(Insert Time of Day Here) Of the Dead

George Romero is a clever guy. For those of you not in the know, George Romero is the inventor of modern zombies. Note that he didn't invent zombies themselves, they've been around for awhile in the Voodoo religion, but rather wrote the book on what a film zombie should do. His film Night of the Living Dead is a step-by-step guide to making a perfect zombie film. Don't bother explaining why zombies attack, they just do. Have a small group of characters board up in some sort of building, then wait for inter-personal relations to break down...and Voila! You have made an excellent zombie film. The question is however, is it his best work? Romero has made six zombie movies, known as the 'Of the Dead' movies. The two most commonly referenced as his best work, and the genera's best are Night of the Living Dead and Romero's second film Dawn of the Dead. But which is superior?

Ten Movies I'm pumped for in 2011!

I think the title says it all. Here we go:

#10 - Sherlock Holmes 2

Normally, the problem with sequals is that their story fails to live up to the story of the original. Luckily for Sherlock Holmes, living up to the original story shouldn't be a problem. The two problems with the first Sherlock were the slightly boring story and the honestly unthreatening boring villain. With Proffesor Moriarty coming into play the villain part is already solved, so all they need to do to make this a perfect sequel is a good story that will give the characters a bit more to do than be witty at each other. (Though in the last film, the characters alone were enough for me to leave the theater impressed.)

Ghostbusters (1984)

Don't you just love how awful 80's trailers are? I mean, if this trailer was all I had to go on, I probably wouldn't have been incredibly interested in this movie. But, because I was lucky enough to be born well after the movies release date, I had the benefit of hindsight, and all the powers of pop culture on my side to tell me that Ghostbusters was awesome long before I saw the movie. But, in case you live under a rock in northern Ontario, let me tell you exactly how awesome Ghostbusters is.

Who Ya Gonna Call?

So, my first 'official' Thursday review may be a little late. Here's a poem I wrote to tide you over.

If there's something strange

And it don't look good

Who Ya Gonna Call?

Ghostbusters!

Alex Thor

From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

From Dusk Till Dawn stars Quentin Tarantino as an actor. That’s interesting because in a movie that starts out with two bank robbers trying to reach Mexico while threatening and killing massive numbers of people and throwing out lines of memorable dialogue almost as often as they throw off lead rounds of death, you’d think Tarantino must be directing. At least, you would until the vampires show up.

Why From Dusk till Dawn is officialy the new BEST MOVIE EVER

So I just watched From Dusk till Dawn. It was awesome. I'll review it eventually but for now all I need to show you is this one scene.




Yah that just happened.

Alex Thor

Se7en (1995)

Se7en is not a movie for the faint of heart. It's not the most disturbing movie ever, far from it, but it contains a bit more than it's share of chilling murder scenes. There are two homicide detectives working together in a high crime city. Brad Pitt plays a younger, headstrong, reckless detective. Morgan Freeman plays an older, jaded, tired detective who's seen to much and is retiring in seven days. Both actors do a good job, but Freeman's performance is blatantly superior, as he uses his considerable acting heft to lend belief to his character. Both are helped along by the few supporting characters and overall the incredibly cliched characters manage to become believable.

The Matrix (1999)

I'm going to say this once and once only. If, for some reason you haven't seen The Matrix before, stop everything right now. Open Netflix or Itunes, or go to Walmart or whatever and get yourself a copy. But this is the important part so listen (read) carefully. Don't try and get any information about it beforehand. Don't watch any trailers, don't ask anyone about it, and don't even read the back of the box. Trust me, the less you know going into this, the better it will be.

The List.

I'm not an expert on film. I haven't been around long enough to know exactly which movies I should see, and I've missed a lot of great movies that came out before I was born. So, for a list of movies that really defines "awesome" I turn to another. Bob Chipman, aka MovieBob is an independent filmmaker and film reviewer for an online magazine called The Escapist. In August he wrote an article (two actually) listing the movies that every movie nerd should see. Unsurprisingly, I haven't seen most of them. However, I think that they can provide a nice baseline for any movie reviews from me that are to come. The following is just the list. To read the full article(s), and you really should,go to escapistmagazine.com and search for movie nerd bible, because I'm having a lot of trouble adding a link to this post.

Intro to the Universe

Welcome. This is the official homepage of awesome. This page is where I talk about my adventures in the world of film, both as a lover of film and a critic, but also as an amatuer film-maker, and the experiences that entails. This page is going to be a place where I bring out my opinions on famous stuff, expose some lesser known stuff, talk about and discuss the crazy thoughts that float through my head, and blow some minds. Right now is early days but I'm going to mention some of my personal inspirations and favorites throughout the coming days. I may also let my friends use this space to talk about what they think of certain movies, or how much they hate me as a person.
What I want to emphasis is that for me, this is a journey. There's a whole world of awesome stuff out there that I haven't experienced yet, and this is a place to share my thoughts on it. I can't tell you if you'll like something, but I can tell you if I like it in an amusing and interesting way.

Oh and just btw.... (warning, lots of profanity, so if you don't want anyone to hear the word motherfucker at high volume turn your speakers down.)



One of the Greatest film scenes .....OFALLTIME.

Alex Thor