Most Anticipated: The Road

How can you have more than one most anticipated? Shut up, that's how!

Four reasons why I'm looking forward to The Road.


1) Viggo Mortensen. Look at him there, in that picture, all bearded and badass. Viggo has quickly become one of my favourite actors, mostly (entirely?) thanks to his work with David Cronenberg (esp. A History of Violence). Viggo also has Good and Appaloosa coming out this year, which look good and interesting, respectively.

2) Cormac McCarthy. The man wrote the source novel to No Country for Old Men, which I loved, as well as the source novel to this. And ummmm All the Pretty Horses, too I guess.

3) John Hillcoat. The man directed The Proposition, which was all kinds of grimy and gritty and violent and dirty realistic down under western, which would seemingly make it for this project as it's set in...

4) The Post-Apocalypse. How I love post-apocalyptic worlds. Maybe because they so often involve zombies. Not that this involves zombies. None that I am aware of, at least. But I can love them separately. I'm not sure what love came first. It's a chicken and the egg thing.

Inventory: DVDs by Director

Inventory: Where I look at the stuff I have.

DVDs by Director: Where I judge filmmakers by the part of their filmography I own.



David Cronenberg: The Brood, Eastern Promises, The Fly, A History of Violence, Scanners, Spider, Videodrome

Conclusion: The body is a very scary place.


Chan-wook Park: Lady Vengeance, Oldboy, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance

Conclusion: Always choose revenge.


George A. Romero: Dawn of the Dead, Monkey Shines

Conclusion: Be wary of zombies and/or monkeys.


Martin Scorsese: The King of Comedy, Taxi Driver

Conclusion: Robert De Niro is a scary obsessive loner.

Licensing Your Consumer Rights I

Have you ever noticed that DVDs produced by specialty boutiques (examples being Criterion and Anchor Bay) often don't have the myriad of warnings (FBI, Interpol) that plague major studio releases? That's suspiciously pro-consumer. Where's Joe McCarthy when you need him? Dead? Then bring me zombie Joe McCarthy.

These unskippable warnings have become so ubiquitous to become analogous to commercial breaks, allowing you to pop in your DVD and then get any food, adjust lighting while you wait for the menu to arrive. God forbid the product you purchased to not treat you like a criminal for legally obtaining it rather than download it illegally, perhaps through a torrent. Sorry did I say buy? That implies ownership, I meant to say license. Obviously.

Book Review: World War Z

World War Z by Max Brooks

Brooks writes this, his second zombie book following The Zombie Survival Guide, as an oral history from the viewpoint of a representative from a UN Postwar commission. The war in postwar being "The Zombie War." This allows Brooks to apply a grand scale to his tale as we read the transcripts from this representative's interviews which provides us accounts in China, Tibet, Greece, Brazil, Barbados, Israel, Palestine, the US, Finland, Antarctica, India, Russia, Greenland, South Africa, Ireland, Ukraine, Canada, South Korea, Japan, Cuba, Australia, Chile, Siberia, and in Earth orbit.

Brooks adapts to the different perspectives with great aplomb, moving between doctors, different military experiences, politicians, refugees, and survivors of different cultures. Some standouts are the recurring segments with US Army infantryman Todd Wainio who provides an angle from the frontlines of the zombie war in the US, as well as downed fighter pilot Christina Eliopolis's account of sludging her way through a Louisiana swamp on her way to safety. The best segment though may be the detailing of South Africa's "Redeker Plan" by disgraced apartheid-era politician Paul Redeker and its use of acceptable losses.

I've never read a real oral history before (I wouldn't mind reading some Legs McNeil *hint*hint*), just fake ones (thank you, Mark Leyner). I imagine this is a pretty accurate rendition as I enjoyed the style and felt the details on a worldwide endemic made the novel. It may not be high literature, but it is excellent populist fiction that didn't insult my intelligence as well as quick read.

Word is that a World War Z movie is in the works. Although, what this book really begs for is an HBO Band of Brothers-style mini-series bookended by faux interviews with veterans of the zombie war. Word is bond.