Day of the Dead (2008)

In a recent entry, I wrote about Diary of the Dead. While writing that entry, I found a link to the remake for Day of the Dead:

Steve Miner (Friday the 13th Part 2) directs this remake of George A. Romero's classic zombie flick Day of the Dead, in which a mysterious disease causes the newly dead to come back to life and threaten the living. Meanwhile, military and scientific experts clash as they try to arrive at a solution. Miner and writer Jeffrey Reddick honor the story and social relevance of the first film but put a fresh spin on this tale of horror and intrigue.

There really is no connection to the original other than having a conflict between military and science and having some scenes in an underground scientific facility. And those connections are stretching it. It's a fine zombie movie, though. These zombies, though, were something. A couple leaped onto the ceiling and crawled for a few feet. They seemed more capable of thinking and reasoning. One of the points was that they maintained some semblance of their original personalities. One zombie ended up protecting one of the women who was still alive, for example. That wasn't developed enough as an idea. I guess that would be my criticism. This movie had some spins to it that made it different from other zombie movies, but they were treated more like occasional tricks than developed plot points. Still, it was a fun movie. Oh, and it was a virus that caused all of this, so I need to add this to my list of virus films, too. Three of the five stars.

Oh, and what's up with these zombie movies that are not getting wide releases? This was better than a lot of the horror movies available on the big screen, and Diary of the Dead was a lot better. I don't get it.

Stranger than Fiction (2006)

I finally saw Stranger than Fiction (2006):

As a novelist (Emma Thompson) struggles with how to kill off her main character, IRS auditor Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) begins hearing her narration in his head and realizes he must prevent his own death. Crick's world turns upside down, and it's a life-or-death situation as he tries to persuade best-selling author Kay Eiffel to change the ending of her novel. Maggie Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman and Queen Latifah lead the fine supporting cast.

I really wanted to see this because they filmmed all of Dustin Hoffman's scenes at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where I did my PhD. The architecture is very distinct. And this was a fun movie. Da Man hated it. It was too quirky for him. But it was those quirks that I loved. The actors are amazing. I make it a point not to see Will Ferrell moveis, but like other actors (Robin Williams and Jim Carrey), he is best when he is quiet. Emma Thompson was amazing, and the best great, too. And I love Chicago. It really looked like a Chicago movie, and I was glad to see they used so much of it in their locations. And I have a soft spot for quirky moves that are about the whole carpe diem philosophy but do it in unexpected ways. This was a fun one. I may end up buying it. Five stars.