the freeways in their metal coffins". Before you know it, Utah realizes that his experiences with Bodhi has made him a different person. Bodhi just might be the best movie villain of all time. I both hated and liked him at the same time.

Since Keanu Reeves is in this one, there's the obligatory corny stuff and corny acting. But it works! Everything just feels right. In fact, this might be Keanu's best role to date (better than Neo even). Busey's character and Swayze's over the top persona makes sure you don't take the story too seriously.

The action scenes are real fun too. There's a Johnny Utah - Bodhi chase scene which ends in some of the worst Keanu Reeves overacting (but trust me, it's good). There's a botched FBI raid which ends with a naked woman beating up an agent. And topped with the kamikaze skydiving scene.

It's one of the most enjoyable movies I've seen. My only regret is not having watched this back in 1991.

Rating: 5/5 * * * * *
"Simple masses inching along the freeway"

Inland Empire

I was looking forward to watching this on DVD as it has been almost six years since David Lynch's last movie, Mulholland Dr. Unfortunately, this movie turned out to be a total disappointment. It made no coherent sense, the video was not movie-quality, and honestly, I just got bored and ended up fast-forwarding the scenes after watching it for an hour and thirty minutes.

At almost three hours, this is a very long movie, with lots of nonsensical, dragging scenes. Unlike Mulholland Dr which at least had a plot premise, this thing made no sense whatsoever, and you get the feeling that Lynch just doesn't care. He went totally overboard with this one. He doesn't even try to make up a story.

There are scenes with people dressed up in rabbit suits, a dance number performed by teenaged hookers, a couple of dramatic scenes which end up being revealed as parts filmed for a movie when the director yells 'cut'.

The flimsy background story revolves around an actress played by Laura Dern, who was an affair with her male co-star. It is revealed that a polish curse exists for the script, resulting in dire consequences for the two main stars. Real scenes end up being movie scenes, with the place shifts abruptly to some polish locations with the actors speaking a different language. Dern is interviewed all of a sudden by some police investigator where she speaks in a southern accent and tells about how she performed some violent acts in the past. This thing makes no sense whatsoever.

Trust me, there really is nothing to see here.

Rating: 1/5 *
Waste of time and film.