My favorite zombie entertainment choices are still the George Romero classics, 28 Days Later more recently, and The Walking Dead for the small screen. But recently, I’ve come across additional fun entries in the zombie genre:

book by Kevin Wayne Williams

Kevin Wayne Williams is an engineer and author of Everything I Know About Zombies I Learned In Kindergarten. The book is set in NYC and features a 7-year old protagonist shepherding a dozen kindergarten kids to safety after a zombie outbreak hits the Eastern seaboard. I loved reading about the survivor outposts in Riker’s, Randalls Island, and Governor’s Island, and the raids on stores in upper Manhattan and the south Bronx. This is a fun book for New Yorkers. It also is much more diverse than your typical action fare – younger heroes (elementary school kids!), black and Hispanic central characters, and strong female roles.

Train to Busan is a Korean film, and Netflix bills it as the first zombie hit out of Korea. Apparently it was the biggest film of 2016 in Korea, and I can see why. I LOVED it. I don’t usually cry at zombie movies, but this one plays out the estranged father/ daughter really well. It has all the fast-paced action you expect in a zombie outbreak movie but with characters you care about.

I haven’t seen the TV show, The Returned, but I did see the 2013 movie on Netflix, and it’s a good example of the zombie in everyday culture, as the premise has a cure for zombies, such that the dead are returned to a pre-zombie state. At least, they are “Returned” as long as they can get their hands on a fast-dwindling medicine. Clever premise, good acting. If you’re a zombie fan, I definitely recommend it.

I enjoyed The Returned more than The Rezort, though The Rezort has more of the fun elements of the zombie genre if you’re looking for a popcorn movie. There’s a very thinly veiled subtext tying zombies to our treatment of immigrants (in the film, zombies are rounded-up and shot for sport), but the movie doesn’t try so hard as to ruin the fun. It’s my least favorite of the above, but still fun. I guess I just love all things zombie.

My recent movie queue has filled up with films that feature nature as a key character in furthering the plot:

The nature in Life is a speck of Mars dust gone amok – maybe it’s on a separate planet for a reason??? While I agreed 100% with Wired’s review of Life as essentially an Alien rip-off, I enjoyed it nonetheless. After all, the Alien franchise is one of my favorites. At the very least, the real-life teams prepping for a trip to Mars can use Life as a catalog of what not to do for just about everything – don’t jab your finger at an unknown organism, don’t leave a sharp object in the near vicinity of same unknown organism, don’t ever open the door when unknown and now clearly life-threatening organism is on the loose, etc. I did appreciate the diversity in casting.

Kong: Skull Island featured nature thrown out of balance, in this case by humans threatening Kong and not realizing Kong was, as scary as he seemed, the one thing keeping in check something even scarier. I want a separate movie with those lizard monsters! Like Life, Kong: Skull Island is the kind of movie I would like regardless – I love monster movies – but it’s a good movie even for non-monster lovers. Who doesn’t appreciate Samuel L. Jackson playing yet another character going off the rails?

In my Amazon queue, I happened to watch The Bay, Nature’s Grave and Dark Harbor in close succession, with nature as nemesis in the form of parasites, a hard-to-kill sea cow and other Australian jungle creatures and a poisonous purple mushroom, respectively. Just as with Life and Kong: Skull Island, the real problems were man-made but nature just exaggerated it all. My favorite was The Bay, though you have to look past the budget filmmaking. I can’t recommend either Nature’s Grave or Dark Harbor in good conscience except as a curiosity – Nature’s Grave features Jim Caviezel playing a decidedly un-Jesus like character; and Dark Harbor features a young Norman Reedus (yes, Daryl from The Walking Dead) and the late, great Alan Rickman.

A short film packed with star power is set to premiere later this year

There are some things that people just don’t associate with short films, and casinos and big Hollywood names are just some of them. Many have come to know the short film as a genre for independent artists and NGOs fighting to raise awareness on global issues, and sadly, we rarely see big names starring in short films.

However, a new short film called The Audition, has changed the game. The short film is not only being directed by Martin Scorsese, but the script was also written by Terence Winter, the man behind the Wolf of Wall Street and Boardwalk Empire. Already managed by a great team, the film’s cast is also one of the strongest we’ve seen in any films recently, with Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, and Brad Pitt coming together in a first-of-its-kind partnership.

