Monthly Archives: February 2011

Iron Man 3 To Get Shane Black

Posted on by Arleigh

When Marvel Pictures and filmmaker Jon Favreau announced that he wouldn’t be doing Iron Man 3 there were some worries that no one would be up to the task to replace the man who brought the character of Iron Man to the big-screen. The first film was a fun, origin story that showed Iron Man was above being relegated to Tier 2 superhero status. The sequel wasn’t as well-planned and executed. There were rumblings behind the scenes that Favreau was none too happy with Marvel for rushing the sequel.

The split between filmmaker and studio has been amicable in public and Favreau will remain as producer of the third film. Once it was official that a new director would be needed the search began and the interwebs and it’s geek hordes went into rumor overdrive. The question everyone wanted to know now is will Marvel make the same mistake 20th Century Fox did when they replaced Bryan Singer for X-Men 3 with Brett Ratner or will they actually do their due diligence and find someone who understands the Iron Man franchise to make a third film work.

It looks like Marvel may have done their job during their search for, according to the entertainment news site Deadline, writer-directed Shane Black is now in negotiations with the studio to take over for Favreau and helm the third film. If the deal goes through then it couldn’t have happened to a better filmmaker and definitely puts the franchise in very capable hands.

Black made his directorial debut with the critically-acclaimed and popular comedy-mystery, Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (which also happened to have had Robert Downey, Jr. in the lead), and he’s been one of the best writers of action films since the late 80’s when he penned the first two Lethal Weapon films.

Personally, I think this is an upgrade from Favreau. I thought Favreau was a good filmmaker who did a great job in making the first Iron Man film not get lost in the hype and hoopla that was The Dark Knight, but the second film also showed that the expectations the first film created for the sequel may have been too much for him to handle. Whether Marvel studio heads rushed him or not he didn’t stand up to the challenge.

With Shane Black the franchise now has a filmmaker who understands action films, but also how to make them fun and irreverent. While the Deadline article didn’t specify whether Black will be writing the script for the third film in addition to directing, I would find think Marvel would want to tap Black’s penchant for writing smart, funny action scripts to make sure Iron Man 3 gets back to the high-bar the first film had set. One thing that bodes well for all this is that Robert Downey, Jr. has worked with Black before so the two shouldn’t have to worry about getting comfortable with each other.

Iron Man 3 has no release date other than Marvel wanting it to be a 2013 Summer film. Until, then let’s hope Marvel doesn’t screw the negotiations up and lose Black.

Source: Deadline

Dead Island: Official Announcement Trailer

Posted on by Arleigh

The zombie fps survival game that seem to be blowing up the interwebs with it’s “official announcement” trailer was a title that was initially talked about several years ago when Valve’s Left 4 Dead first came out and become a massive hit. Zombies were back in force in gaming (not that it really left) and every no-name studio was announcing a zombie title to try and take advantage of the sudden craze for the walking dead in games.

Techland was one such studio and their title was to be called, Dead Island. It was to be a first-person shooter for the Xbox 360 and PC. Set in an unnamed resort island, the game was received by the gaming community who followed such news with some interest. That interest soon waned when nothing new and concrete about the game came out in the last couple years. It’s now 2011 and, after a couple brief tidbits about the title in 2010, it looks like the game is going to be a reality (fingers crossed).

The trailer has been getting major praises since IGN first premiered it. People were soon hyped to see the game become a reality. Those who still were guarded with their reactions still thought the trailer was well-done and, some even said, it was artfully done. One thing that seem to have everyone in agreement is how heartbreaking the trailer ends up being once the whole sequence plays out. It’s true what some have said. Children always seem to be taboo as zombie chow in films and most games (novels have been more ahead of the game when it comes to children becoming zombie food) and it looks like Techland decided no one will be safe in this game.

I, for one, have been one of those who have been following this title since it was first talked about years back and if this announcement trailer really means the game will be made then my faith in the title has been rewarded.

I sure hop it doesn’t suck….

