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G.O.R.E. Score: The Last Man on Earth

Posted by Tony Schaab on April 14, 2010 in G.O.R.E. Score Reviews
The Last Man on Earth (1964)

The Last Man on Earth (1964)

Original Release Date: March 8, 1964
Run Time: 86 minutes

Hollywood loves a good remake. Take a look at the listings of the movies that are currently out in the theaters, and the odds are good at any given time that at least one of the films out there is a remake, either of an older film or of a TV series/web series/live stage show/etc. The same applies for movies that are about to come out, or films that have recently come out on DVD/Blu-Ray: remakes are everywhere.

And why not? If the people who grew up watching “G.I. Joe” as a Saturday morning cartoon are now adults who love action films and have a bank account, why not make a high-octane, ass-kicking, live-action movie version? I’m still waiting to dole out twelve bucks to see my beloved Thundercats on the big screen, regardless of how mundane the storyline, acting, and effects may be.

And let’s not forget about books and comic books that get the “big-screen” treatment. These movies mostly seem to fall into one of two primary categories: movies based on books that were so amazing that the story actually benefits from the translation into the “visual” genre, and movies made from books for no other reason than the fact that the average American is far too lazy to read a full-length novel and this is the only way they will ever get exposure to the story in question.

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G.O.R.E. Score: Barren Earth

Posted by Tony Schaab on April 7, 2010 in G.O.R.E. Score Reviews
Barren Earth (2009)

Barren Earth (2009)

Original Release Date: August 5, 2009
Publisher: Library of the Living Dead Press

Let’s call a spade a spade: purchasing a zombie novel or movie from a smaller distributor, publisher, or film studio can be a mixed bag. You never quite know what you’re getting, and the lack of financial backing to the project in question could be either a blessing or a curse. Many people think that media created by independent publishers (or self-published by an author or filmmaker) is automatically going to be sub-par due to the fact a larger company didn’t put their name and resources behind the project.

Fortunately for those of us willing to explore these independent projects, “many people” are proven wrong quite frequently. Often times, novels and movies released by smaller companies provide exactly the opposite of most people’s expectations. Because independent authors and filmmakers don’t have multiple higher-ups to answer to or corporate editors to hack and slash their vision into what might be termed “universally sellable,” you can actually get results that are exactly what the creators intended, and are many times quite unabashed, unique, brutal, truthful, and “real” projects.

Granted, there are “stinkers” out there: books and movies that are low-budget, low-talent, derivative pieces of drivel that aren’t worth the paper or film that they were made on. But to be perfectly fair, these stink bombs come from all over, put out by both the smallest companies and the big entertainment powerhouses – for every terrible small-budget film like “Zombie Nation” you can probably name an equally crap-tacular big-budget flop like 2008’s “Day of the Dead” remake.

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G.O.R.E. Score: Twilight

Posted by Tony Schaab on April 1, 2010 in G.O.R.E. Score Reviews
Twilight

Yikes

Just kidding!

Happy April Fool’s Day, everyone!

–Tony

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G.O.R.E. Score: Doctor Who: The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances

Posted by Tony Schaab on March 29, 2010 in G.O.R.E. Score Reviews
Doctor Who: The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances (2005)

Doctor Who: The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances (2005)

Original Air Date (USA): May 21 and May 28, 2005
Run Time: 90 minutes

The great thing about sci-fi shows on television is that many of them like to explore a variety of different unusual and out-of-the-ordinary topics to help differentiate themselves from your more “standard” television fare. The recent incarnation of the “Doctor Who” (“DW”) series, while probably seeming a little quirky and a little “British” to American audiences, really seems to enjoy creating storylines about a wide variety of interesting subjects, ranging from a planet full of Time Lords locked in a temporal bubble to a galactic Starship Titanic that conveniently takes excursion stops on present-day Earth to stories set in the past, present, and future.

