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CAPONE Gnaws On AMERICAN ZOMBIE!
Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here.
I had a screener of this one here in the house, and I think it got ruined in the rainstorm when I discovered a leak in my office skylights. As a result, I never got a chance to take a look at it. Once again, the hardest working man in rock and roll is here with a review, though. Capone, you are truly a wild animal. What is that? 487 reviews today?
Hey folks. Capone in Chicago here.
Filmmaker Grace Lee has always had a more light-hearted and amusing approach to her documentary subjects, including one film (THE GRACE LEE PROJECT) about the countless number of Asian women in America who have her name. But AMERICAN ZOMBIE is her first attempt at a feature film, in the form of a fake documentary about a world in which zombies (often referred to as "revenants") are a part of every day life. Before you go slinging around the term "mockumentary," be aware that Lee's film is not attempting to be funny. It takes a (usually) serious approach to zombie lifestyles and the way their species has become ingrained in our society. Lee and fellow director John Solomon play themselves in front of the camera as pair of filmmakers jointly making a documentary about zombies' place in our world. Lee approaches the movie as the story of societal outcasts, while Solomon is digging for dirt and trying to figure out if they really do eat human flesh or deliberately try to convert humans into the living dead.
In Lee's world of zombie-dom, zombies fall into three categories: your stereotypical crazed, blood-thirsty variety, which have effectively been eradicated from the earth; a more mindless, passive type that are often used (some would say exploited) as slave labor in sweat shops; and the functional zombie, who in nearly every way possible, look, talk and act just like us, except that they are very pale and often have some type of terrible wound or scarring from whatever incident killed them in the first place. They eat regular food (there are even vegan zombies), have sex (although they cannot reproduce), and enjoy all the modern distractions of our world. Although the reasons for the rise of zombies on the planet are not given, the means by which zombies are created are. Only a small percentage of deaths result in turning into a zombie, and then, only a truly violent death will do the trick. There is an enzyme in the saliva that can infect other people, but such cases are rare. The filmmakers profile a small handful of fully functional zombies, some of whom are in denial about their condition. Others have embraced their marginalized status and founded equal rights organizations for their kind. Others lead simple, quiet lives. None seem dangerous.
But once a year, somewhere out in the desert, thousands of zombies get together to celebrate their lot in life at a part music fair, part Burning Man, part hippie gathering that excludes all humans. Lee and her crew are somehow granted limited access to the event, and things turn weird and scary. AMERICAN ZOMBIE takes what could easily have been a one-note premise and expands it into an interesting look at a fictional community that is looked upon with disgust, mistrust and outright fear. Much like mutants in the world of the X-Men, zombies in Lee's movie are stand-ins for immigrants, followers of non-Christian religions, homosexuals or Canadians. Thankfully, her message isn't seeping out of every pore of this film. Instead, she couches her observations is this clever and tightly woven tale of a filmmaker a little too deep into the lives of her subjects.
Capone
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That shit is real. I work in a building full of them.
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making a comeback? Sweet zombie Jesus there are so freaking many zombie movies these days. Flight of the Living Dead was pretty boss, though. And I have tickets to see Diary of the Dead next week.
Shit, I'm part of the problem. -
This Sounds Like A Great premise for a "traditional" zombie flick.For example, the ENTIRETY of this film could be the first act of the movie (the perfect balance of zombie integration into society), then something happens and all hell breaks loose.
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They actually let Canadians into the USA? Mosques I can handle... but Canadians?
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Will someone please make that as a movie trilogy!?
Viva Los KING ZOMBIE! -
Just wondering how to get legit screeners? That would be pretty cool.
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But I like the idea.
Anyone seen Fido yet? I just got it last night from Netflix and plan to watch it this weekend. -
I think this movie just jumped to the top of my must see list. Followed by The Signal. Hopefully this gets some release THIS YEAR. I love me some Zombie movies. The whole concept of an intelectual Zombie makes me think of the talking Gremlin in part 2. 07 = year of the critically aclamied movies. 08 is shaping up to be a year for geek movies, thank good enough of this pretentious bull shit. And Dazzler69 if you find out, please let us all know because that would be fan fucking tastic.
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Ed Helms, formerly of The Daily Show, made a similar comedy mockumentary in 2005:
http://tinyurl.com/2orycc it's since been posted on Funny or Die, check it out! -
Fido is fucking cool...and it's Canadian...so it proves that we really do exist...be scared fuckers...
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Wow. This seems badass. Zombie movies are the beez neez in my world. Seems thought out. Zombies that fuck? & This isnt a comedy? Interesting. I wanna see this asap. I already have so many questions. If they all go to this Zombie fair to celebrate zombie-nism. I thought only a 3rd of them could create thought and be rational? So they invite the dumb ones too? I need a trailer!
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In other words, the interesting and compelling segment of the zombie population. Why would I give two shits about the ones who are "human" and party like a group of trust fund, wanna-be hipsters? Enough with the hamhanded zombie social commentary, it's been overdone.
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Les Revenants, or They Came Back in the U.S. The dead rise and just head home. That movie was pretty serious, and a little slow-paced. This one sounds more entertaining.
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So they take away everything that makes a zombie a zombie. Then what is the point? At least in Shaun of the Dead the "tame" zombies at the end of the movie had a comedic purpose. The whole point of a zombie is that they are "something else" the "unknown" with the frightening shell of humanity to give us a glance of the void through our own eyes. Fucking stupid idea.
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There is a multiplayer PC game called 'Zombie Survival' that is freaking awesome. It's actually a mod of Half-Life 2, or more specifically a mod of Gary's Mod for HL2, so you need HL2 and Garry's Mod to play this free mod. Basically you start a round with up to 40 humans and one is randomly selected to be the zombie. The humans scramble to find a place to hide or hold out, build barricades or whatever while the zombie proceeds to kill them. Each dead player rises as a zombie and joins the horde hunting down the last humans until all the humans are dead, or the round ends by surviving 20 minutes. The maps are all different creepy settings like an isolated farmhouse, a dark mall, a construction site, etc. This game is totally addictive and cutting edge, but because if it's triple niche not many people know about it. Look on youtube for zombie survival HL2 and you'll see how awesome it is. Try this first: http://www.youtube.com/comment_servlet?all_comments&v=NzOyrItaIDA&fromurl=/watch%3Fv%3DNzOyrItaIDA
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This was pretty much exactly the plot of Fido except that one was a comedy.
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I loves my zombie movie. But if I want social commentary, I'll watch GAR films. The whole quote about zombies as "immigrants or homosexuals" just pisses me off. Why not just make My Dinner With Andre with zombies. Zombies are particularly effective because they were us, they feed off us and work off of basic survival insticts that we think we have long outgrown. But that being said, if I ever see it in video I'd take a look.
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..to "American Woman"..could have sworn i read it in Creem or Circus..
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I'm cool with the social commentary or whatever, I guess, as long as the film doesn't get bogged down and lose sight of zombie horror
I must profess to being a little underwhelmed with the overall concept, though. For years, I've had this idea of what would constitute a "great" Z-flick to ME, and all I can ever say is a straight-up survival/horror zombie film with the production values of, say, Saving Private Ryan
(and then everyone looks at me like I just started barking like a dog or something)
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