Source: IGN

Lisa Marie Does The Roommate (dir. by Christian E. Christiansen)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Because of all the snow and ice that hit Dallas earlier this month, I’ve been running a week behind when it comes to going to the movies.  For instance, I was planning on seeing The Roommate when it first opened but, because of the weather, I didn’t get a chance to see it until this previous Saturday.  I ended up seeing the movie at the AMC Valley with Jeff, my sister Erin, my friend Evelyn and her boyfriend Steven, Evelyn’s younger sister Emma, and finally Katrina, who works with my sister Erin. 

Now, you may be asking — why were so many people required just for me to see one movie?  Well, The Roommate didn’t look like a film to be seen alone.  It looked like a film that was meant to be  seen in a group of people.  The Roommate looked like the type of campy, silly little film that demanded some audience participation.  At least, that’s what it looked like.  However, as we watched the movie, it quickly became apparent that this film was neither campy nor silly.  Instead, it was just — well, it was just there.

In the Roommate, Minka Kelly plays a poor girl from Iowa who leaves home to attend college in California.  She’s a design major or something like that though she’s going to one of those movie colleges that is exclusively populated by models and where you’re only actually require to attend one class (and that class, of course, is taught by Billy Zane).  Anyway, Kelly has been randomy assigned a roommate and it turns out to be Leighton Meester.  Kelly and Meester hit it off but it quickly becomes evident that Meester has some issues.  Soon, she’s stalking all of Kelly’s other friends, cutting herself to get attention, and eventually revealing herself to be a comic book super villain.  Kelly, for her part, refuses to accept that Meester’s crazy until after the first murder has been committed and yet no one really gets upset at her for that.  Seriously, couldn’t one person have said, “You know, if you hadn’t been such a clueless idiot, a lot of trouble could have been avoided.” 

It’s a sad fact of life that most movies are rather forgettable.  Who hasn’t had the experience of sitting through a movie and then realizing, a few hours later, that you really can’t remember much about what you’ve just seen?  A similar thing happened to me when I saw The Roommate except, as opposed to forgetting about it after I saw it, I actually forgot about it while I was watching.  After about half-an-hour into the film, we all stopped paying attention and instead, me, Erin, Emma, and Evelyn started to whisper about old episodes of The O.C. and Buffy the Vampire Slayer while Jeff and Steve started to talk about sports and Katrina ended up spending the whole movie flirting with the guy sitting behind us (which I don’t think his girlfriend appreciated since she kept going “shhhhhhh!” in this really annoying, obnoxious way).  Every once in a while, I would look up at the screen and think to myself, “Oh yeah, there’s a movie playing” but, quite frankly, I never saw anything on-screen that would justify making any more than a minimum effort to pay attention.  That’s just the type of film The Roommate is.  It takes the old Radiohead song about no surprises, please to heart.

What makes this disappointing is that, concept-wise, the movie has potential.  Everyone has had that one friend that has turned out to be just a little bit too clingy for comfort.  Most of us have had more than a few.  As well, your first few semesters of college are supposed to be all about figuring out who you really are.  Are you gay, straight, or somewhere in between?  Are you a good girl or are you a bad girl?  Are you a rebel or are you a conformist?  At least that’s how I remember my first semester of college and, for me, my randomly-selected roommate was the key to answering so many of those questions.  I imagine that’s the way it is for a lot of people.  The best horror often has some sort of tenuous connection with reality so The Roommate had a chance to be, at the very least, a fun little B-movie.

Unfortunately, effective horror also requires a willingness to risk alienating the audience and The Roommate is too concerned with maintaining its PG-13 rating to take that risk.  That PG-13 rating means, in short, no nudity, no blood, and no darkness.  Instead of truly exploring the premise for all that its worth, The Roommate is more concerned with being safe for tweens and teenagers.  That was the majority of the audience when we saw the film and seeing how much they appeared to be enjoying the film made me feel really, really old.  Of course, to be honest, I probably would have enjoyed the movie to if I was only 15 years old and I’d never actually seen a good horror movie before.

However, no film is totally useless and The Roommate did inspire me to start concealing a pocket knife underneath the clasp of my bra, like Leighton Meester does in this movie.  That may be the best development in self-defense since I finally figured out how to use pepper spray without spraying it in my face.