What will the movie be about? Oddly enough, many have deduced that it’s nothing more than an advertisement for a new casino — and a rather creative one at that. The film has DeNiro and DiCaprio competing to be the star of Scorsese’s new film (way to break the 4th wall here), and trailers for the film have shown the director welcoming his two candidates to a casino in Manila, and a casino in Macau respectively.

What makes people say that this is just an ad? It was commissioned by none other than James Packer, owner of the City of Dreams casino resort in Manila, and the movie-themed Studio City casino in Macau. The flashy ad, which took them 2 days to shoot, came with a price tag of $70 million, with each of the star-studded cast being paid $13 million for their roles. The film is set to premier at the opening of Studio City, which just adds to the idea that the film’s only purpose is to draw people to the casino.

It may seem like $70 million is a huge price to pay for some advertising, but as the gambling industry in Macau – which had largely been considered the strongest in the past few years – begins to see a steady decline, it’s becoming more and more important to try and draw more gamblers in. In the US, casinos made ends meet by embracing the rising trend of online gambling, with large names like Trump Plaza and the Golden Nugget casino in Atlantic City teaming up with sportsbooker Betfair to draw patrons in with the convenience of gambling online. In Macau, with the government still not licensing online gambling operations, casino resorts have to rely on alternative ways to draw crowds in, and for James Packer, the answer has seemingly come in the form of a star-studded cast in a short film.

The short film actually doesn’t make any effort to show that it’s a thinly-veiled ad, as in the trailer, compliments for the casino abound. See for yourself:

The Audition (starring Robert De Niro, Leonardo Dicaprio & Brad Pitt) (Movie Trailer) from MovieTrailers on Vimeo.

Is The Audition good for the short film industry, or is it just selling out? We’ll let you decide.

Bruce Faulk rewrote a scene from Game of Thrones where a Colorized version of Tywin and Jaime Lannister work to resurrect Khal because he was the only non-white major character.  (By Colorized we mean Black and Asian folks playing the Lannisters.)  It’s a spoof of this Game of Thrones scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47MazYDnmaU

Memorable Minorities has launched!  Check out the first episode, “No” to Yesterday, in which our hosts in a futuristic society give us a tour of racial archetypes in movies from the past.

“No” To Yesterday is written by Melody Cooper and stars Melody Cooper and Benton Greene (yes, our star from The Battle Below!). Directed by Bruce Faulk and produced by Bruce Faulk and Caroline Ceniza-Levine. Steve Gladstone is DP, and Joel Sterns on Sound.

I had read a good review of Breathe In, so was excited to see it come up on the NY Film Society calendar. Oh well. The acting is good, even if the plot unfolds like a story my 12-year old would make up. Cue the excitable, tween voice: …and then an exchange student comes for the summer and she’s gorgeous…and then the dad has an affair with her…and then his daughter sees them together…and then the daughter gets into a car accident… The movie is as ridiculous as it sounds. Of course, the mom/ wife in all of this has no character development except snippy put-downs of her husband (to justify the affair no doubt). If I wanted to see yet another movie where the negligent wife ends up looking even worse than the philandering husband who actually sets in motion the disastrous turn of events, I’d pick Blue Jasmine just because the acting is more fun. I love Guy Pearce, but even he couldn’t save this movie.

Veronica Mars, on the other hand, (also courtesy of the NY Film Society) was loads of fun. I hadn’t seen the TV series, but this movie made me want to see it. And isn’t that the point? Cross-selling is good for all businesses. I was a bit distracted by how much the romantic lead, played by Jason Dohring, reminded me of Dana Carvey. But if you can get past that, it’s a fun movie to watch.

On my Netflix viewing schedule were three films on death:

Leave with Bryan Cranston and Ron Livingston is good marketing and good editing. It’s a thriller about a guy with recurring nightmares who meets a drifter who may be his presumed-dead brother. I can’t really say more than that without spoiling it.

I say good editing because it is a tight, under 90-minute film. I say good marketing because it is not a Bryan Cranston and Ron Livingston film. Cranston has a tiny cameo in the beginning, and Livingston appears intermittently for minutes at a time. Clearly, the people behind this film knew that browsers like me wouldn’t stop for an unknown film with unknown actors. But I saw Cranston and Livingston and decided to give it a chance. I’m glad I did because while the film stars its writers, Rick Gomez and Frank John Hughes, they carry it well. It’s a good dark film and worth a space on your Netflix queue.

