Review of the AU zombie movie Cargo

Cargo.  A zombie movie, but set in the Australian wilderness.

A dad is in the Australian wilderness, and has to get his baby daughter to safety through a cross-country trek.

The start is a tiny bit slow, but it picks up.

Slow zombies.  Not especially gory -- but some violence, moderate swearing.

If you're a dad (or a parent), you'll appreciate it.

Worth watching if you can find it.  It's on AU Netflix -- but may or may not be on the U.S. Netflix.



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OMG 4 WW Z

Yesterday afternoon I saw the movie World War Z with a friend.

Zowie!

It so easily could've been a really, really bad movie.  But quite the opposite:  it was a solid, well-made movie.  I can't say it was always "enjoyable" -- as at one point it was almost too much for me and I (briefly) felt like leaving the theatre.  (If I'd been watching it on DVD I would've left the room and come back another day.)  But because of this, it was completely engrossing.

It's a solid, high-quality movie.  They played it totally straight -- no irony, no winks at the camera.  Solid acting, solid script:   there was **no** point at which **anyone** did something that a reasonable person wouldn't do (e.g.  "Gosh, there's a serial killer loose in our abandoned high school tonight.  I'm gonna
go use the restroom... by myself...").

Loads of action, without being "action just for action's sake"; very plausible treatment (and reaction to) a pandemic; lots of close calls without seeming contrived.

And, now that I think about it:  very little cussing (that I can recall; I could be wrong), and nearly all of the violence was implied (or, sanitized ''action movie violence''), rather than bones crunching, blood spurting violence.


It was not a typical ''zombie'' movie -- it goes beyond that niche -- so I can see it doing **very** well at the box office and capturing the "natural disaster", "thriller/suspense" (somewhat) and "action" markets as well.

It works on many levels.  It's particularly effective if you're a parent of young children -- as one of the sub-plots is the family man being separated from his family, and trying to ensure their safety.


With all that said:  I don't anticipate buying the DVD, let alone renting it ever again.  It was emotionally draining:  I was on the edge of my seat.  Once was enough:  too realistic, too plausible.

Which also indicates that it was very well done.


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Zombie zone

About a week ago, our car was in for repairs, so I borrowed a car from my wife's parents. Unfortunately, the thing they'd thought had been fixed at the mechanics the previous week hadn't been completely fixed -- because when I got back to the parking garage after work, the darned thing wouldn't start!!!

So, after cell-phoning my wife, who said that her folks would come take a look at the car, I stood around and waited. Finished off the zombie-based graphic novel I'd purchased that day.

And then I realized that a parking garage, late at night, would be a **really** vulnerable place for a zombie attack: very little cover, easy to get surrounded, and very few escape routes.

Photo is taken from where I was standing, next to the stalled car...


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For zombie hunting

Someone on my woodworking list forwarded this link (the photo in question is above). My first thought: zombie hunting.


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Good zombie board game

Sunday night my brother and I played ''Last Night on Earth'', a zombie board game which he mail- ordered back in Dec. or January, but hadn't yet had a chance to play. (For a review, see here.)

Pretty fun -- although (IMO) not **quite** as fun as the rave online review suggest.

On the other hand: we played once on Sunday night (me = heroes; brother = zombies), and twice on Monday night (once with me & brother-in-law = heroes, brother = zombies; and once with me = zombies, bro & bro-in-law = heroes) -- and will probably play again tonight. So...

Once you understand the rules, a game takes about an hour and a half. Maybe a touch longer.


US$50, according to the website (plus maybe S&H). For 2-6 players -- so potentially good for a small party. If you're at all into board games, it's worth it. (And, no, you don't have to be into zombie movies...)


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Ghouly school

Received an e-mail today, reporting the results of the latest Sociology Dept. faculty meeting.

Among other thngs, "The faculty also voted to restrict the new Graduate School Policy that allows affiliates of the department to serve as solo chairs on dissertation committees. It was noted that some people listed as affiliates are no longer close to the department and faculty members were not sure if they were all actually living either. Exceptions can be made with approval."

Implication: Petitions for zombie Dissertation Chairs!!!


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Highly-rated zombie board game

Based solely on my say-so (as near as I can tell), my brother mail-ordered (or rather, online-ordered) a zombie-based strategy board game called "Last Night On Earth". I read four or five reviews of it online: all were highly supportive, giving it four out of four (and five out of four!) stars.

Here's hoping it shows up at least a few days before the New Year, so we can try it out together...

(Image from http://www.savagechickens.com/2006/01/undead-of-oz.html)


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Potentially good zombie board game

In a recent post from Wil Wheaton's website, he recommends a ''zombies invade a small town'' board-based role-playing game. I haven't thoroughly read the website -- but certainly, it sounds like it has potential. I'll likely pick it up, one of these days.

For a while, I was into a wide variety of board games. Haven't touched it for a while (been busy). But will probably get back in to it when the kids are old enough (8 y.o.?).


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Joining the open-source community?

On of my (many!) items on my “To Do” list for When I Finish My Dissertation (TM) is to shoot some music videos for some of our songs, and maybe a few film shorts -- maybe a really bad zombie movie.

As I mentioned just a moment ago, I plan to switch over to Linux for my recording and video editing work. For video editing, I have two directions I can go:

One is to buy a video editing software package called Main Actor -- version 5.5, costs $199 (U.S.?) to download it. It’s supposed to be good, although not completely intuitive for some of the more advanced features.

The other option is to use the no-cost software called Kino. Like most Linux software, it’s produced by a team of hobbyists, doing it for the challenge, the glory, and the GeekPoints(TM).

Supposedly, MainActor has a few features that Kino does not: for example, Kino only has one audio track (or something like that), so you can’t crossfade the soundtrack between scenes. So, for a while I thought I’d use my spending power to signal my support for Linux, and purchase the software.

But today, I realized that I enjoy suggesting new features for one of the survey-structuring software packages we use at work. And these sorts of software projects are always in need of beta-testin’, bug-flaggin’, feature-suggestin’ user-type folks. And they also often need people to help with the documentation: I’m pretty good at writing instruction manuals.

Plus, it’s been a while since I’ve done video editing, and it was old school, non-software editing. Instead of plunking down two hundred bucks at the get-go, maybe I should use the free software first -- see if it fits my needs -- and go from there?

Ayep!


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