Quick Take: Magicka

Posted on by Semtex Skittle

Quick Take

If you ever asked yourself how much fun it would be to randomly combine 10 different “elements” to create an absurdly large array of spell effects this game answers the question. For the rest? Don’t ask questions.

Unfocused Ramblings

I have, upon reflection, a soft spot for games that are developed by groups of Swedish students. I mean – in a broader sense, if you can make a game that people will enjoy, then why not? And through the magic of Steam, this game becomes available to the world. I know a lot of people have already played Magicka, and but I’m hoping more people will take the plunge into it.

So what is Magicka? It’s a humorous adventure-RPG-ish-game set in a world that parodies a number of mythologies as well as aspects of pop culture. You’ll see a ton of references to pop culture icons like Star Wars, 300, and literally dozens of others. The opening movie which introduces the setting and the premise is chock full of pop culture references and popular memes, and it doesn’t slow down from there. The player takes command of a nameless mage clad in an obscuring robe who has been taught at the academy of magic, and learned to wield eight ‘basic’ elements in order to weave together ever-more-impressive spells. If that weren’t enough, you quickly learn about two basic combines which produce two other, we’ll say “hidden”, elements (which, themselves, are frequently used to create still more sophisticated spells). With these ten building blocks, tens of thousands of combinations are possible. And, since the game doesn’t really force you to progress forward, and even your most tenderly beloved allies are valid targets for your spells, the game really does encourage you to play with these elements until you create something you really like. And from there, to use that spell until you get tired of the animation… and develop something new… and so on.

And yes, there are some big booms available in the more sophisticated spell combinations.

On top of just randomly mixing and matching various elemental building blocks to create beams, balls, streams, and walls, there also exist a repertoire of ‘Magicka’; defined spells that you learn the combination to which have particularly powerful effects (such as Revive, which restores a dead ally, Haste, which allows your mage to run at incredible speed, or Grease which deposits some very flammable fun on the ground).

Your mages can collect weapons from time to time which have some special effects, but for the most part, the game attempts to steer clear of any kind of level-up or power-up type stuff. The focus is very much on the interplay of the spell combinations, and the limitless fun you can have blasting your friends up, over, and through the landscape elements using your magical powers.

All of that sounds good, right? Well, it is. But the game does have some problems, and I would be remiss if I didn’t warn you about them before you shell out your hard-earned cash for a copy of Magicka.

– The single-player version of this game just doesn’t stand up well on its own. For several reasons. The most important one is that it’s very easy to kill yourself in Magicka, and if you do so when playing solo, you’ll find yourself regressing to a checkpoint that could be a good ways back. Quit the game? You’ll end up restarting the entire chapter. This glaring weakness still exists in multiplayer, but with a team of four, you can revive your comrades and hopefully not all die at once. This is tough in single player.

– There are some bugs. Let’s not mince words about this. In addition to wacky things that can happen with spell effects (many of which will send you or your enemies flying around the screen) the game seems to crash occasionally, and it just doesn’t feel quite as polished as you might expect from EA’s latest release.

– They made some inexplicable choices with the multi-player, such as not being able to reconnect to a game in progress, and the cut-scenes not being skip-able except by the host (and they’re pretty lengthy cut scenes at that. You can skip ahead of the cut-scene even if you’re not hosting, but you just stare at a loading bar until the cut-scene ends anyway).

– Despite having its own tutorial section, Magicka really doesn’t teach you much about how to play. Pay close attention to the controls it does show you, and don’t be afraid to experiment, but also don’t spend a lot of time looking for the game to guide you… because it won’t. That having been said, it’s not a crippling problem since experimentation is half of the fun in this title.

– Although the game is clearly more friendly for multi-player use, you’re definitely going to prefer putting together a group of four friends as opposed to playing open multiplayer. Friendly fire is a huge part of this game, and you’ll enjoy it more with your friends. Trust me.

The Bottom Line

Personally, I love Magicka. It’s a great multi-player experience and the combination of spell effects is a lot of fun. But it’s not a polished experience; it has some bugs, some of which are frustrating, and as a single player experience it leaves quite a bit to be desired. For what you’re going to pay for Magicka, however, you’ll feel as if you’ve gotten your money’s worth.

