Movie review - "Diary of the Dead" (2007) **

 George Romero tries to keep up with the times with a found footage zombie movie which ages worse - being on video or whatever rather than film. Maybe the years will be kind. Some comic bits like the Amish killing zombies - which might've made a decent movie on its own. Ditto the black survivors who want to create a black world. Either plot would be better than focusing on "hmmm... why do you want to film everything." It's the end of the world. Of course you want to film it.

Unwise voice over. Ditto the old character spouting English. Uneven acting. Some decent kills and moments.

But this feels like well worn territory.  

Movie review - "The Crazies" (1973) ***1/2

 Romero's zombie film without zombies - it's a transmittable virus that makes people crazy and sends the world into meltdown. This is fast paced, cynical, chaotic, with some characters we care about - the bombastic doctor, the decent officer, the pregnant nurse and her boyfriend, and his mate who has bad PTSD. Downbeat ending. Very Vietnam era.

Can't believe this flopped. Maybe having no zombies was too much. 

Movie review - "Burying the Ex" (2014) **1/2

 This film has a bright high concept idea but couldn't they have made the ex more of a psycho? As played by Ashley Greene she's a bit forthright but she's hot, loves sex, wants Anton Yelchin to (gasp) eat tofu and soy, and is (gasp) into the environment and (gasp) redecorates their place and has doubts about his business acumen... I mean why not make her an abusive bitch? Really manipulative? Because in this version it's sad when she dies. 

Then when Anton finds his manic pixie dream girl, Alex Daddario (dancing on her own, into Val Lewton movies, running ice cream store, just wants to have sex) we are meant to go "yay them"?

The movie this reminded me of was My Super Ex Girlfriend  - like that I sense the male writer and director thought they could do a riff on bitches be crazy but like in that movie the sympathy goes to the bitch. 

I mean, Greene gets run over, she doesn't have any family apart from Yelchin, then she comes back from the dead, and he was going to dump her, then plans to kill her... Yes, she wants to kill him and Daddario but it's kind of hard to care too much about them.

There is still a lot to like about the film. The actors are winning, Oliver Cooper is heaps of fun as Yelchin's dodgy mate, it is directed with pace and affection by Dante. 

I think the script just needed another draft. There's all sort of interesting ideas that aren't explored, like Greene coming back and being horny, and cooking food, and the zombie lore. And also I think they needed to be clearer who we had sympathy for. 

Nice to see Dick Miller again even if he is awfully old.

Movie review - "I Walked with a Zombie" (1943) **** (re-watching)

 Val Lewton whinged about his pulpy titles that RKO management assigned him - they are of course part of these film' charm. Some thoughts:

- so wonderfully creepy with gorgeous low budged cinematography and use of wind, cane fields, mute woman

- Jane Eyre is a great basis for a horror movie

- acting competent except Tom Conway who is superb - he brought so nuch to these films

- progressive in many ways for its time: sensible female doctor, black maid who is not an idiot

- great shocks like the appearance of the black guy.

A very classy movie.

Movie review - "Zombies 3" (2022) **

 I know why they went for aliens, I get it... it doesn't feel right somehow though. It felt as though the newcomers should be something more earth bound - like say mermaids or something. There's too much plot towards the end.

But a nice cast, and breezy tunes. There's even a hint at a lesbian relationship between a werewolf and an alien. Why is that girl on the screen the whole time?

Movie review - "Zombies 2" (2020) **1/2

 They bring in werewolves for this. Song and dance numbers are still great as are the stars. The love triangle hinted at with the leads might've been more effectively developed. Bright and cheerful. Good fun.

Movie review - "Zombies" (2018) ***

 Bright, charming musical with an engaging sense of the absurd (including direct to camera address), likeable cast, well covered serious subtext, and some really terrific song and dance numbers. What a talented cast! Meg Donnell was particularly impressive.

Movie review - "Planet of the Vampires" (1965) ***1/2 (re-watching)

 Fun. Gorgeous. Doesn't sustain tension oddly. Solid script. Luciana Palluzi is in a lot of fun movies. Barry Sullivan is fine.

Movie review - "The Mad Ghoul" (1943) ***

 Some second-tier names get a chance to shine - George Zucco as the psycho who uses Mayan zombie techniques to get David Bruce to commit murder so Zucco can woo Evelyn Ankers away from her paramour, pianist Turhan Bey.

Silly but spooky. Zucco commits as does the relatively little known Bruce.  Ankers is pretty and you wish her part was bigger, as normal. Bey stays around looking handsome and soulful and not being killed. Maybe he should have played Zucco's part so Ankers actually fell for him and had Bruce kill someone else. Just a thought.

Movie review - "The Ghost Breakers" (1940) ****

 There's no hiding much of this humour is problematic -well, one aspect in particular, Willie Best, who plays Bob Hope's black servant. Best is very talented playing the role going and he is funny but it hasn't aged well.

