Review: Cursed

Set within the local Hollywood hillsides and suburban population, Cursed gains the viewers attention by being entirely aimed at the younger audience through the casts’ choices in characters and mildly entertaining scenes.

Cursed follows the lives of two young adults who recently suffered the loss of both parents and are trying to come to terms with having to rely upon each other, when their lives are interrupted through the intervention of becoming werewolf’s.

The werewolf section of Cursed starts with a large beast jumping on the bonet of the car that Ellie (Christina Ricci) and Jimmy (Jesse Eisenberg) are driving home, resulting in their car colliding with another. With the beast gone they try and assist with helping the other driver, when the beast returns, to attack and eat one of sorry victims of this horrif crash.

Within the accident the beast has managed to cut and slash Jimmy (Jesse Eisenberg) and Ellie (Christina Ricci), which starts a none reversible transformation. The transformation stops and becomes complete, only upon the next full moon, which renders some timeframe for Jimmy (Jesse Eisenberg) and Ellie (Christina Ricci) to stop this unfortunate series of events.

Jimmy (Jesse Eisenberg) starts out with the decision that turning to a werewolf, may not actually be quite so bad, the heightened senses and sexual allure make Jimmy (Jesse Eisenberg) the classic high school loser quite happy for a short while, until he realises the consequences that also come along with the benefits.

Watch the movie to discover how they stop this future from becoming a reality. I believe the only criticism to this movie, is that many will think it could have been a lot better if Wes Craven had his way completely, rather than half of the movie being remade to satisfy the production companies aim for a young generation of movie watchers. Never the less Cursed is a good movie and an entertaining watch.

Originally posted by Sycrid on www.eddthezombie.co.uk

Review: Dawn of the Dead

Dawn of the dead. Remaking the classic, was it a good or bad idea?

Well as far as movies go this is what I'd certainly refer to as a Hollywood block buster, but also a Hollywood failure. Rule one is, if a movie is often known and referred to as a classic, then never remake it with the expectations of being more successful.

With the moaning and groaning done, the movie itself is not as bad as I've just made out. It's a modern day zombie genre film where a select group of people have been unlucky enough to survive the introduction of a zombie pandemic. Their hideout being an American mall, whilst they collaborate their efforts to develop a plan. What happens now? Where do we go? How do we survive?

I think if there are to be highlights within Dawn of the Dead, then they would have to be the small slots of humor. Two good examples of the entertainment within this movie, are the mysterious sniper who exists above a gun shop, and shoots the zombies related to their familiarities to the now almost certainly dead famous stars of yesterday, and the zombie child that is born.

Dawn of the Dead, is quite a slow moving movie, but it does build its way up to a dramatic ending where the group, what's left of them, aim at trying to break out of the mall and traveling to a boat, with the hopes that they may set sail and escape the horrible wrath of zombies. What actually happens, I will leave a mystery, so if you do wish to watch Dawn of the Dead, then you will perhaps be surprised.

Originally posted on www.eddthezombie.co.ukby Sycrid

Review: Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

Firstly I have to start off with a completely opinionated point of view. Sid is awesome!

With that aside, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, was a very family orientated theme, about not only members born into a family but how families are created through morale points of view and variation. I believe that this alone to a young child is a very good influence.

The movie itself goes along the lines of, Manny having a child, and trying to create a safe harbour for the young one to be brought into the world, with the misconception that he is the largest creature walking to date. Ironically by doing this, he leaves Sid slightly jealous and results in him finding 3 dinosaur eggs within an undiscovered world below the ice. Sid appropriately names the eggs “Shelly”, “Yolky” and “Eggbert”.

Well, you guessed it, the creators chose the most typical of dinosaurs for Sid to become a surrogate mother to, T-Rexs. This leaves for an entertaining perspective because even though the baby dinosaurs wish to eat all the other children, Sid being stubborn continues to protect them, and even makes one spit out the other child animals he has swallowed whole.

One of the most enjoyable and movie focussed characters within Ice Age this time around is "One Eyed Buck", with the voice over being performed by Simon Pegg, who has managed to portray his comedy very well into the movie as he tries to help the bunch rescue Sid from the angry T-rex mother. One Eyed Buck, is like the animated prehistoric Indiana Jones, that works very well within a story of love, potential loss and fear within unfamiliar surroundings.

I believe that overall this movie, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs is a thoroughly enjoyable family movie with some good laughs for all ages, and worth the cost of a cinema ticket. Go see it!

Originally posted on www.eddthezombie.co.uk by Sycrid

Zombie Name Generator

I have recently been hunting high and low to come up with ideas for generating more interest and visitors for Edd The Zombie.co.uk. One of the things that I have developed is a very simple script that randomly generates a name for a user as they refresh the screen.

At the moment the name only refreshes as the user refreshes the screen (press f5), and it will simply insert a name in the following sentence ... "Your zombie name is... (insert name) the zombie!"

Anyway if you want to have a look at the random Zombie Name Generator for Edd The Zombie.co.uk then just go to the following link "ZOMBIE NAME GENERATOR"

Laters People.
Sycrid.

