Wednesday, March 11, 2009

plastic bags....

Ok, I was just watching the news and they had a story on the fact that Loblaws line of stores will begin charging for plastic bags. No, not the reusable durable plastic bags. The plastic bags that are as flimsy as tissue paper. They will be charging 5 cents per bag.

This is of course to satiate environmental concerns, and not a money grab.

suuuuure.

There are a million ways that you can take the plastic out of the equation. Why not paper bags? Paper is natural, and is completly biodegradable. Ot can be made locally, and is not a burden on the oil supply. They would even be better than those reinforced plastic bags they are already selling us in a hopeless tug at our environmental heartstrings. Those bags end up in the environment too, it just takes a bit longer. Paper bags are a nar perfect fit


The same can be said for bottles. All this controversy over plastic water bottles. The plastic takes a billion and a half years to degrade, it goes into the ecosystem, the poor seals and pandas eat it and turn into atomic supermonsters that eat major Asian urban centres. What happened to glass bottles? Not made in china, not petroleum based, and reusable. ghasp!

It just annoys me sometimes.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Top ten Zombie Movies

10. Dead Alive (aka braindead) (1992)

well, to start off we have Dead Alive. Peter Jackson helmed this monster. It has equal parts slapstick, and gore. There are scenes that had blood pumping faster than a firehose. Quite a lot of countries have banned this one altogeather. Simply for the violence and gore.


Best zombie kill scene: The zombies take over Lionel's mother's house and throw a rockin' zombie party, complete with booze, loud music and even some sweet zombie lovemaking. Lionel busts it up, with the help of his trusty lawnmower.


Braindead - Trailer



















9. Night of the Comet 1984



so, the comet comes, and it kills most everyone. Well, except for a couple of valley girls and Chakotay. Of course they were well shielded. Those that wen't turned into flesh eating zombies. fun fun fun!





Night of the Comet Trailer

















8. Pet Semetary (1989)



Everyone forgets about this one when they think of zombie movies. But it meets all the checkpoints. Recently risen dead rising in with thoughts of murder on their minds.



The kickass ramones song helps too.



The Ramones - Pet Sematary









Pet Sematary Trailer
















7. Fido (2007)



Think Lassie with zombies. It's the prefect little 1950s world. Poddle skirts, mom at home, dad at work, but well, everyone is armed, and they the new status symbol is a domesticated zombie in the backyard. What really makes this film is Billy Connolly. His entire part is nothing but grunts and facial gestures, but he plays it magnificantly.




FIDO - Trailer






















6. Dawn of the Dead (2004)



More controversy, but after including 28 days later I couldn't bear not to include this one. The first ten minutes are filled with so much suspense, and they do that overhead shot of suburbia gone insane with bloodthirsty dead, well it was so supremely awesome. This is the jumping off point for a lot of the zombie purists. The makers of this film were cashing in on the market buzz created by 28 days later, and made their zombies fast. No slow shamblers, they ran at you. Which provides it's own list of problems. It is a remake, of the original Dawn of the dead, but aside form a couple of store names and being set in a mall with zombies has nothing to do with the original. It is definatly worth the time to watch. Oh, and watch out for vivian, she can get bitchy...



Dawn of the dead Trailer

















5. 28 Days Later (2002)



Here we have a controversial pick. Sure they aren't strictly zombies. They are merely infected people that are not even recognizeable as human any more.



The reason this gets entered is that it is primarily what renewed the current zombie renaissance. We have an interesting setup, and the first half of the movie is nearly perfect. Wandering through the abandoned landmarks of the diseased London, running from blood spitting monsters, to a pretty bleak soundtrack. It's near perfect. Minor gripes with this movie were the fast zombie problem. Peope are divided directly down the middle between those that hate them, and those that love them. I'll leave that for you to decide.





28 Days Later trailer

















4. Return of the Living Dead (1985)



The unnoficial sequel to the night of the living dead. This movie birthed the 80s zombie crash. Cashing in on the mid eighties horror boom they made this alternate sequel to Dawn of the dead. The effects, the characters, the situation have so thoroughly entered the popular consciousness that if you ask what do zombies eat? Braiiiinnnss is the only answer a non zombie purist could give.



Oh, and if hot naked punk chicks eating flesh tickles your fancy... well, send more paramedics...



the return of the living dead - trailer
















3. Zombie (AKA Zombi 2) (1979)



Sweet zombie on shark action. That's what this is mostly known for. It is completly justified tho, that was an excellent scene. This movie offers so very much more. Creepy zombies, creepy music, gory special effects.. (eye +wood = bad dreams)



Zombie 2 Trailer















2. Shaun of the Dead (2004)



This 04 British Homage to the original night of the living dead was actually a comedy, but they set out from the get go to do a serious zombie movie with not so serious people. The zombies stick to character, there are no clown zombies, no cute zombies, nothing to make them any less than hardcore flesh eating monsters. This could have so easily veered off into full on farce land, but it stayed on that fine line between horror and comedy.





Shaun of the Dead Trailer




















1. Night of the living Dead. (1968)



Not the remake, not the colourized version. It has to be the original black and white. There is something about the slow unstoppable march, the fact that one on one yes, you could take on a zombie, the problem would be the other 4 million of them standing behind. untiring, unstoppable. They aren't a monster, or a plague, they are a force of nature. Like the tide come in.




This though, this is the granddaddy of em all. It's creepy, the music fits it perfectly. This birthed the modern genre of flesh eating risen dead zombies. Before this zombies weren't even scary.



Here we have, in it's entirety
Night of the Living Dead!