Hope and Paulette Goddard have aged marvellously - a wonderful team in a comedy chiller, as Gene Wilder called them, she's pretty and game, he's cowardly but determined to pull through for her. They seem to genuinely enjoy each other's company.

Support includes Paul Lukas, Anthony Quinn (in a double role) and Richard Carlson, all of whom could be baddies which adds to the fun as does the castle on a island, genuine voodoo types.

George Marshall directed, one of many superior movies he made in an under-rated career.

Movie review - "Psychomania" (1973) ***

Quintessential batty early English horror film which throws in everything but the kitchen sink and is great fun. Nicky Henson leads a gang of bikers who wreck havoc-  they include women as well as guys. His mother is an upper class lady who knows how to revive the dead so Nicky gives it a go. Soon all these bikers are killing themselves and coming back to life. Henson's girlfriend has reservations.

Lots of fun stuff - the music score, girl bikers running people over (including if I'm not mistaken a baby), bikers riding into walls, crazy hair cuts, early 70s production design, a fantastic cast having a ball (apart from Henson there's Beryl Reid as mother and George Sanders in his last role as her assisting butler).

For a while this film was considered a joke but it has a cult that has deservedly grown.

Movie review - "Overlord" (2018) **1/2

Gets off to a flying start with an excellent D Day sequence, with troops being shot out of the sky and winding up at a mysterious Germany castle. But it takes 50 minutes before there's a hint of zombie suff and the filmmakers don't do much with it - you actually could have taken the zombie stuff out and it would still play: the beautiful French girl, her brother, the nasty German, the archetypes in the squad (good natured guy, ruthless guy, wise cracking New Yawkers), the mission to blow up the caste...

I didn't want them to cut out the zombie stuff I wanted them to do more with it. I can see why it wasn't a big hit - not enough zombies, some unpleasant torture, cliched characters and dialogue ("that was before the war... when everything changed"). No surprises, no twists.

It looks good and is smartly directed. Just a bit disappointing.

Movie review - "Bird Box" (2018) ***1/2

Very well done - Eric Hessiner is an exellecnt write, Suzanne Bier a very good director and Sandra Bullock a terrific star. At the end of the day it pretty much just is an episode of The Walking Dead. A very well done episode but it's not terribly fresh. There is a different angle with the creatures turning people insane if you see it... it offers potential into stories about the power of sight, etc... a little like Day of the Triffids.... but that's not really dealt with. At the end they stumble upon the blind community but that's it... I felt like that should be act two.

You've got the opening attack then a cross section of people holed up in a house, and various conflicts. So many scenes feel awfully familiar - a visit to a shopping center to loot supplies, people sacrificing themselves for the group. The actors include John Malkovich, Jackie Weaver and Sarah Paulsen... it's all well done. The journey on the river is very pretty. I liked it... I just kind of wish it had used the blind stuff more.

Movie review - "Voodoo Man" (1944) **1/2 (re-viewing)

I enjoyed this more the second time I watched it - maybe my expectations adjusted accordingly, but it seemed more fun. Bela Lugosi has one of his best 40s roles as a man who arranges for kidnapping of women so he can transfer their essence to his dead wife. It's shades of many previous Lugosi films - Dracula, The Devil's Bat, The Corpse Vanishes.

Monogram splashed a little extra cash here - there's some quasi elaborate sets in the area where Lugosi and his men perform ceremonies, plus some costimes; Lugosi's priest sidekick is played by George Zucco, and his Dwight Frye esque assistant is depicted by John Carradine.

 The nominal hero is a screenwriter of low budget movies; the abducted women include his fiancee and her cousin, both pretty and decently acted.

The pacing is off and it feels sluglishly directed. But their are plenty of compensations: Zucco chewing the scenery as the priest, Carradine out hamming him as the assistant, Lugosi in a wacky robe, a decent structure. There's some meta-ness with the hero screenwriter at the end suggesting the film be turned into a Bela Lugosi film. I forgave that joke; it was a close run thing though.

Movie review - "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" (2015) **

Long in development, underwhelming public response, and a disappointment. Some bits are quite good - it looks stylish, nice costumes and make up, etc - but it never works.

Part of this are the cast which is surprisingly uniformly bland - full of pretty young things that look like they've stepped out of drama school. England is full of great actors steeped in Austen lore but Burr Steers (or whoever is responsible) has peopled his film with bland nothings - the Bennett girls, for instance, are all pretty and that's it. They lack personality and spark. The young men are pretty and bland too. Sam Riley and Lily James are poor leads.

Part of it is the zombie stuff. We are so familiar with zombies now that the filmmakers really needed to come up with something fresh and/or interesting - they've failed to do so. There should have - the concept is strong enough - but all the zombie attacks are filmed in lazy perfunctory style that we've seen heaps of times before. It feels like the same old zombie attacks - munching brains, our heroes performing superhuman efforts of zombie fighting. Sure they spout the words but you never get a sense that anyone has a genuine feel for the period or Austen or even zombies. It occasionally comes to life - it's not awful - just dull.

