This week I’m going to talk to you about zombies again, only this time we’re gonna go comedy! Dead Alive is not only one of the funniest films ever made, but it is also one of the best zombie movie hands down. It’s no accident that it’s so damn good. This is one of Peter Jackson’s earlier films. You know, Peter! That guy who brought you such indie fare as The Lord of the Rings and King Kong. Brain Dead is Jackson’s 3rd feature film (Bad Taste and Meet the Feebles being his first two).

Jackson has an absolute blast playing around in his zombie epic. He creates a very Norman Bates style relationships between the leading man and his mum, and then turns it on its head by adding zombies. Lots and lots of zombies. To this day many still consider this movie to be one of the goriest films of all time. I am pretty convinced this is true. if not, it certainly is the most creative of zombie movies. The last half hour is some of my favorite stuff in cinema…ever.

Rent it. Buy it. love it.


Much love
Travis

Discussion: Read 4 Comments »

Today is Wednesday, and Wednesdays are when I talk about films that few people know about but deserve a greater audience due to their greatness. Today I come to you with an independent Canadian zombie film, Pontypool. I knew very little about this gem going in which was nice. It is a very simple story, yet incredibly intelligent, well written and beautifully acted. It’s hard these days to make a zombie film feel fresh, or even scary for that matter. Pontypool succeeds in both, mostly due to its attention to characters. I implore you to support this film. Movies like this prove that even in the toilet bowl of summer, you can still roll up you sleeve and reach down past the Transformers and Terminators and find a film worth leaving the house for.

Much love
Travis

Discussion: Read 1 Comment »

Bad Boy Bubby is a film I feel is extremely important to both its audience and the art of cinema, but one that gets very little attention, most likely do to its experimental nature. If only it were still the 70’s! I feel a film like this would get a bit more attention if it were. The time when filmmakers risky and personal visions were considered sellable product. Ah, to dream of paradise. But look, seriously, see this movie. Filmmaker Rolf De Heer explores the human condition using a 35 year old man who has been locked up in his shit-hole apartment his entrie life. Kept prisoner by his mother, Bubby knows very little of what goes on in the outside world. When his father returns for the first time since his birth, Bubby is forced out on to the streets to discover what living is really all about. What follows is an amazing journey of a man with no preconceived ideas of what it is to be a good person. Nicholas Hope does an outstanding job portraying Bubby and makes us understand the character even when he ignorantly does some of the most awful of things. There are so many scenes in which I would love to talk about, but I always find it annoying when I read about stuff like that and haven’t yet seen the film. What I would rather do is push you to see this movie and then open up your own dialog about it.

WARNING: Bubby is not a film for people who are offended easily. It takes a very serious look at what shapes and molds us as people. Our ideals, philosophies and religious fantatisism.  If you are not interested in having a mirror held up to your face then please stay away. Bubby is an experience, and not always a pleasant one. But please know that it is richly hilarious in a lot of its execution. Sometimes the truth about us silly humans is quite funny.


Much love
Travis

Discussion: leave a comment! »