A Late Quartet is an example of a film that I am surprised gets made. I loved it – don’t get me wrong. But I’m a musician trained at Juilliard and Manhattan School of Music, so a film about a longtime string quartet whose team lead gets a career-ending diagnosis of Parkinson’s is going to resonate with me. One could argue that the string quartet piece is just a vehicle for the various themes the movie covers – death, close friendships, parenting, love. But still, it’s a pretty specific vehicle, and the musician’s life is a looming character in this movie.

That said, if you love drama and good acting, this movie features Christopher Walken, Catherine Kenner, and the late Philip Seymour Hoffman in a beautiful, understated performance. If you want to celebrate Hoffman’s good acting, this is a good film to watch. Rest In Peace: Philip Seymour Hoffman.

The Dinosaur Project is lots of fun. It’s Jurassic Park light – shorter (I’m loving these 90-minute running times!), with unknown actors, and no real storyline, just dinosaur after dinosaur after dinosaur. I loved every minute of it.

Why am I listing it with Leave and A Late Quartet? I assume everyone dies in this one – you don’t see the fates of every last character, but when you’re stuck in a time warp with dinosaurs, I’m just playing the percentages to assume death all-around. This is an action adventure take on death starring dinosaurs (as it should be).

On my watchlist this week were two very different live events: comedy, documentary and The Battle Below screens at The Anthology Film Archives.

Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain wasn’t the laugh-out-loud set I expect from Hart, one of my favorite comics. I appreciated  his opening, as he took viewers around the world to see the different stops on his 2012 comedy tour – I didn’t realize he had such global appeal. I also appreciated how he opened up about his divorce (why are all the successful comics divorced? I’m praying for Jim Gaffigan.) but in a tasteful, respectful way.

Still the laughs were few and far between for me on this set, and for that I would say this one can be skipped. HOWEVER, there is a bit at the end, after the show is over, when Hart thanks his audience at Madison Square Garden and talks about how it’s a dream come true for him to play the Garden. He tears up and gets emotional and it’s a beautiful thing to watch. For that alone, I would add this to your Netflix queue.

The Battle Below showed at the latest NY WIFT screening series on March 18. The Anthology Film Archives has a beautiful theatre, and I was so grateful to see our little short play on a big screen.

Paired up with our film was a documentary by Primavera Ruiz, Ana and I, a fascinating look at a big, mixed family with a very colorful matriarch. This film features a world champion equestrian vaulting team (I didn’t even know gymnastics on horseback was a sport but there it is!), a touching family reunion in Equatorial Guinea, and a serial entrepreneur for a mom, so it has something for everyone. It’s a touching film, and I was happy to have been paired with it.

In the theater, courtesy of the NY Film Society, I checked out Enemy and Non-Stop:

Enemy with Jake Gyllenhaal is about a nondescript professor whose life irrevocably changes when he sees his exact lookalike in a bit part in a film and tracks him down to confront him. I am a creature feature fan, and I suppose this film has some of that with a spider playing a symbolic role throughout the film. I’ll leave it at that so as not to spoil too much. The movie kept me curious while it unfolded, and that was the best part. That said, I can’t tell you more about the spider because I didn’t get it.

I did not get this movie so even while it kept me interested – why do they look exactly alike down to a birthmark? Why are the doubles so unhappy about this rather than celebrating a cosmic connection? Why does Jake Gyllenhaal always seem to meet a doomed end? – I was ultimately unsatisfied because I felt none of my questions were answered. This film is a reteaming of director Denis Villeneuve and actor Gyllenhaal since Prisoners, another dark, moody movie with an all-too understandable plot. I’d love to see these two team up more but with something in the middle – not too formulaic like Prisoners, and not too inaccessible like Enemy.

Non-Stop is a good popcorn flick for the modern era. When texting plays a central character in a film, you know our lives are undeniably digital.

You really can’t go wrong with Liam Neeson playing a troubled tough guy with a good heart and Julianne Moore playing an everywoman who happens to be gorgeous and therefore a potential love interest. The film meets its requisite diversity quota with Lupita Nyong’o playing a flight attendant without much to do, and another black actor playing the computer geek (of course, because Transformers did that too).

This is a movie that probably should just be a SyFy movie of the week, except at $50,000,000 (as estimated on IMDB) it’s too rich for TV. But that’s ultimately what it feels like – an adventure TV movie of the week. Perhaps, they could have put Samuel L. Jackson in the title role and revealed that the perpetrator was actually a snake, and then we could have a nice mash-up, double feature.