Review: Shaun Of The Dead

Taking the zombie movie genre and slaughtering it with comedy, will only ever result in an enjoyable movie (unless zombies suddenly appear to be real, then it may be a little puzzling), however it will be hard to exceed the results of "Shaun of the Dead", where the genres are not only combined but have the addition, of two of potentially the most entertaining actors in the movie industry at the moment, "Simon Pegg" & "Nick Frost" covering the most important roles. Simon Pegg (Tim in Shaun of the Dead), being an electronics sales manager who has recently been dumped due to his life not being interesting enough, and Nick Frost (Ed in Shaun of the Dead) being a lazy bum, who shares a flat with Tim.

The story line for "Shaun of the Dead" pitches their friendship originating from University, but it's hard to believe that Ed ever managed to get into University with his childlike humor and relaxed attitude towards life. From that point onwards, Tim goes about his business in London, where throughout his daily routine he starts to notice un-nerving sights, such as a crazy woman chasing pigeons.

This then leads into Tim and Ed waking up the next morning and following their normal routine but within a nation filled with zombies, and the both of them being attacked by zombies. Tim comes up with the plan to save his ex-girlfriend, which he believes will help win her back.

To be completely honest, the plot for Shaun of the Dead is not very thick, and its rather how they try to fashion a defense against the slow moving, human craving zombies which make the movie a good watch. Good examples of this include throwing old records at two zombies found in their garden, Tim running around with a Cricket bat, and attacking a zombie with a washing line pole, pinning the zombie to the the pole itself.

What gives Shaun of the Dead the appeal of being watched, is simple, it's the comedy that its enthralled with zombies. From the one liner jokes through to the sheer impractical defense methods creatively thought of to stop the never ending zombie attacks. The greatest way I could ever think of summerising this movie is the quote that follows.

"Wouldn't he? Lizzy, how can you put your faith in a man you spectacularly binned for being unreliable? A man whose idea of a romantic nightspot and an impenetrable fortress are the same thing? It's... This is a pub! We are in a pub! What are we going to do? "

Just after breaching into the pub, for safety from the zombie horde.
"David: We're in a pub! What're we going to do now?
Ed: We could get a round in? "

Originally posted on www.eddthezombie.co.uk by Sycrid

28 Days Later Review

Review: From the first scene through to the final frame, 28 Days Later is a fantastic extract of what English film making can be, that is likely to be remembered for a long time to come.

A basic summarisation of the film 28 Days Later, is of a young bicycle courier named Jim who wakes up in hospital 28 days after a deadly virus has been released on the population of Great Britain, to realise the city which he inhabits has very few survivors. This hits the foundations of most modern zombie films, where a person wakes so that they may succumb to the fate that has befallen everyone that once surrounded them, whilst they slept. From this point Jim wonders the empty bleak barren streets of London in the hope of discovering what happened and how what has happened, has come to pass, with the hope of locating other survivors.

Soon Jim stumbles into a position that no human wishes to be within, when he enters into a desolate church that seems to have life, but upon further investigation, this life was not the kind that he could have ever imagined, which not only strikes fear into Jim but sends him into one of the most prime instinctive modes all humans have, survival.

From here on in, more characters come into play within 28 Days Later and the story of how this reality has become, is explained. After the brief and vague information that is discussed about who is who, how they have survived and what has happened. The group go hunting down a location that has been passed out on the radio as safe, but it’s at this point that you really get to feel how much of an influence the directors of photography and film, impose themselves into the story, through the breath taking and mind dazzling camera angles and scenery.

28 Days Later then ventures into a new direction as the remaining group of 3 have discovered the location that was promoted on the radio as safe. This location being a stately mansion which is being occupied by army personnel, who upon introduction seem reasonable, but further into the blending of the two groups, the intentions of the army personnel becoming apparently clear and once again the 3 main characters, have to escape and run.

All in all 28 Days Later follows a usual plot of a guy that wakes up, to a zombie infested nation and must discover a way to survive. Where on the route from the start of the film through to the end, the focal character is introduced to other survivors and together they believe that they can develop a plan so that they may survive.

As for the ending of 28 Days Later, well its best if you watch it, if you are interested in what you have read so far. Sycrids personal opinion of this movie is that 28 Days Later far exceeds the results of alternative zombie movies and will be hard to beat, although with the generic storyline, it could be achievable. Overall rating for 28 Days Later is 4 out of 5 stars

www.eddthezombie.co.uk for all the reviews

EddTheZombie

Well its been started, eddthezombie.co.uk that is. Whats been done so far...

1) Ive developed the layout, using CSS, HTML and PHP. Its scrappy and still needs some improving, however ive got around all the browser incompatibility issues, through using browser hacks.

2) I have developed the administration section of the website, to allow for reviewers to log in, and add/modify/delete reviews. Which at the moment restricts them to only do this with there own work.

3) I just bought the domain and website hosting from Streamline.net, meaning we have a temporary front page for eddthezombie and the website.

www.eddthezombie.co.uk

Sycrid.