Category Archives: The Walking Dead

You know…those dead people that get back up and want to eat your flesh, brains and knowledge? Scratch that last one…

Syfy’s Z-Nation S1E2 “Fracking Zombies”

Posted by Steven Lewis on

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Following a successful premier, Syfy’s Z-Nation follows up with a great second episode that develops more on a couple of character backstories while still raking in the gory bits and pieces of flesh and bone of zombie deaths. Z-Nation can deliver unsuspecting turns making this show unpredictable and entertaining.

Still considered to be a carbon-copy of The Walking Dead, Z-Nation slowly begins to journey itself away from the widely popular AMC series. I’m also seriously impressed with the special effects that Z-Nation (zombie stuck in the truck carriage, burnt to a crisp zombie, and zombie fuel tank) and while the series is not gored up by effects guru Greg Nicotero, there does lie some great talent behind Z-Nation’s blood.

The characters are starting to come to light with Pisay Pao’s Cassandra and her pack of dark secrets and as well as Keith Allan’s Murphy character and his struggle to maintain his convict past. Critics might be a bit harsh at first, but I think Z-Nation’s like-ability will come around with critics and see that’s not to compete with the drama of The Walking Dead. Instead, Z-Nation will stand on it’s own to dead feet and come out on top as an entertaining zombie series.

Syfy’s “Z-Nation” S1 Ep1 ‘Puppies and Kittens’

Posted by Steven Lewis on

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With “The Walking Dead’s” season 5 right around the corner come in October, this review of Syfy’s first episode “Z-Nation” seems fitting as we head into the best month of the year, but Z-Nation isn’t just a Walking Dead imitating hack even if the intentions might have been meant as so.

The first episode entitled innocently enough as “Puppies and Kittens” starts as engaging enough with zombies ripping the U.S. nation apart limb by limb and we’re already in year two with the preface setting up the series’ main plot. After the main credits roll, year three begins our travels. The country is overrun, the plague is vast, and the zombies are fast – two good pieces of evidence that separate Z-Nation from The Walking Dead, no slow moments of build up and no slow moving dead heads.

Something else that Z-Nation possess that doesn’t make it feel like AMC’s cash cow is the ridiculous scenarios the survivors put themselves in and how they react to those life and death choices. I’m talking about trying to eliminate a zombie baby because one of the character’s bleeding heart for children couldn’t be handled. Do these situations of inane instances ruin Z-Nation before even getting started?

In short, no. Reason? Z-Nation is the baby of The Asylum, a low budget film studio that thrives on the coattails of hit horror and sci-fi features creating “Mockbusters” and able to get away with it. Some recent hits from The Asylum have been “Android Cop” (“RoboCop”), “Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies” (“Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter”), and “Transmorphers: Fall of Man” (“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”). Get it?

In my humble opinion, I know Z-Nation will be successful hit for the Syfy channel who as of late have produced some really good shows like Helix and whom have a made for TV adapted series of 12 Monkeys just around the bend. Z-Nation went viral on the internet with 300,000 piracy visits just after it’s premier release on Friday. Piracy shouldn’t afflict Z-Nation into cannibalizing itself because, hey, The Asylum lives and breaths of recreating blockbuster films into low-budgeted, Danny DeVito twin-like copies that do just as well on TV as they do on the internet. Go figure.

The series stars Thomas Everett Scott, DJ Qualls, Pisay Pao, Anatasia Baranova, and Michael Welch. Catch it on Syfy on Friday nights.

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Did Paul W.S. Anderson Just Delay His Own Movie?

Posted by Steven Lewis on

The “Resident Evil” series has been up and down critically since the video game adapted to big screen franchise started back in 2002. Directed Paul W.S. Anderson and his leading lady wife Milla Jovovich have practically re-written the whole storyline of the “Resident Evil” video game series while blindly tossing in our favorite RE characters into the mix.

Today, the word hit on Jovovich’s Facebook that she’ll be flying to Cape Town to start production on the last “Resident Evil movie” entitled “Resident Evil: The Final Chapter.” But here is the catch. Looks like production will be delayed due to Anderson and Jovovich expecting their second child. Anderson just delayed his own movie. Sigh.

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Quick Pic: XBrains 360!

Posted by Steven Lewis on

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From Video Game to the Big Screen: “Dead Island”

Posted by Steven Lewis on

Occupant Entertainment and Deep Silver announced that they will be backing a screen adaptation of their 8-million copies sold, mega-hit “Dead Island”. Deep Silver is the video game publishing label for Koch Media, an independent theatrical and home entertainment productions company. Occupant is eyeing a Q1 production start date in 2015.

“Dead Island” revolves around a isolated beach resort over-ran by fast-paced, blood thirsty zombies. Apocalyptic zombie films have been a dime-a-dozen with today’s technology advancement relying more of CGI than practical effects, but Koch Media’s CEO Klemens Kundratitz says that “The “Dead Island” universe offers a rich and unique setting that can expand beyond the pure gaming experience. We are very much looking forward to seeing Dead Island open up to new audiences and showing off the fun everybody at Deep Silver has with this brand.”

My faith in Kundratitz’s statement is strong due to sheer fact that “JCVD”, “Before The Devil Knows Your Dead”, and “Moon” were solid, independent films in the last 5 years. Dead Island is set on a much bigger scale and in the grand scheme of things, Koch Media will have to step up their involvement and maybe help Occupant Entertainment some with more cash on the table. We’ve seen video game adaptations go south before. Of course, most failure credits reside with Uwe Boll, but there was also “DOA”, “Mortal Kombat Annihilation”, and “Max Payne.”

In June, “Dead Island 2” promo trailer was released and already has a million plus hits on Youtube and while the trailer is great and quirky, nothing out beats the announcement trailer for “Dead Island” with it’s dramatic, frightening reverse sequence.

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