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Thursday, July 03, 2003

"helloooooooooooo..."
-Day of the Dead
-The Quiet Earth
-28 Days Later

what up funky junkies? drove away from that apartment monday. turned on the radio to see what song would forever be burned in my brain and fondly remembered as the song playing the day i drove away. leaving it up to fate and i found...Fleetwood Mac. uhhh, no. that's not going to work. hit the button and got Limp Bizkit. nope. even though it's the song i heard playing, that won't be the song i heard playing either. hit the button again and stopped on Children of the Sun. hmm. goofy song that reminds me of Arthur Clarke stories i read in jr. high but it's better than those other two songs. so i had to open my sunroof in case it really was a message meant just for me. and how could it not be?
hell, it just happened to be playing when i turned my radio on.
you can't argue with fate.

28 Days Later is everything i hoped it would be. except for the ending. and the vague zombie-esque behavior of the rage-virus infected crazies. they weren't zombies but they did stuff zombies do, and seemed to be feeding on humans like zombies do and they bit you and made you into creatures like them...like zombies do. But they weren't zombies. why not just cut out the middle man and declare them once and for all to simply be flesh-eating zombies? seemed like they were distancing themselves from the whole "undead" thing to keep it grounded in science (not that the clockwork monkey experiments were anything but the worst pulp sci-fi nonsense). reminded me of the Godzilla remake. which sucked anyway but when it came time for the big guy to breathe fire, he took a deep breath, leaned out over some traffic and...didn't really blow any fire. he sort of did. the cars exploded and the force of his blowing made a stream of fire that blew up more cars but it clearly wasn't coming from Godzilla's mouth. did they think that would be too far-fetched? the breathing fire thing? it's not like it's the single most distictive thing about fucking Godzilla or anything. but the geniuses behind Stargate (sarcasm) decided they had to be a little vague at that moment. gutless fucks, like their mutant iguana was the "realistic" version. and Danny Boy sort of did the same thing. his creatures are not really zombies, but if you had to describe the movie to a friend and needed a word, zombie would suffice since they act like 'em. they just aren't as silly. they're serious. well, i know i said i wanted a serious horror movie, but i never thought zombies were anything but serious. here's the question i ask myself daily:

if i had the choice, would i...

a.) want to be defending a farmhouse from attacking zombies with the required loose cannon, traumatized girl, father/daughter combo, and righteous black man by my side OR

b.) want to collect gasoline from wrecks by wringing out pieces of my shirt over hubcabs, as radiation-scarred nuts approach on motorcycles.

two enticing views of the future (hands doing that weighing-the-scales-motion) i'm leaning towards the Mad Max shit right now since i've got a little white line fever with all this driving but actually either one will do. not both though. that's like syrup on a candy bar. too much of a good thing. anyway. was i complaining about 28 Days Later? ignore that. that movie was fucking beautiful.

the ending teaches you that a common man (or even a skinny bike messenger) can be just as dangerous and effective as the best/worst rage-infected "zombie" when properly motivated. damn you Boyle for making me use the word zombie in quotes.
damn you...(slow motion gun being pulled from inside my trenchcoat)...to hell!
let me try that again. that didn't have the impact i wanted. ready?
"hey Boyle, i got a message for you...(slo-mo gun coming up from under my newspaper. the "break the chain" song by Fleetwood Mac playing on a distant car stereo)...from my father!"
he didn't even flinch did he?

::: david - 11:14 AM [+] :::
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