What Lisa Watched Last Night: Less Than Zero (dir. by Marek Kanievska)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Last night, I ended up watching the 1987 anti-drug propaganda piece, Less than Zero.

Why Was I Watching It?

Last night, I was hanging out with Jeff, our friend Evelyn, and Evelyn’s friend Steven and we were flipping stations, trying to find something that we could use for background noise.  When we came across an announcement on FMC that Less Than Zero was about to start, I made the mistake of admitting that despite having read Bret Easton Ellis’s novel and heard a good deal about this film, I had never actually sat down and watched Less Than Zero. 

Well, after everyone got finished making fun of me (boo hoo), it was agreed that we simply had to watch Less Than Zero. 

“But,” I started, “isn’t Gone With Wind starting over on TCM…”

“Fuck Gone With The Wind,” someone (I think it was Evelyn because she’s a meanie) said, “you’ve never seen Less than Zero before.”

What’s It About?

It’s about rich kids in Los Angeles doing drugs.  Clay (played by Andrew McCarthy, who my cousin Jessica met once and who she says was a really nice guy) is a college student who comes home to L.A. and discovers that his ex-girlfriend Blair (Jami Gertz) and best friend Julian (Robert Downey, Jr.) are addicted to cocaine and  that Julian owes a lot of money to a drug dealer named Rip (James Spader). 

(Personally, I would never buy drugs from someone named Rip — with the possible exception of Rip Torn.)

Anyway, Clay takes it upon himself to try to save the soul of everyone in California.

What Worked?

Downey and Spader are both great in this film.  From what I’ve read, the general assumption seems to be that Downey was just playing himself here but whether or not he was, he still gives an excellent performance.  Spader, meanwhile, turns Rip into a great villain by making evil sexy.

The film, full of garish neon and defiantly tacky pastels, looks great in its decadent, shallow way.  The same thing can be said of the music.

What Didn’t Work?

Everything else.  Less Than Zero really doesn’t work as an anti-drug film because the character of Clay seems so boring when compared to Julian and Rip. 

If I had to choose between the three of them, I’d probably hang out with Rip because 1) he always seems to be having a good time, 2) he’s apparently not a drug addict himself, and 3) he’s got the most money of all of them.    That therefore makes him preferable to both Julian, who is having a good time but is also a drug addict, and Clay who isn’t a drug addict yet appears to be miserable throughout the entire film.

“Oh my God! Just like me!” Moments

One night, years ago, I found myself making out with an ex-boyfriend in a convertible while one jagged bolt of lightning split the night sky above us and hundreds of scary guys on motorcycles drove past us.  As is often the case, the memory was better than the ex.

Lessons Learned:

Drug dealers make the best dates.

Quickie Review: Return of the Living Dead 5: Rave to the Grave (dir. by Ellory Elkayem)

Posted on by Arleigh

There’s not much to say about Return of the Living Dead 5: Rave to the Grave other than it’s actually worse than the movie before it. Return of the Living Dead 4: Necropolis was really bad and not in the so bad it’s funny. What had been a cult horror franchise which had fun with the zombie genre in addition to putting some genuine scares in people, these last two Return of the Living Dead films should pretty much kill the franchise just when the zombie revival is still going on strong.

Ellory Elkayem does directing duty for this fifth installment. He also directed the fourth film. I had thought that not everything should be laid at Elkayem’s feet when it came to who to blame for the lackluster and awful film that was Necropolis, but after sitting through Rave to the Grave I have to say that whatever good will Ellory Elkayem built up with his funny take on the giant creature feature, Eight-Legged Freaks, has been wasted with his back-to-back filming of Necropolis and Rave to the Grave. Elkayem films both films one after the other and I am going to assume this was more to save on the budget than any sort of continuity with the actors hired to play recurring roles. If saving money was the main reason then it sure didn’t look like it. Except for a few hero-zombie (zombies given more screentime than most thus given a better make-up effect) scenes the film clearly shows it’s ultra low-budget pedrigree. I don’t have problems with low-budget horror movies as long as there’s a sense of energy and enjoyment by those making it, but neither Necropolis and Rave to the Grave showed any one of the two.

