Jake

A short and brief recounting of Méliès life and career that serves as a solid opening to the DVD collection. I would have liked if it were a bit longer, because it skips over decently long periods of his life, making the later stages a little less understandable, especially considering his fall from fame. Otherwise it's a very sweet and appreciative look at an imaginative and interesting man. This features his widow playing herself and his son playing him, which is really cool as it seems he picked up on a few things from his father and plays him well. An intriguing but limited look at the director that I quite enjoyed. The usage of the miniatures to show his studio and the way he formed his sets was fantastic.

*Did you notice anything strange about the dog? Anything at all?* Both times I've seen this have been very memorable viewing experiences. First time around was in a nice dark room watching with friends, this time I got to observe as my dog reacted curiously to any scene featuring Jed the dog thing, running up to the TV to get a better look, tilting her head side to side, and making low barking noises in response to the poor pups on screen. She then spent the rest of the movie intently watching in case of any more dog antics, or possibly to protect us from the titular Thing. A valiant effort as none of us were harmed, although that didn't stop us from accusing her of secretly being The Thing after the movie ended, tough luck Mollie. Anyway, movie is perfect. About as good as horror can get.

*Life's become a real ecological pain in the ass. * Also a necessary part of the birthday extravaganza viewing special fun times. Disjointed and nonsensical bullshit, clearly directed by more than one person, certain storylines and characters don't seem like they exist in the same world, the zombies vary in dexterity (which is really cool actually), and time doesn't make any sense. It's an awesome cluttered romp through the Philippines with a return of our hated and despised evil green, rooms are filled and glowing with it and the creatures are clearly being negatively influenced by it that dastardly color. The conversations between the smug stoic military men and the nerdy bothered scientists about "Death One" are a blast, their back and forth about the origin of the gas and what to do with its aftermath is so silly, I laughed a whole lot. Best part of the movie is when one of our American military men is locked in an extended tussle with what can only be described as a super-zombie that lasts about two minutes, that rocked. One of those shitty fun movies that are incredibly entertaining. It was a great birthday for me! Also, shout out to the evil zombie birds that caused the initial trouble, very fun.

*No...you don't know what you're saying.* What better way to spend a birthday than watching a movie I've been clamoring to watch for years with a buddy? Went into this with sky-high expectations and I'd say they were met, this shit rips! Impeccable gore all over the place, really really cool zombie designs, and a nice slow burn that I always dig, when the conflict explodes it really fucking explodes, the ending rules. That eye kill is kind of incomprehensibly good, all timer easily, from concept to the actual effects it made me squirm so much and cheer in awe after realizing just how cool that was. I haven't even mentioned that a zombie fights an actual fucking shark pretty early on. The tropical setting was a little bit of a disappointment, but that's really more so because of how much I prefer an urban setting for my zombie movies, can't fault it too much there. As per usual for this sort of thing, it's got some bad dubbing, random nudity, and plotlines that kind of make no sense, I am surprised that this didn't steal too much from *Dawn of the Dead *(especially considering the name), it really does exist on its own two legs. Very fun, worth the wait!