Tag: zombie

Movies

The Dead Don’t Die

Not A Walking Tree

Aka let me beat you over the head repeatedly, starting with the very first scene, about my social commentary on how people are mindless, soulless consumers. Which is severely ironic given that the movie itself is as soulless, and mindless as it gets. There isn’t a single redeeming quality to this movie other than casting several well known actors/actresses. Director and writer Jim Jarmusch has lost his touch. His last good movie that I enjoyed was back in 1999 with Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai, and his obsession with samurai swords (katanas) makes a resurgence in this movie.

The jokes fall flat, the social and environmental commentary is so hammered in, it starts to get contrived. The fourth wall scenes are uninspired and that ending is just atrocious. Everyone in the movie felt like they were simply there for a quick paycheck, just going through the motions. If you think to yourself, “Oh, Adam Driver and Bill Murray, this looks fun.” Don’t. Full stop. Back out and watch anything else.

Overall, I simply don’t have anything nice to say about this movie. Too bad you can’t burn it after viewing. I want nearly 2 hours of my life back. Hard pass, do not recommend it at all.

TV Shows

Santa Clarita Diet

Not A Walking Tree

The best moment in the entire series is the segment, during the first 10 mins or so, with the Serbian General. What’s actually said and, between, what is written in the subtitles is incredibly hilarious; the ending bit of that segment had me in tears. The rest of the show doesn’t ever compare since or prior to this. It’s a pervasive twist of rooting for the villain by humanising them. Before zombies, it was vampires or werewolves, or some other mythological nonsense.

Sure, Santa Clarita Diet has me laughing at lot at Timothy Olyphant’s character Joel’s antics or Skyler Gisondo’s character Eric. But, all that comedy masks the pretty twisted shenanigans going on. Some of which are, to be honest, quite messed up and I ain’t looking at the screen. Most of that action does not need to be normalised. I love the two aforementioned actors and therein lies the problem. These characters represent the normalcy of the real world and having them be accepting of cannibalism is not right.

I’m glad it got cancelled. Maybe some might enjoy having the bad guys be the protagonists but I do not; neither did I enjoy having the Slavic characters be bad guys. And not only bad guys, but generally incompetent ones at that. Oh well, can’t wait to see what other projects Timothy Olyphant will do next.