Tag: movie reviews

Survival of the Dead

Posted on by T. Maxwell-Harrison

Survival of the Dead is a 2009 horror film written and directed by George A. Romero and starring Alan van Sprang, Kenneth Welsh and Kathleen Munroe. It is the sixth entry in Romero’s Night of the Living Dead series. The story follows a group of AWOL National Guardsmen who briefly appeared in Diary of the Dead.

Rotten Tomatoes: 30% – IMDB: 4.8/10 (Please read my review before considering these)

Release date: 2009

Runtime: 1 hour and 30 minutes

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Horror, Thriller

Directed by: George A. Romero.

Survival of the Dead is George A. Romero’s last movie directorial effort before his demise in 2017. A zombie classic but one movie which received critical reviews from all parts of the reviews world. Sometimes referred to as a massive failure, this movie, I hope to explain in my review isn’t a bad movie at all. In fact, this is a genius work of art.

It is important to note that Romero never had the giant funding of rich movie studios on any of his works. Land of the Dead (2005) was funded by Universal Pictures but this is a far cry from the pittance he’d received for previous films. That movie also had some big actors on the cast including legendary Dennis Hopper who was fantastic in his role. The next two movies wouldn’t have the same production values.

Survival of the Dead was produced by independent companies, and distributed by Artfire Pictures – released to DVD in 2010. The budget was 4 million dollars. The budget doesn’t detract from the movie, it is a professional art work with good acting, good directing, plot and pace, beautiful set pieces including well chosen locations for the mainland and island on which the latter half of the film would unfold.

So as far as it not being a big budget movie like Land of the Dead, it is nonetheless stunning and given how it looks when watching it I’d say the crew did a great job especially the director of photography.

We have a movie which I would call ‘aesthetically pleasing’, meaning it is nice to look at and the way the actors are presented on screen is also telling of this being a work of art, with deeper meanings than simply another zombie movie. What I particularly like is that right from the word go, we are drawn into quite a dark, haunted world and Romero gives us a zombie kill early on, albeit in a rather black-humour kind of way. Classic Romero, throwing in humour, which he has done before in his movies. Survival of the Dead has more of it, in terms of the zombie kills being somewhat laughable but that doesn’t detract from the effort put into making this.

So, we get dropped into this dark, zombie infested world in which the zombies have taken over. Since Night of the Living Dead Romero has kept the zombies going, with the world becoming increasingly apocalyptic and chaotic. The exception would be the Diary of the Dead in which we see the dead rise for the first time again. In this addition, Survival of the Dead takes us into a warm embrace and George sure knows how to please.

Soldiers go looking for an island, hoping to find safety in a new, terrible world. What they find is that there have been – as is shown at the beginning of the movie with some brilliant acting by Kenneth Welsh – some ongoing feuds between two Irish families. Reminiscent of the Irish civil war in a way, the two men have their own beliefs. One man, Muldoon wants to keep the zombies around and use them to try to get them to eat something other than the living. O’Flynn wants to put them to rest. At first you might be siding with O’Flynn, despite the fact he’s been robbing people and sending them to the island for money, only for them to arrive and be killed by Muldoons people. Intent on keeping the island his own, it is clear the soldiers have stumbled onto a familiar power struggle.

The living fighting the dead. Two Irish men, fighting since childhood. Determined to outwit and outdo the other, the movie sort of trails off from any sort of survival aspect. Which, to me, is genius. Not only are the zombies in the background playing a central role to one of these men, or so he believes, but they are also there are post marks to the climax of the movie. With neither side willing to back down and admit defeat I wondered, initially, what would happen. There was no doubt that blood would be shed. Killing of living and dead. Betrayal, family feud and warring neighbours. It’s drama at its best. I don’t say that lightly.

What Romero is giving us is a human portrait, and I stress again that the acting is good, you just need to be able to appreciate the plot and style to see it. This war between the living comes at great cost. Arrogance and pride take the limelight. Religion and good old fashioned guns combat one another. If morality exists in this movie, neither of the warring parties have it. O’Flynn, too ignorant to stand down has already lost his daughter. I can see his point, and partially agree with ending the zombies. Muldoon comes across at first as very unlikeable. However, as he explains his point I started to see what he was doing. I think, given the movies ending that we can safely say that had both men just lowered their guns and shared the island, that things might have turned out okay for them all.

The soldiers are just caught in the middle of this war, which I find amusing as they are afterall, soldiers. You could say this is a nod to the Green zones in which soldiers become accustomed to being at rest, not firing weapons or being attacked until one day, they are. They side with O’Flynn from the beginning, but at the end of the movie, the soldiers left have told us – through narration by Alan Van Sprang (Sarge) – that he too though there was more to Muldoon’s argument.

