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Mario Van Peebles recommended Night of the Living Dead (1968) in Movies (curated)

"Night of the Living Dead was one I saw with my dad. I was 18 years old. It scared the s— out of me. I think my dad and I had to sleep together that night. [laughs] I said, “No, that’s it. I don’t care how big I am!” And what I loved about it, too, was how [George] Romero could just take this film, and do it clearly on a budget, and yet make it work, have this sort of tongue-in-cheek humor with it. So part of what, I think, attracted me to the films I mentioned was not just the films themselves, but how they were made, what they meant politically, on all levels. I’m attracted to all those films that, in a way, engaged us across cultures. So, you look at Night of the Living Dead and you put these people in the 1960s in this pressure cooker, and one of them is the black guy, one of them is the white guy, one of them is the chick, and the brother and sister, and you see what happens. The unspoken subtext of it was huge. It was huge, it was revolutionary. Mutiny on the Bounty was the same thing. And even in films like Redemption Road, where I’ll take the black guy, and he’s the one who’s into country and western, and the white guy, he’s the one who’s into blues, and both of them, along the way, are going to encounter music that informs their personal narrative, and it also informs the musicality of the film. So, along the way they pick up some blues, some gospel, some jazz, and that feeds into the song they play at the end of the movie, the sort of redemptive song. So I think those movies actually speak to what I’m attracted to in film. I just like something that, on some level, even if it’s a horror film, is interesting and redemptive and makes you think."

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Kudos

ClareR (6225 KP) rated The Life and Rhymes of Benjamin Zephaniah: The Autobiography in Books

May 26, 2018

Lyricist. Writer. Activist.

What a life this man has had! He had a hard start, living in one of the least affluent areas of Birmingham (UK), and running away with his mother to escape a violent father. The 1980s saw race riots, miners strikes and demonstrations against police brutality. Zephaniah and his dub poetry were at the forefront. By the 1990s he was a household name, and not just at home in the UK - he travelled and performed around the world.
I really admire this man. He hasn't had an easy life: he was in borstal as a teen, lived a life of crime for a while and decided for himself that he didn't want to live his life as a criminal where he would most certainly end up dead. HE turned his life around. He stands by his beliefs as well. A brilliant, self taught man, who sets a sterling example for all.

Kudos

David McK (3791 KP) rated Death Troopers (Star Wars) in Books

Jan 30, 2019

Take a classic Space Opera saga (Star Wars), add a soupcon of horror (Aliens), and a large dose of Zombies (Resident Evil), and what do you have?

This book.

The plot? An Imperial prison barge breaks down, and then comes across a seemingly abandoned Star Destroyer out in the wastes of space. It transpires that the Destroyer is not abandoned after all, and that it had been carrying out bio-weapon experiments ...

Definitely felt like the author was (heavily) inspired by the Resident Evil games/films: the Zombies are such not as the living dead back-to-life of Romero, but as a result of a engineered virus. The Aliens link I mentioned comes in on the 'set-on-prison-<s>planet</s>barge' setting, and I'm also not entirely sure why he felt the need to drop Han Solo and Chewbacca into the mix, unless that was just so you would know it is a Star Wars novel?

Not the best Extended Universe book.

Kudos

Phil Leader (619 KP) rated The Fandom of the Operator in Books

Nov 13, 2019

The Fandom of the Operator

Robert Rankin | 2001 | Humor & Comedy, Science Fiction/Fantasy

7.5

(2 Ratings)

Book Rating

I like Rankin's work a lot. Some of his works are just amazingly inventive, incredibly humorous and reliably off-the-wall.

Unfortunately this really isn't quite up to his normal standards, although the plot has all his usual hallmarks - essentially someone discovers it is possible to phone the dead, which ends up with potentially terrible consequences for the living.

This sounds like quite a slight premise to hang a whole book of of, and I think that is the heart of the problem here. Some of the writing and twists are amongst the very best. We follow the main character through his life and although we know he's pretty unpleasant, the shock when he is asked how many people he has murdered, and is response, is pure Rankin cleverness.

Unfortunately such moments are too few and the plot too slow moving for this to be counted as a good Rankin novel. One for the completists but certainly not one that demonstrates his true ability.

Kudos

stacey (81 KP) rated The Dead Lands in TV

Mar 6, 2020

The Dead Lands

2019 | Action, Thriller

7.3

(3 Ratings)

TV Show Rating

waka (1 more)

the amount of fighting

not as much blood as id like (2 more)

WHY NO KISS

DONT LEAVE HER

The dead lie worse than the living

I only got shudder so i could binge watch this tv show, at first i was a little weirded out because i had no idea what the hell was going on. reminded me of a cheesy zombie show. Boy was i shocked when it picked up fast as all hell.
I LoVeD how much Waka's character grew, insert sponge bob meme. ( the ending ripped my heart and i swear if i could reach into my tv to sack waka i totally would have)
The fighting was incredible and i loved how much detail was put into the show. Im so excited for the next season.
one thing i have to rage about is why the fuck did they not hook up. you CAN clearly see the sexual tension between them but nooo.
AND THAT ENDING, HOW DARE HE.
okay rant over