Monday, October 11th, 2004

Dead Smile

RIP, Christopher Reeve. You fought one hell of a good fight.

So everyone has been telling me to go see Shaun Of The Dead. And I had my reservations, I thought from the trailers that it looked like a thin-concept low-budget flick but its boosters insisted it was really clever, funny, scary and original. Turns out we were both right. It’s absolutely a novel concept – protagonist and his overweight slothful buddy fight through a city of zombies to rescue his mom and ex-girlfrined – with decent production values and some genuinely clever bits, but it was also a pretty thin film. After playing up the comedy angle for the first two-thirds of the film, it finally runs out of clever and tries to play up the horror side after realizing that there’s simply not much humour left in the characters’ situation.

I was personally annoyed about a) how stupid all the characters got during the final act, seemingly forgetting EVERYTHING they’d learned to survive that far and b) how the zombies were so inconsistent in following the basic rules of zombie-ness. I realize that criticizing something as deliberately slight as this film is rather silly, but my basic criteria for good movie vs bad movie tend to be pretty firm no matter what I’m watching. But overall, it was alright and enjoyable, but not all that. And as for all this talk of it springing a new genre of “rom zom com” (romantic zombie comedy) – I certainly hope not. They barely got enough mileage out of the concept for one movie, there sure as hell isn’t enough in the tank for any more.

Pitchfork agrees with me that the new American Music Club album is excellent, as well they should. Because it is.

Interpol’s Daniel Kessler insists to The Boston Herald that “there is no sound as far as Interpol goes”, thereby confirming the guy has never actually listened to any of his own records. Remarkable. From Largehearted Boy.

Hey, are Americans not on holiday today? I thought is was Columbus Day or something, but everyone seems to be at work like normal. Aww. Happy Thanksgiving to all the hosers out there.

np – American Music Club / 1984-1995

By : Frank Yang at 10:14 am
Category: Uncategorized
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  1. 10/11/04 10:41 am

     Torr says:

    Only a few federal employees (like mailmen) get the day off today.

  2. 10/11/04 1:12 pm

     biggaysam says:

    o.k., so this is a "wait for cable" type movie I take it. Thanks for the info.

  3. 10/11/04 1:42 pm

     mr g says:

    "Columbus…euro-trash." – Jerry Seinfeld

  4. 10/11/04 3:41 pm

     david says:

    Only the gubber-mint and banks are closed today in the US.

    I’m taking your advice and picking up the new American Music Club this week. Everyone seems to be gushing about it.

  5. 10/11/04 6:21 pm

     Matt says:

    I really enjoyed Shaun of the Dead, although I do agree that the end is a bit weaker than the first two-thirds. However, I thought the inconsistency of the zombies was a joke in itself.

    Think I’ll probably pick up the AMC record too based on all the positive comments I’ve read, plus the excellent ‘Another Morning’.

  6. 10/11/04 11:13 pm

     garry says:

    Interpol….pffft.

  7. 10/12/04 3:16 am

     Ed says:

    ohh I loved SOTD… and if you enjoyed that in any way, you simply MUST see the UK series Spaced – it’s fantastic. check amazon uk for the dvd’s. (it’s the same folks from sotd).

  8. 10/14/04 7:35 pm

     kurmidt says:

    "pick up… record"? what is this you speak of?

  9. 10/14/04 9:17 pm

     Frank says:

    sorry kurmidt but I have no idea what you’re talking about…?

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