Reviews

The reason I say that something like this very thing could really happen is the source material from which it came from. Max Brooks, author of both World War Z and The Zombie Survival Guide gathered inspiration from many different and credible sources, sources like the Centers For Disease Control, National Security Administration, Central Intelligence Agency, and even members of the United Nations committees on pandemic response. The feeling from both of the books as well as in interviews with Mr. Brooks has shown that what he found is we are all woefully less prepared for a pandemic of epic proportions then we think we are. Now I am not saying that we are going to need to fear the rising undead as they come for our tasty brains, but that the very REAL idea that is explored in both the book and movie is that this kind of emergency can go from a mild panic to a world wide epidemic. I think this movie was made for fans of the books and not for zombie lovers. It was made for people who loved the references to things like referring to the zombies as "G's" (short for ghouls) or "Zak". This film was made for people who love the suspense that comes with long quiet, and then a shock. This was a great exploration into what we might do to rise above all that may come, and a feeling of hope that we could survive anything even the raising of the dead.

There are some films that I will only go to see on the other side of town, that is, the theater that is in the part of town where most of the viewers are black. Why would I do that? Because I like to laugh out loud, and doing it in a white theater is like trying to fart in church. I went to the $3 matinée in the slums and watched with glee as major movie stars debased themselves without worrying about why or how. Looking at this movie for higher meaning is stupid, for plot connectedness is even more thick. This was a movie designed to match up to the way we watch most of our video watching anyway. 3 min interludes that we peek at, at our desks or home offices when we should be doing something else. I am completely floored by why SO many people were astounded by the way each segment was more outrageous than the last and how it pulled no punches just went for the throat. What were you expecting, a kind and gentle gross out movie? Come on! All of that aside I love the fact that the actors are what really sell it. The fact that many of them have been nominated for academy awards and international acclaim and were still willing to go and make a movie that was FUN was just really cool to me. So if you're looking to go and see a "whole" movie you wont, but if your willing to get up go out and see something that is totally raunchy, as totally raunchy as that youtube video you just finished then go right ahead. But remember, go to the cheap theater, they will laugh with you, and truly that's the point anyway.

I find it both refreshing and horrifying that a director has chosen as the subject of his horrific discussion with the audience to be the American family. Few directors really play with three elements that are plainly displayed here in detail and used so effectively. One, he uses pauses and silence to emphasize tension. Very little music at all was played and it was soft and gentle, almost non existent, the director wanted us to pay attention more on the action and less on the score. Two, the characters he has written are drab and lonely, and we see their plight like we might see any neighbor who argues in the night, or wears makeup to cover a bruise, but here we see into their home and we see how they deal with their loneliness and anger. What was at first hidden from us is now plainly in front of our faces, and what at first seems perfectly logical then turns into a bloodbath of terrible fantasies turned real. Three, that with each successive film the emotional quotient goes up, and we are left more exhausted by what we have seen then horrified. This kind of horror is in my opinion is the greatest exercise in the genre. Horror is just that, horror. To be horrified by something is simply to have a natural reaction of fear or disgust, and most horror films today never want to push the limit, never want to look at what really scares people in their daily lives. We have settled for the man in the mask for so long we have forgotten that there are far more frightening things that lurk behind the doors of the neighborhoods we live in, and behind the eyes of the people we know.

One thing plaguing many moviegoers in this day and age is finding a movie that genuinely unnerves them and makes them feel edgy without showing them the worst kind of thing imaginable happening to the characters, i.e. "saw 2001". No, audiences aren't often treated with a story that is literally that, "a story", one you could imagine being told around a camp fire, and chilling you with its ability to make you believe it could happen to you. Too often we are treated to scenes of graphic violence in place of story lines, and we see all of the people on the screen as just that, figures to dispense with so the story can go on. This movie lives up to very few clichés, and makes the viewer so unnerved by what they think they are about to see, that when it actually happens and in a way contrary to what they thought, that surprise jumps them out of their seats, makes them give a squeal, and then wait for the next part of the ride. I have seen few movies that live up to my worst nightmares as a child, and this actually happens to be one of them. That the monster looks like a man, talks like one, and has no outward appearance of a monster, is what makes him a great success. Hold onto that feeling while watching this movie, that you are little and listening to a story. A story told around a fire and as the story continues to move, imagine as it does, that at any moment you might be dragged into it.

The very real problem that faces our nation in more ways than one does happen to be our taxes and how we as a nation tax ourselves. We are very closed to the idea that we as a country have any power at all to effect change in a real way that is significant in regards to our nations tax policy or code. This is a long and boring subject and unfortunately this is also a bit of a boring movie as well but still an important one. with the lack of public knowledge of such a subject it is important to really educate ourselves and each other on not only what the tax code is but why it is and how it works. I will admit that the movie is actually a little hard to grasp but it really taught me what the tax code is and where it actually comes form.

It amazes me that a good deal of the horror watching public passed this movie over or looked at the characters as hollow or awkward. That is what this movie was all about, strained relationships, pulled emotions, and people behaving like they do in a normal family. Their relationships are petty, full of kind of masked grief, and longing each of the characters looking for a way out of themselves and out of where they are. The visitor they invite into their home, although he turns out to be their downfall, is exactly what they are looking for, someone to just talk to. Each of the members of the house in turn try to talk with this newcomer, and each time a little more of the story unfolds. It is a beautifully shot movie as well, wide panning shots around the small family table, the hallway up the stairs being narrow and tall. Even the doorways and the rooms only slightly decorated, as though they were planning to leave at a moments notice, or had only been there for a few months. This claustrophobia builds as the movie progresses, and becomes ever more intimate until the end. That building sense of dread is the hardest thing to capture in a horror movie, and this one does beautifully. We as viewers know what is coming, we know the outsider is either in for a shock or going to cause one, but it is the anticipation of such an event that drives us to keep watching. I loved watching this movie with its subtlety and poise, keeping you on the edge with the back story being slowly revealed and the veil lifted a little bit minuet by minuet.

Firstly I understand how many people will feel after watching this movie. That another liberal agenda is being played up and the end to nuclear armament is just asking for terrorism to advance within our country, you couldn't be more wrong. Being in the military for almost ten years it was my experience that most folks get three things wrong when they think about someone using such a device in our country. One, they believe that it comes from a country. This kind of terrorism has no country and has no head to govern it, merely opportunity. The idea that you can "nuke them back" gets a little complicated when the bomb may come from a diplomatically friendly country or even from within our own. Two that such a device is complicated and needs teams of people and money to create, not so. Such a device can be crudely manufactured with a lead pipe 4gm of enriched plutonium and a shotgun shell. The devices themselves do not need to be complex to kill several thousand people, and the people setting them off probably have no qualms about killing themselves in the process. A crudely made machine can be made from almost anything you can find in a hardware store and those items are so everyday that they will not raise any FBI flags. Lastly, Three that there is a solution to such a problem. There isn't one. While the film makes a proud gesture at telling us that all we need to do is this... That is a pipe dream and besides we have gone to far down the path of destruction to make it any better. So in all of this what might be the way to make any of these problems go away. Again I'm sorry to say, nothing. We now have to live in a world where this "might" happen any day at any time. The only thing we can do is hope that we find better ways of detecting potential threats than by clandestinely stumbling into them. The movie is a gem in terms of showing that the "human" part of these weapons is the most dangerous part of them. With respect to our last president he finger that could push the button was also attached to the brain of a recovering alcoholic judgment should be reserved for the viewer and their experience but keep in mind that these things however embellished are real and are waiting right within and outside your door.