Rave to the Grave occurs one year after the events of Necropolis and the teenage survivors of that film have now graduated and attending college. The film never really makes it clear if they’re in back in the U.S. attending college or still in Eastern Europe where the previous film was set. Either way the survivors from the previous film seem to have moved on quite well from their horrific experiences in Necropolis. The fact that they don’t seem to recognize the newly found containment barrel marked with the label of 2-4-5 Trioxin just adds to the weird and huge plot hole between film four and five. One would think that these kids would have it etched forver in their minds that containment barrel with 2-4-5- Trioxin equals horror. Instead they naively investigate and research the barrel with one of their friends realizing he could turn the chemical leaking from the barrel into a new form of rave drug whose extreme hallucinogenic effects also hide a side-effect which basically turns anyone who partakes of the drug into a zombie.

The rest of the movie deals with the survivors finally realizing the crisis they’ve unleashed and instead of calling for police or military help decide to go to the same outdoor rave party where everyone is taking the drug to try and find the person who made the drug Z and stop him from taking them. Like I said earlier, the film really has major plot holes and most of the time doesn’t make much sense. What we get in the end is an excuse to have a huge set piece where the survivors get to shoot as many zombies as possible while at the same time allow for the random raver to suddenly become a zombie out of the blue. There’s also a subplot of a couple of bumbling Men-in-Black type agents whose job it is to recover the Trioxin barrel while remaining inconspicuous. The secret organization they belong to must be global since I could barely understand their lines with the heavy Russian accent used by both “actors”.

My disappointment in what could’ve been a nice follow-up to the first three Return of the Living Dead movies was compounded by the sheer Z-movie level of Rave to the Grave after the awful work that was Necropolis. For those wanting to see a good b-level zombie movie that’s bad but enjoyable at the same time should check out House of the Dead 2. Yes, the sequel to Uwe Boll’s rancid and awful House of the Dead ended up being better than the original and way more entertaining than Return of the Living Dead 5: Rave to the Grave. I wouldn’t even accept this film as a free dvd if someone gave it to me. In fact, I may end up punching that person as a reflex action.

Lisa Marie Has Returned With 6 More Trailers

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

 When last I posted, I was snowed in and I was still dealing with the trauma of seeing the Super Bowl half-time show.  Well, a week has passed.  The snow has melted, the half-time show has faded from memory, and I’m ready to start posting again.  And what better way to prove it than with a new edition of Lisa Marie’s Favorite Grindhouse and Exploitation Trailers?

1) The Streetfighter

Earlier today, when I was talking about which trailers I was thinking of including in this edition, Jeff asked me if I had included any Sonny Chiba trailers.  The way he asked the question seemed to indicate that it was the most important thing he had ever asked so, understandably, I was a little nervous when I answered, “N-no, I don’t think so.”

Well, apparently, that wasn’t the right answer because Jeff’s eyes just about popped out of his head and he’s lucky that he’s s0 cute because I might otherwise have taken his reaction personally.  Instead of taking offense, I’m going to start this edition off with Sonny Chiba in The Streetfighter.

2) House of Whipcord

This one is from one of the great, unacknowledged directors of British cinema, Peter Walker.  I think it’s always strange for Americans to hear grindhouse dialogue being delivered in an English accent.

3) Witchery

This is a trailer for an Italian film that is also known as “House 4,” “Witchcraft,” “Ghost House,” and “Demons 5.”  In Italy, it was promoted as a sequel to Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead 2. For all I know, they may have tried to sell this as an installment in the Zombi series as well.  I saw this film a few years ago when I was first starting to explore the world of Italian horror and oh my God, it gave me nightmares.  Seriously, don’t let the presence of David Hasselhoff fool you.  This is a disturbing movie that was produced (and some day actually directed) by the infamous Joe D’Amato.

Apparently, the trailer is disturbing as well as I tried to show it to my sister Erin earlier and she asked me stop it around the time the gentleman with the weird mouth showed up. 

4) Fighting Mad

“Even a peaceful man…can get fighting mad!”  Peter Fonda looked good playing archer.  This is an early film from Jonathan Demme who directed one of my favorite films ever, Rachel Getting Married.