It’s a movie with tension, dark humour and slower paced drama that blends rather well into something of a horror. The horrors of war, no side backing down, losing people in the process until nobody is left. Each side taking hits, because they want to be right and to win. George Romero should be glad at this effort as it was not wasted. Far from it.

Further reviews have gone on to say that film doesn’t have the societal issues interwoven into the plot like other Romero movies. This isn’t true because as I said previously the drama and conflict is demonstrated right from the beginning of the movie. If you can see the artistic work here, and what is really being said I believe you will enjoy it. Sure, you might find the scenes stilted and lackluster, but I can see there is a purpose to this. By having no music in one scene it heightens the emotion of a sad character. By keeping the camera stationary when O’Flynn goes to shoot the dead children, we can sense his isolation and pride, being too difficult even for him to do.

I say this many years after I first watched it, but thank you to George A. Romero for this masterpiece. I can see the point. I enjoyed this film, the choice of locations, the direction, the lighting, the aesthetically pleasing set pieces and costume design and the funny zombie kills. It is just a shame that it was your last.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

It’s truly a 5 star movie. Give it a chance. It’s a masterpiece.

Banshees of Inisherin

Posted on by T. Maxwell-Harrison

The Banshees of Inisherin is a 2022 black tragicomedy film written and directed by Martin McDonagh. The film follows lifelong friends who find themselves at an impasse when one abruptly ends their relationship; Kerry Condon and Barry Keoghan also star. It reunites Farrell and Gleeson, who previously worked together on McDonagh’s directorial debut In Bruges.

Starring: Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson

Genre: Drama, Comedy, (Black comedy/tragicomedy)

Directed by: Martin McDonagh (In Bruges)

Highly rated by Rotten Tomatoes at 97% and IMDB at 8.2.

This review is based on a viewing of the movie yesterday. I was looking for something good to watch at the cinema after missing Bullet Train and found the movie called The Banshees of Inisherin starring reuniting stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson who had previously paired up in the black comedy In Bruges – also directed by the Martin McDonagh. I didn’t read any reviews prior to seeing the film and went with an open mind. Having seen the trailer it looked interesting enough.

So, the film starts off pretty quickly and there is no explanation or showing of the main characters relationship before this crisis hits them. Pádraic Súilleabháín (Farrell) and Colm Doherty (Gleeson) were obviously close friends having lived on the island for many years, sharing the same pub. However we are dropped right into Colm telling Pádraic that he no longer wants to be friends, and that he should stop talking to him. This last for some time, about half an hour of the film is this tension back and forth as the Irish men seperate and the locals who live on the island begin to take it seriously.

It is a rather sad and callous action for Colm to cut his friend off like this. But he reasons that it is because Pádraic is dull and talks **** for hours on end. Colm would rather have peace, play his violin and make music that Island will remember. This is occuring on an island off the coast off Ireland during the civil war, some time ago now. As the reality settles in and Pádraic struggles to find the reason, and finds it hard to accept, he is trying to make amends believing he is in the wrong, yet Colm doesn’t want to hear any of this.

After some time, Colm makes the ultimatum that every time Pádraic talks to him he’ll cut one of his left hand fingers off. The hand he plays the violin with. With time, and the two in silence not helping one another, Pádraic makes the mistake of talking to his ex friend, revealing to the pub goers, and island folk that it was no bluff. Despite living with his sister, Pádraic is lonely, and misses his friend, as is his sister. With time the loneliness grows. But Colm is pushed further and eventually cuts all fingers off.

As for the characters; interesting to say the least. The humour is very stark and black but does well in places. The over arching theme is loneliness, despite me thinking it was about something else entirely. The two best friends, now seperated because Colm wants peace, ultimately proves too much for Pádraic who can’t handle it. He’s soon talking to animals and keeping them in the house for company.

It is quite dramatic, yet quite tear jerking because the man can’t move on easily from this relationship. On the way the other island residents soon turn out to be just as callous. But it isn’t this that causes us to connect. We are seeing that the world here on the island is far sinister, it’s isolating. Something that we all can relate to. The friendship that was broken was strong on one end, but revealing on the other. Colm, potentially wrestling with his own demons is clearly not in his right mind to do these things, and neither is Pádraic.

What we are left with is a broken relationship and isolation on both ends. What should have been an amicable departure turns sour. Yes there is humour, but there is more drama. I was left hoping that something good would happen, but it sort of fizzles of at the end of the movie. The ending is abrupt and we have to piece together whether the men are friends again, or simply calling it quits on this fighting. There is some heart touching moments, and yet bitter moments. Characters struggle with the realities and some perish, telling of the high rates of depression among the isolated and indeed in those times – and even to this day.

