Are zombie movies inherently good?  Heck no!  Look at Remains.  Look at Pontypool.  That’s what makes Exit Humanity such a nice surprise.

Exit Humanity is set in the post-civil war south.  Years after the war, soldier Edward Young returns from a hunting expedition to find some very bad things have happened to his family.  Much of the strength of the film stems from the convincing acting of Mark Gibson as Young and the compelling story of how he copes with loss.

The film is clearly a low budget affair.  Animation drives some of the action and it’s difficult to tell if it was added for stylistic or budgetary reasons.  The zombie makeup is disappointing especially when many of us are used to the fantastic makeup of The Walking Dead every week.  Exit Humanity has a completely different pace than The Walking Dead; it’s more hypnotic and dreary.  It’s less about action and gore and more about bleakness and drama.  The story unfolds slowly and some viewers may not have the patience to see it through, but it’s certainly a tale worth experiencing.

Some of the character acting is spotty but there is some nice work from Stephen McHattie (who was also in the aforementioned Pontypool) and Dee Wallace (The Howling) as Eve the shaman.

Director John Geddes smartly enlisted Brian Cox to do the narration, giving a sense of credence and weight to the film.  I enjoyed the way the richly animated chapter headings reinforced the fact that Young is documenting his adventure.  The outdoor scenes are artfully filmed and the landscapes are beautiful. I also really liked the understated ending.  Zombie fans rejoice!  There’s new zombie film worth watching.

 
Spoilerish trailer:

Here’s a very cool crime comic from France.  It’s based on a 1976 French novel by Jean-Patrick Manchette, adapted and drawn by Jacques Tardi, translated and published by Fantagraphics and served up cold for us crime hungry folks here in the USA.

Tardi got his start in comics in the late sixties and is well respected.  He is considered by many to be one of the most important and influential artists of his generation.  French director and producer Luc Besson has adapted Tardi’s work into a film trilogy.  Fantagraphics has published many of Tardi’s books for an English speaking audience.

West Coast Blues is a noire-esque crime tale that isn’t so noir.  Actually much of it takes place in the bright sunshine and wilderness.  The main character is George Gerfaut, an unlikable and unlucky guy who is in the wrong place at the wrong time.  He’s an unhappy fellow that has his life turned upside down.  Does his life actually improve or worsen?  That’s up to the reader to decide.  But it certainly is an adventure.

Tardi’s art in West Coast Blues is understated and completely serves the story.  His work pulls you into Gerfaut’s world with economical lines and deep characterizations.  No splashy full page panels here. Realism is critical to driving this story and shocking the reader when horrific violence occurs.  The characters are interesting, the plot is satisfying and, the ending does not disappoint. West Coast Blues is definitely worth reading.

One thing you’re sure to notice about World War Z is that the zombies do not look like the decaying, shambling zombies we’ve come to know and love. They look like regular fast-moving people. Actually they look like lightning-fast-moving CGI people. Actually they look like ants swarming over a dead beetle. I don’t think physics was a major concern in the minds of the film makers and effects people. Look at the opening scene, when a cop maneuvers his motorcycle through a narrow corridor between cars in traffic gridlock, tells Brad Pitt to stay in his car, then gets slammed by a huge truck barreling down the street through the same narrow space between cars. How does that work exactly?

This film looks like your typical Hollywood, excessively computer generated, wanna be blockbuster action movie. No thanks. Not sure what is more vile and repulsive, Brad Pitt’s crummy WWZ trailer or Brad Pitt’s insipid perfume commercial.

Good or Bad?
Does this mean:  “Eeeewww Disney Star Wars, it’s gonna be terrible!”

Or:  “Yay Lucas is retiring, it has a chance to be good!!”

You decide.

The Next SW Film
The next film will be called Star Wars Episode 7, due out in 2015.  Will we see an old Luke fighting alongside his older dad Darth Vader against some new foe?  Will Han and Leia’s son be some new hero/smuggler/jedi?  Will Jabba the Hut grow bigger and bigger engulfing the entire galaxy?  Who knows?  Who cares?  Star Wars hasn’t been worth a crap since The Empire Strikes Back, over 30 years ago.  I’m still mad at Lucas for pissing off the 15 year old me when Return of the Jedi was released.  Damn you Lucas!!!

PRESS RELEASE

Global leader in high-quality family entertainment agrees to acquire world-renowned Lucasfilm Ltd, including legendary STAR WARS franchise.

Acquisition continues Disney’s strategic focus on creating and monetizing the world’s best branded content, innovative technology and global growth to drive long-term shareholder value.

Lucasfilm to join company’s global portfolio of world class brands including Disney, ESPN, Pixar, Marvel and ABC.

