PUT THE CONTROLLER DOWN: Weekly DVD picks with Derek
April 11, 2008 ... posted by Derek
Welcome to "Put the Controller Down", a brand new weekly feature here on Headshotradio.com. If there is anything I am more of a nerd for than video games, it is movies (and musical theater, but we won't talk about that here). I literally own hundreds of DVDs, and every Tuesday I rent or buy just about every new release. Even the chick flicks, because my wife likes them. Seriously.
So, as the resident movie nut here at Headshot Radio, I decided I that I would use this forum to suggest various DVDs I think you will enjoy, dear reader. Every week I will feature a new DVD pick, and give some reasons to check it out. It may not always be a new release either, hell it could be from the 70s, but I give you the Nintendo Seal of Quality on each and every one.
Now you'll never see "Transformers" or "National Treasure" here, not only because they suck worse than an Eric "What's the Good Word?" segment that goes Chad long, but because my intention here is to highlight the sleeper pic, the b movie, the indy flick. The little guy that maybe you missed at the Box Office because flashy trailers weren't convincing your brain you must see them at all costs.
Also, because I watch everything, I see a lot of shit. So from time to time, I will throw up movies to avoid at all costs. Don't worry, Papa Derek is looking out for you.
And oh yeah, the ratings system is totally Eric based.
Here we go, with our inaugural pick....and yes, one to avoid at all costs.
This week:
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story: 2 Disc Collector's Edition
Rating: 3 "Oh Absolutely"s Out of 4
This little gem seems to have somehow got lost in the Holiday movie shuffle at the box office, despite its Judd Apatow prestige. I saw an early screening in Nashville (followed by a concert performance by John C. Reilly in character), and I was in the aisles, ya know, with the laughing. Reilly gives a reckless performance, Chris Farley like in shamelessness (but not you know, in its like fatness or whathaveyou). And the music rocks. I actually bought the soundtrack for this ish.
In terms of comedic tone, this one lands somewhere in the middle of the Apatow pantheon, with a lot of the random goofiness of a Anchorman, but with a lot of jokes falling more into the filthy/intelligent range of 40 year old Virgin. And come on, its got full frontal! Male and female! Its debauched!
Really this movie is a gem, and I really hope it finds it stride on DVD, like a lot of great comedies do (Mallrats, Super Troopers, Billy Madison), and splurge the extra 3 bucks on the 2 disc edition which is packed full of outtakes, alternate lines, commentaries, and footage from concert I was at (look for me!).
And the "Turd of the Week"
Day of the Dead: 2008 Remake Starring Ving Rhames...
Rating: 11 Eric Thumbs Up out of Pearl Harbor
The original Day of the Dead, by George Romero was a grisly and dark take on the last vestiges of humanity as they tore themselves apart at the end of a zombie apocalypse. Good fodder for a remake if you ask me. Especially after the excellent Dawn Remake.
Only problem is, this shitfest takes nothing from the original movie (Except characters named Sara, Rhoades, Dr. Logan, and Bud (Bub in the original), and they are in the military). Instead, this movie takes place at the BEGINNING of a zombie outbreak that is contained in only one town, and it takes place mostly in a hospital. OH! And, Capt. Rhoades, the main bad guy of the original, he dies twenty minutes in after having 3 minutes of screen time...Yeah....
Oh yeah, Bud is a good guy zombie too, except instead of being conditioned by Dr. Logan, he doesn't eat people because when he was alive he was a....VEGETARIAN. I kid you not. That was the reason. And it was done completely serious, tongue and cheek were miles apart.
I should have known better, because this film was originally slated for a theatrical release in 2006, which was scrapped and then the flick was dumped onto dvd with no fanfare on a busy release week (There Will be Blood, Walk Hard). But alas, I'm a sucker for zombie movies, and hoped at least the effects would be good. Instead I was treated to this....
Somehow they not only completely change the story and thus the point and spirit of the original, they also commit the following atrocities...
They add a group of 4 teenagers, they shoot all the zombie scenes in "shaky cam," ALL the effects, all of them!, are shoddy CGI someone made on their Commodore 64 (including the blood), they say the zombie virus is airborne and some people are immune, which happen to be 5 people who all knew each other somehow before it happened, All the people turn into zombies at the exact same moment, despite the fact they got sick at different times AND they all immediately look like 2 year old rotting corpses when they turn, 2 of the 3 main characters that die are black guys, 1 of these black guys spends the whole movie saying things like "bitch!" and "shoot they ass!," The zombies are not only fast; they invariably speak, shoot guns, and at one point one jumps up a wall and crawls on the ceiling....
And I really could go on and on, but here is the final one that made me curse at the tv: Throughout the whole movie, Sara, the main character, protects "Bud" the good zombie, even when everyone else wants to kill him, because, and I quote "there is still some of him left." Later in the movie she runs over and kills her own MOTHER who had turned and explains this to her brother by saying "that wasn't Mom, not anymore." I almost killed myself right then.
I sat through that whole movie. It ended. I said "huh." I then got up, ejected the disc, and threw it directly into the garbage. True story. So please, please, don't waste you time. This piling heap of garbage isn't even good-bad. If you are in desperate need of a good-bad zombie movie, check out "The Dead Next Door" or "Children of the Living Dead."
Until next week, I am gonna go puke.