5) Rollercoaster

I’m scared to death of rollercoasters so I probably won’t be seeing this film anytime soon.  Still this film has a surprisingly good cast — George Segal, Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda — for a movie about a rollercoaster.

6) Big Bad Mama

Not to be confused with Crazy Mama or Bloody Mama, Big Bad Mama features Angie Dickinson, Tom Skerritt, William Shatner, and a lot of tommy guns.  It’s not a great film but it is a lot more fun than Public Enemies.

Review: Sands of Destruction for the Nintendo DS

Posted on by danceonavolcano

So while I was happily killing an afternoon liking things over at Get Glue [http://www.getglue.com] and while I was ‘liking’ the zillions of RPG’s that I’ve played, a recommendation came back to me for a game called Sands of Destruction.  Made by Sega, it was originally released in Japan in the summer of 2008 and brought Stateside in early 2010.  Immediately I got my grubby little hands on a copy and away I went.

This game starts with a good premise:  Completely innocent rural lad goes off on a seemingly innocent mission only to discover that he’s the key to the destruction of the whole world.  And the girl that he’s destined to fall in love with wishes to accomplish just that because the beastmen that rule the humans are vile and, pardon the pun, inhumane.

A good premise, however, can’t always save how that premise is executed.  The story is slow paced in the beginning, and you’re lead around by the nose and unable to travel freely or explore for a good 2/3 of the game.  In a way it’s a lot like playing through a movie.  There is a plot twist in the middle, though, that speeds up the pace of the game and once you’re able to travel freely, then it’s pretty much on like Donkey Kong.  It’s only a shame that the game and its storytelling waits quite so long to be that good.  I’m happy that I stuck it out until the end, but I know a lot of gamers that aren’t quite so patient.

There’s also a bit of a learning curve with the mechanics of the game.  You can customize your equipment in smithy shops located in the towns you visit.  You can customize your character’s skills, although that isn’t explained fully either [I’m a student of the in-game tutorials, yeah, call me spoiled if you want to].  The game itself makes it too easy because once you’ve customized a certain style of attack, you can just use that one style of attack for the rest of the game, final boss included.  Outside of this, it is your standard wait-time RPG battles.

In all honesty, the good points and the bad points of this RPG balances the whole thing out.  I loved the story, and the different twists and turns that this story took.  But I’m not a fan of the learning curve, and the inability to freely explore during much of the game.  The game itself is a good idea, but I wish it had been better executed.  Still, if you’re looking for something to play until the next Kingdom Hearts / Final Fantasy / Dragon Quest arrives on your DS, then I can recommend this as a pretty good time-waster.  [3.5 out of 5 muffins – not as fresh as it could be, but it’s good if you’re hungry.]

Quickie Review: Return of the Living Dead 4: Necropolis (dir. by Ellory Elkayem)

Posted on by Arleigh

I remember watching the original Return of the Living Dead in 1985. That zombie movie played on the premise that Night of the Living Dead actually happened. It was a great twist and interesting idea. The zombies in that film weren’t shambling and dumb like the one’s in Romero’s film. Instead these zombies were pretty quick and could talk and formulate plans and traps. Also these zombies couldn’t be killed by destroying the brain. It was the birth of the superzombies and it made for a fun experience. One thing it also had was a nice dose of comedy mixed in with the horror.

A few years later they had a sequel to Return of the Living Dead that was a good second helping. Nothing to write home about but it was a fun gory flick. Then came a second sequel which dropped the comedy and instead tried to be Romeo and Juliet meets brain-eating zombies. Other than the usual gore and bloodsplatter this second sequel was an utter failure. It took over 10 years for someone to try making a couple more sequels, but sure enough someone found a way to do it. They even found a good enough director in Ellory Elkayem (he directed the fun, campy giant spider monster flick Eight-Legged Freaks). There was talk that this third sequel will return the ROTLD franchise back to its roots of horror mixed with comedy. I was stoked about the news. Then when it came time to see Return of the Living Dead 4: Necropolis, I found out that it was going to go direct-to-cable. This usually means bad news all around about the overall quality of the finished film, but I was still going to give it a chance.