STAR WARS: EPISODE 7 feature film targeted for release in 2015.

UPDATE:

My crazy ideas ain’t so crazy!
Rumor from i09.com:
Disney wants to bring Darth Vader back. The U.K. tabloid, The Express, quotes an industry source as saying, “He’s an integral part of the franchise. Replacing him is virtually impossible. The plan is for him to return and play a significant role in the new films.”

I’m a big Steve Niles fan.  Aleister Arcane, The Lurkers, Cal MacDonald; great stuff.  I did not read Remains and based on this movie I’m not going to.

Remains is a low budget flick with 28 Days Later style zombies that are more like sick people than undead.  They don’t have any cool rotting flesh makeup, although later in the film confusingly they are referred to as undead and they start looking a bit decayed.  It’s hard to tell if they just don’t die that easily or they are undead.

A few things distinguish this from other zombie films;(spoilers) the zombies “sleep” and they eat on another.  The scares in this film are mostly the cheap contrived pop out at you type.  There are a host of illogical set ups to get to the scares and it gets frustrating to the viewer after a while.

Steve Niles

Steve Niles didn’t write the script or direct this movie so its poor quality certainly isn’t entirely his fault, but this is the worst thing I’ve experienced that had Steve Niles’ name attached to it.  I’m hoping it remains the worst.

The Silent Opener

The opening sequence of episode one told us a lot.  We learn that months have passed since the farm. We learn that Rick and crew are always on the run.  We learn they are hungry.  We see that they have become a finely tuned, well-oiled machine.  And all of it without one line of dialog.  Cool.

Killer Carl

Carl’s all grown up.  His dispassionate head shot of that zombie gal in episode one let us all know Carl may not be keeping up with the 6^th grade curriculum, but his zombie kill scorecard is looking like straight A’s.  You go boy!

Riot Gear Zombies

What’s not to love?  Zombies in riot gear.  And Maggie getting all excited when she figured how to take ‘em out.  Ha!!  Priceless.

Hello Michonne

Michonne meet the zombies, zombies meet Michonne’s blood soaked katana.   Comic book readers have been waiting for her and she’s here!  Audience, now you’ve got another bad ass to cheer for.

Lori’s Baby Talk

The scene where Lori is spilling out her worries of nasty baby scenarios to Herschel was a doozy.  What if the baby dies and tries to eat me from the inside out?  What if I die and try to eat the baby? Oh tell me more!

Breaking a Leg

Ricks reaction to chopping off Herschel’s leg was a whopper.  After cracking countless zombie skulls, it still ain’t easy to hack your friend’s leg off.

Who Are You Guys?

The prisoner reveal was a great cliffhanger.  I was wondering if they would pull that one out of the comic.  Glad they did.

Big Tiny Gets Smaller

When tough guy prisoner Tomas took down his zombie infected friend Big Tiny and then beat his head into a bloody pulp, I think we all figured out what Tomas was in prison for.  Then him huffing and puffing in a blood fueled rage, wow.  Powerful scene.

Exit Tomas

Tomas made a few mistakes and had to go.  Rick drifts further from his old civilized policeman ways and when confronted with the threat of Tomas, he ends it shockingly quick.  And Tomas’ friend Andrew gets caught in the fray; all that’s left of him are his blood curdling screams as Rick locks him outside in a courtyard full of zombies.  Rick 2, prisoners 0.

Maggie’s Lament

Maggie’s wrenching scene with not so nearly dead Herschel worked on many different levels, in no small part due to the fine acting by Lauren Cohan.  It was a heart rending scene of a daughter saying goodbye to her father, but there were nagging questions behind it. Did she want to see him go because he was going to end up a cripple and burden the group if he lived?  Why is she ready to give up on her dad so quickly?  Or is she?

These are some of the many reasons The Walking Dead is such a fantastic show.  It’s got depth, pathos, and lots of crossbow bolts entering zombie skulls.  Season three is killing it so far.  The show is raising the bar for TV horror.  I hope they continue to raise it, stopping every so often to jam it into an eye socket or two of course.

Do you like bad puns? Do you like Frankenstein? Mobsters?  Monsters?  Mashups? Yes, yes yes?  Well then you ought to love Frankenstein Mobster: Made Man.

Frankenstein Mobster is every bit as wild and crazy over the top as you think it might be.  But it’s more than just wackiness; it’s solid characters, a sense of pathos, humor, and great art work.  The main monster in this tale is Terry Todd, a lone honorable cop in a crooked city where criminal humans suppress the hard working, downtrodden monster population.  The monsters live in a slum nicknamed the Dead End, he he!  Through mystical means, our pariah policeman, ends up a resurrected Frankensteinian monster/mobster.