Movie review - "Revenge of the Zombies" (1943) **

Follow up to King of the Zombies also has Mantan Moreland as a servant to two men investigating a mad scientist dabbling in zombies. He's played by John Carradine, giving this star power - and it's actually a good cast, with also Veda Ann Borg popping up as Carradine's zombie wife, Gale Storm as a love interest, and 30s Western star Bob Steele as a double agent.

This film is actually full of great ideas but none of them are developed which is frustrating - hero Mauritz Hugo is Borg's sister but they never have much of a relationship; Carradine seems to be working for the Nazis but doesn't seem to be planning anything; Robert Lowery is a hero who doesn't do much; Moreland is given a romance but hardly any screen time to develop it; Moreland has a fleeting encounter with zombies but that's given hardly any screen time too (Moreland fans will get more out of King of the Zombies); the zombies rise up but there's no build up or satisfaction.

The best bits are Bob Steele as a double/triple agent and the fact Carradine's wife is a zombie but turns on him. There is some decent atmosphere. This actually could have been awesome with a bit more care.

Movie review - "Bowery at Midnight" (1942) **1/2 (re-viewing)

Bela Lugosi reteams with director Wallace Ford of Monogram after having made The Corpse Vanishes. This benefits from a decent idea - Lugosi runs a soup kitchen, which he uses to recruit crooks and turn them into zombies. The latter bit feels like a tacked on after thought to what is essentially a crime movie - it kind of works, I just feel could have worked better with some more thorough treatment.There's not enough zombie stuff eg the college student coming back to life at the end felt like a cheat.

Tom Neal lifts things as a gangster who works for Lugosi but who won't kill a woman. Other good scenes include an undercover college student who wants to know what goes through the mind as people die... then Lugosi orders Neal to kill him.

It has energy though and a pleasing degree of nuttiness.

Movie review - "King of the Zombies" (1941) **

Low budget horror comedy in the vein of The Ghost Breakers is actually quite fun if you can get past the political incorrectness (okay racism). Three men - pilot, rich white guy, rich white guy's servant - crash on an isolated tropical island inhabited by a mad doctor and bunch of zombies.

The real star of the movie is actually the black guy, Mantan Moreland, doing a variation of Eddie Anderson's Rochester character, a smart talking valet to Jack Benny on radio. He's constantly being terrified, sassing his bosses, and is the first one to figure out what's going on. Yes, he's a "comic darky" but he gets to drive a lot of the action.

The zombie moments are fine, there are some laughs and I enjoyed the atmosphere, especially the zombie ritual at the end, and the wackiness of Nazi agents turning up on the island. A big flaw for me was the lack of star names - Belga Lugosi was originally meant to be cast and he would've been great as the mad doctor. Victory Henry is fine but lacks spark. The two white leads are forgettable. Only Moreland stands out.

Movie review - "World War Z" (2013) ***1/2

How much longer is this zombie boom going to last? Now Brad Pitt has gotten in on the act with a $250 million or whatever it cost epic... and it's actually pretty good. This is really a series of set pieces - the initial attack (fantastic spectacle), a shoot out in Korea, a siege in Jerusalem, through hospital corridors in Cardiff.

There's not a lot of character development but there are some fine actors, pleasing pro-UN propaganda, and refreshing multi-national/racial look at the problem instead of making it all about America. Mireille Enos actually makes the thankless role of Brad Pitt's wife into something memorable and Daniella Kertesz is a find as the tough Israeli soldier.

Interesting how in the film's troubled shooting, they originally ended with a massive battle but then went smaller, and went to character - just like what happened with Kaufman and Hart and their play Once in a Lifetime. When in doubt, go to character.

Movie review - "Island of the Snake People" (1971)

Towards the end of his life Boris Karloff worked with some exciting new directors - Peter Bogdanovich, Michael Reeves and Jack Hill. He actually made more movies with Hill than the other two - four at the end of his life which were Mexican films with some Karloff footage shot in Los Angeles.

They are not very highly regarded movies, even by the most devoted Karloff fan, and really only for completists. There are some effective moments here however and it's not a bad story: a voodoo cult is running riot on a small island, under the thrall of a priest. Karloff plays a rich local landowner - do you reckon he had anything to do with it? He's got a niece who is a temperance campaigner, one of several interesting little tidbits.

There's also a few ceremonies involving a snake, one where a woman puts a snakes head down her throat; a dwarf, some necrophilia and chicken sacrificing, plus two heroic police investigators, one handsome the other a character actor, a snake dancer, and some half-decent atmosphere. It lacks logic and Karloff's absence for most of filming is irriatingly evident at times - this one boosts his presence by featuring his photo heavily during the credits but it's not enough.