What I wanted was more comedy, a bit more backstory into the friendship, like a scene of the two friends etc. Without this, it sort of plays out as a very weird, but likeable story. There is more to the men than we realise. There is more to the residents, to the island, to the story. This goes beyond a friendship breakup to the harrowing inner workings of a society held together literally by space and time.

Acting is super, and I didn’t expect less from the Irish pair Colin Farrel and Brendan Gleeson. It was a welcome reunion, and you can see that the pair on on form, at the top of their game. But they’ve always been good actors, this is just a very different acting style, almost like watching a play at the theater. The island location is beautiful, the decadent decaying homes of the farmers run down and revealing of their hearts desire. A movie I’d like to watch again. Although the dark air to the film is a little unsettling. Some genius somewhere will decode all the symbolism and things to tell us the real meaning and happenings in time.

This is far from a comprehensive review: so, thank you for reading! I give it generous: 4/5 because I like these sorts of movies, small places, tight acting, stringent storylines and potent drama.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

The Fast and The Furious: Remembering Paul Walker

Posted on by T. Maxwell-Harrison

The first movie in the franchise, The Fast and The Furious, was released in 2001, 20 years ago. It was a high octane racing thriller and captivated youths all over the modern world. Everybody wanted to be either Vin Diesel or Paul Walker (Dom and Brian). A film that spawned the biggest grossing series in the world, with the first movie ranking in $206,512,310!

What really kickstarted the series was Paul Walker, an undercover FBI agent. See, he’d starred in other movies, but the Fast and the Furious films were what he was and is still known for. First starring alongside Vin Diesel in the first movie, then being the star of the second, and reuniting with Vin for number 4. Film 4 and 5 was where we start to see a competitiveness between the actors to be the lead. Vin had vanished for movie 2 and made a brief appearance at the end of movie 3, Tokyo Drift. The 3rd movie, Tokyo Drift, was never my favourite, I preferred the first 2 movies. At the time though it didn’t matter, you liked it and you were cool, didn’t like and you were living in the past of the first movie.

The movies could arguable be the reason for video games such as Need for Speed: Underground released in 2003, and Need for Speed: Underground 2 released in 2004. Don’t forget Burnout, released in 2001. I played all 3 and I preferred Need for Speed, simply because of the car customisation which was a huge part of the first few Fast and Furious movies. They went from being crime films full of octane chases and races, to more of action thrillers where the cars customisation took the backseat. I still like the movies and for me number 7, Paul Walkers last movie, was my favourite. I still have to see the 9th movie!

So, what happened? Obviously Paul passed away in 2013, after the release of Fast and Furious 6. Making a digital appearance for number 7. It was known that he loved cars in real life as well as being in the Hollywood success series. The 6th movie also introduced Dwayne Johnson, which was a surprise. What was a bigger suprise was that he stayed on in the following movies. Going from antagonist to friend of the group.

See, Paul Walker starred in the first few movies, helping to build up the franchise and make it what it is today. Sadly, not everybody wanted that. He brought to the series a likeable character. Overshadowed by one person and pushed to the back seat a lot of the time, which we start to see in 2009 releases Fast and Furious.

We can’t change the past, but we can appreciate that Walker played the main character, Brian O’Connor in the first movies and added that undercover cop magic. The series grew, so did the income, so it was really not a surprise to see more recognisable faces showing up, like Dwayne Johnson, like Kurt Russel. The excellent spin off movie, still a part of the franchise, Hobbs and Shaw, starring Johnson and Jason Statham! Yes, an epic combination and to be honest, one of the best films I have seen in terms of action and plot. It still retains that Fast and Furious seal of approval, the upgrading of vehicles, the car chases. The crew of the series did well to integrate this spin off. See, Jason Statham, if memory proves correct, made a brief appearance at the end of one of the Fast and Furious movies. I think it was number 7, and then then film ends. So, to bring him back in film 8 (?) been a while since watching, was a good idea. An ideal villain. Anyway the spin off was good.

Back when the franchise was starting Paul and Vin were the only big stars in the movie that people cared about. There was Michelle Rodriguez though, who turned heads. She stayed in the series until film 4, Fast and Furious, in which she was killed and the plot evolved around Dom trying to avenge her. It was a rather emotional entry in the series. But fear not, she magically comes back in a later movie and sticks around. Rodriguez did go on to star in films like Resident Evil.

If the series continues, and no doubt it will, because of the money, then lets hope they go back to a time when the film was about the races, the upgrading of cars, and the neon lights on the streets of Los Angeles. The movies still have cars and fast chases, but the original movies were about racing. They lined up, some women in tight shirts would wave the banner and then they race. There was nitrous, there were crashes, and there was winners and losers. It felt very real. The newer movies don’t feel quite the same.

This has been a remembrance of Paul Walker’s contribution to the franchise, without whom it would not be where it is today. For the sake of clarity, I like the movies.