Mark Wheatley’s artwork really stands out in Frankenstein Mobster.  He creates wonderfully dark and atmospheric settings.  His depiction of Terry as a Frankenstein-looking monster is clever.  The other monsters are fun too.

The overall plot is well done, but there are a few stumbles here and there. The mobsters for one thing are extremely stupid, how do they ever maintain a rule over this city? The ending is a bit off target as well. Despite the flaws, this book is a fun read in a neat package; fat package too, 264 pages! You can get it on amazon for pretty cheap so it’s definitely worth a look.

Mad scientists can have kids too.  Yup Dr. Monstrosity is a dad and loves to force feed his kids a steady diet of creepy children’s literature.  Actually they love the stuff!  I bought The Sword in the Grotto for my eight year old daughter.  She’s hooked R. L. Stine’s Goosebumps books thanks to me; so I thought let me get her going on another series of ghostly kid’s horror books.   With Goosebumps it took some prodding before I got my daughter to read the series on her own.  I basically just picked up Goosebumps: Deep Trouble 2 and started reading it to both of my daughters (yes even my 6 year old is into this stuff!).  I decided to read this book myself and dangle the juicy parts of the story in front of my 8 year old like a carrot.  I hope it works. I think it will, the book is pretty darn exciting.

My daughter loves scary adventurous tales and this book fits the bill.  The characters are quirky and the plot was a rousing little adventure.  Araminta, the lead character, lives in a sort of haunted house with a vampire uncle, a wizard family, and some ghosts.  The series is geared toward 7 – 10-year-olds and is a bit less intense and scary than Goosebumps.  There’s a healthy helping of childish bat poop humor and the monsters and ghosts are actually quite friendly.  Nonetheless there are some tense moments and our lead characters Araminta and Wanda get into quite a scrape.

The Sword in the Grotto is illustrated by Jimmy Pickereing who likes to draw eyes very far apart.  Other than that I enjoyed his sparsely placed illustrations.  Author Angie Sage, who also wrote the best-selling Septimus Heapbooks is adept at crafting a tale which kids will eat up.   Her writing is fairly simple which makes it easy to tear through the book, perfect for newer chapter book readers.  Her action is easy to follow and humor is on target.  I like that she doesn’t dumb down the vocabulary; the kids might actually learn a thing or two while being drawn into this witty adventure.  Now if I can only get my daughter to read it. Get it for your kid.

Joe Haldeman is one of my favorites.  Reading one of his books is like putting on an old well-worn pair of sneakers, it’s familiar and feels great.  I love Haldeman’s style, no words wasted.  His prose is terse, not flowery.  His writing focuses on action, with a minimum of description.  He’s a plot driven writer and expects the reader to fill in all the details.  With a Haldeman book you know you won’t be wading through a lot of wasted words; but you’re still going to get well drawn characters and a satisfying plot.  And ideas.  Interesting ideas.  Haldeman is an original.  His early novels helped define science fiction and an old idea in his hands feels fresh and exciting.

Joe Haldeman

Two of my favorites from Haldeman are his non sf books: War Year and 1968.  Both are Vietnam era stories written by a guy who was actually there.  They are both unflinchingly brilliant.  As far as his science fiction goes he’s written a slew of great ones.  Of course the classic The Forever War comes to mind; but I am also a huge fan of the Worlds trilogy, Mindbridge, Buying Time, and All My Sins Remembered not to mention all of his short story collections.  Camouflage is another terrific one; it even won the Nebula for best novel in 2005 which means some other people liked it too.

Camouflage is an interestingly structured novel with parallel story arcs taking place in different timelines that eventually meet up.  The main character is a shape shifting life form that can emulate just about anything animate or inanimate as subtly suggested by the title.  Its origins are somewhat vague as is its gender.  We meet this changeling in the early 1930s and stay with him for a good many years; apparently he never gets old.  In fact he’s been around since way before the thirties.  In another timeline we follow a group of scientists who have discovered a strange artifact deep in the ocean.  This future timeline is definitely the weaker story arc and its characters are pretty flimsy.  In fact they’re not the least bit interesting until the changeling comes along and starts interacting with them.  The changeling is the real meaty character in this novel and his development is very interesting to read.  To say any more would spoil things, but I can tell you the ending, although abrupt, is a panoply of weird violence and ultimately leaves you with a smile.

Add another Haldeman novel to his list of enjoyable, thought provoking books.  My good old Haldeman sneakers: dependable, functional, smart, fun, no frills, and they still feel warm and fuzzy when I put them on.