I finally saw its premiere on Sci-Fi channel in 2005 and all my low expectations weren’t even reached by the what I saw on the TV. The movie starts off well enough and right from the get-go they don’t hide the fact that the film is taking place in some Eastern European country. Peter Coyote the — only actor with any sort of talent — makes his appearance in this scene and there’s not even any attempt to make his character abit mysterious of whether he’s a good guy or a bad guy. Coyote’s scientist role in the film screams evil mad scientist. The rest of the cast seemed like it was randomly picked from a college campus and from the streets of Romania. The dialogue was bad enough but having them read out loud by amateurs just made it all worse.

The whole premise of the film outside of reintroducing newcomers to the zombifying effects of Trioxin seemed like the writers were trying to emulate Resident Evil instead of Return of the Living Dead. There’s the mega-corporation which deals with everything known to man and also research and develops illegal biowarfare technology like zombies armed with hi-tech weapons. Resident Evil did this better (thats not saying much) so it goes without saying that ROTLD4: Necropolis just didn’t know what it wanted to be. There wasn’t any of the comedy that made the first two films in the franchise so fun to watch. It looked as if they tried to make a serious zombie movie and instead it turned out to be seriously bad.

Even the zombies themselves ended up being inconsistent with the zombies from the first two films. Some seemed smart enough but most were of the Romero kind which goes against everything that is ROTLD. Their feeding habits even changed from eating nothing but brains but to eating other parts of the body. Then the filmmakers made it so they’re not indestructible anymore. Shooting these zombies in the head will drop them like a sack of bricks.

There really wasn’t anything fun about this sequel. Zombie movies are suppose to be dumb, gory fun but instead Return of the Living Dead 4: Necropolis just ends up being dumb, horrible and awful. I had alot of hope in Ellory Elkayem as an up-and-coming genre director, but cranking out this film after making such a fun one in Eight-Legged Freaks is a mystery and saddening. I wouldn’t recommend this film as a rental on dvd. Just go rent the original trilogy of films in the series and leave this one alone.

Quickie Review: Return of the Living Dead 3 (dir. by Brian Yuzna)

Posted on by Arleigh

In 1993 horror fans were greeted with the release of Return of the Living Dead 3. This third film in the Return of the Living Dead series produced by John Russo ends up being a very good zombie movie and actually has genuine horror that the second film lacked. What ROTLDIII, its writers and directors seem to have left behind was the comedy side of the series which made them cult-classics to begin with.

Taking up directing duty this time around was genre-veteran Brian Yuzna (Beyond Re-Animator) who films this third entry purely on a horror standpoint. This film is serious horror from start to finish. This time around the military is still trying to find a way to use 2-4-5 Trioxin as a way to create zombie soldiers, but ones that could be easily controlled by them. To say that this project hasn’t met with success is an understatement. But it’s the story of the son of the military project director and his girlfriend who dominate the film’s plot. As portrayed by J. Trevor Edmond and Melinda Clarke, these two star-crossed lovers find themselves enmeshed with the dark secret of the project being held in secret. Son soon uses the Trioxin gas to try and ressurect his girlfriend who gets killed early on during an accident. What he gets instead is an undead girlfriend whose hunger for live brains (for some reason the zombies in this ROTLD sequel also feed on other bodily parts) can only be controlled when she causes herself bodily pain through extreme forms of piercing. The rest of the film deals with the father trying to save his son not just from himself and his undead girlfriend but from the hordes of escaped zombies in the facility.

The horror in the film was actually pretty good and this was helped a lot by the gore effects work which surpasses anything the first two films in the series had. The acting was decent enough with Melinda Clarke as the zombified girlfriend putting on a sexy, albeit creepy performance. If it wasn’t for the brain and flesh-eating she sure would’ve made for quite a poster girl for teenage boys.

In the end, Return of the Living Dead 3 continues the series admirably. Despite not having much humor and comedy in the film, this third film in the series more than makes up for it with high levels of gore and a definite sense of horror the first two didn’t much have not to mention a bit of romance which seemed to work.