I recently reviewed a 2009 episode of “DW” called “The Waters of Mars” that involved the rather unique concept of “water zombies.” It was brought to my attention by a reader that “DW” has previously covered zombies as well, in a two-story arc from the 2005 “first season” of the current incarnation of the show. A funny side note here: I had actually started watching the 2005 season of “DW” when it first came out, as I was intrigued by the “re-birth” of such a classic sci-fi series. Unfortunately things got busy in my personal life, as personal things tend to do, and I couldn’t keep up with watching the series, only being able to see the first seven episodes before losing the ability to view regularly. The two episodes we are reviewing now were numbers nine and ten in this season, so I only missed seeing these zombie-centric episodes when they were brand-new by a matter of weeks!

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G.O.R.E. Score: The House of the Dead: Overkill

Posted by Tony Schaab on March 24, 2010 in G.O.R.E. Score Reviews
The House of the Dead: Overkill (2009)

The House of the Dead: Overkill (2009)

Original Release Date: February 10, 2009
Platforms: Nintendo Wii
Publisher: Sega

“The House of the Dead: Overkill” (hereafter referred to as “HOD:O”) is the fifth game in the “House of the Dead” series, but being a prequel to the other games, it is chronologically the first game in the series.

An apology in advance to non-Nintendo Wii owners, but “HOD:O” is only available on the Wii system, so you won’t be able to enjoy this game on any other console. This is also the first game in the “House of the Dead” series that was released directly to a home console and not first released as an arcade game. The debate on the intelligence of releasing games to only one system aside, the decision to release this game on the Wii is a smart one for game-maker Sega, as the console works amazingly well with first-person rail shooters (games where the player doesn’t control the movement of the characters, only the weapons the characters hold). And once you get a few minutes into the actual storyline of “HOD:O,” you’ll quickly realize that this ain’t your average first-person rail shooter.

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G.O.R.E. Score: Night of the Living Dead 3D

Posted by Tony Schaab on March 15, 2010 in G.O.R.E. Score Reviews
Night of the Living Dead 3D (2007)

Night of the Living Dead 3D (2007)

Original Release Date: April 26, 2007
Run Time: 80 minutes

“Night of the Living Dead 3D” is hilarious.

Too bad it wasn’t trying to be intentionally so.

Oh, where to begin. “NotLD 3D” is an amazingly weak movie in almost every facet. It does nothing to establish itself as a “remake” of the classic NotLD, and in fact the majority of the changes it made to the storyline in order to set itself apart from the 1968 original were terrible decisions in almost every way imaginable.

I would say spoilers are ahead, but that would indicate that anything I might say could spoil your possible enjoyment of the film, and that’s simply not true…there’s no way you’re going to get any serious enjoyment out of this film.

The classic farmhouse now houses a family that grows and sells pot (that’s right, a whole family of lawbreakers, and bad stereotypes at that: redneck Dad in overalls, way-too-hot-to-be-believable Mom, and an oblivious pre-teen daughter that the “hired hand” smokes pot right in front of…you stay classy, director Jeff Broadstreet). Every single character in this movie makes up a collection of morons and apathetic people that the average audience member has little to no motivation to connect to or care about.

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G.O.R.E. Score: Dead Irons

Posted by Tony Schaab on March 7, 2010 in G.O.R.E. Score Reviews
Dead Irons (2009)

Dead Irons (2009)

Original Release Date: September 16, 2009
Total Number of Issues: 4 (Mini-series)
Publisher: Dynamite Entertainment

Well, maybe the third time really IS the charm!

Avid G.O.R.E. Score readers will recall that I like to aimlessly wander the Humor section of my local bookstore (because this is where the zombie books are shelved – long story, click here if you don’t recall my original rant on the subject) hoping to find something new and unknown – well, unknown to me, anyhow. Dedicated readers will also recall that I have previously found two zombie-centric graphic novels by randomly perusing the Graphic Novel section of the bookstore, and both have been, to put it nicely, less awesome than I’d hoped (the two books in question are “Living With the Dead” and “Zombieland: Champion of the Worms,” both by Dark Horse press).

Late last week I found myself once again randomly scanning the shelves in the Graphic Novel section when my eyes fell upon an interesting title: “Dead Irons.” After a moment of hesitation based on the lack of success of my other two “finds,” I picked it up; after seeing the stunningly attention-grabbing front cover and reading the inside of the dust jacket (yes, it’s a hardcover graphic novel…classy!), I was ready to see if this is the book that could break the Crap Streak.

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