Paranormal Activity

Paranormal Activity; a low budget no name film that was made in 2006, but is now one of the biggest movies of the fall. It seems like this movie came out of nowhere but thats not quite the case. I looked into the background of this movie and found out that is was made for virtually no money, but a very interesting fact came up in that this film was originally shown to Steven Spielberg. Mr Spielberg had the film for one night and promptly returned it to the movie studio saying that it was haunted and scarred the hell out of him.

So what is Paranormal Activity? The story follows a couple who is dealing with some ghostly presence in their house. As the story goes along we find out the the girl in the movie has been dealing with these strange experiences since she was 8 years old. The story picks up a few weeks after the activity has started again and the boyfriend has decided that he is going to use his newly purchased video camera to do his best to record these on goings in a attempt to figure out what the hell is going on. The girlfriend thinks this is a bad idea and initially wants nothing to do with it. Throughout the movie the camera is used for all of the scenes, as the camera is carried around by the main characters or sitting on its tripod filming them throughout the night.

The couple starts to experience more and more of this activity and the girl decides to try to get some help from a psychic. That is about as far as I will go into the details of the movie because to say more would start to ruin the movie for some. As you watch the film, especially the scenes shot while they are sleeping, pay close attention to the minor details such as the shadows on the door and the powder in particular.

In trying to keep this review short to not give away the details I am left thinking that if there is one scary movie to go see this is it. I have seen many "horror" and "creepy" films but this one by far takes the cake. The thing that really gets to you is the sense of vulnerability that you feel for the people as the activity takes place when they sleep. This is easily my new favorite creepy movie I have seen, as by the end I genuinely had a sense of unnerving going through my body.

Zombieland

I know that I have been lacking on the posts as of late but there has been two good reasons. For one is that there were not really any good movies coming out as of late, and for two I have had someone to hangout with that has been occupying my time in a good way. Regardless the time has come to review a movie I have been looking foward to since I first saw the previews; ZOMBIELAND!!!!

If you have yet to see the previews for Zombieland it is a movie about people who are trying to survive in a America that has been over run with zombies. The story follows the four main characters who all join the story at different times. The key thing to this movie is to follow the rules (once you see the movie you'll understand what Im talking about).

Lets start with the beginning with the the character called Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg); as the story goes on you learn that they have actual names but they use the name of the town they are from since friendships dont last to long in Z-Land. Columbus is a college kid who is trying to get back to his home town to see if his parents are still alive after the zombie plague spread across the country. Along the way he explains the way he survives in the post apocalyptic wasteland that America has become, all the while reminding us of his rules. As he travles along he meets Tallahassee (played by Woody Harrelson). Tallahassee can best be described as the one guy that you would want around in case of a zombie apocalypse, yet would hate to be friends with normally. The comedic genius between Tallahassee and Columbus is just unbelievable. The play off of each other so well with Harrelson being the loud mouth no rules type of guy and and Eisenberg being the over cautious rule following nerd that never left his house if it wasn't necessary. A little ways in they meet up with Wichita and Little Rock (Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin), a set of sisters that even before the zombie takeover were a couple of con artists that would take advantage of anyone to make a quick buck. The two play there parts very well and add a lot to the story, if fact without them the story wouldn't really be anything but Columbus running around (rule 1: Cardio) and Tallahassee finding new and inovative ways to kill zombies.

The movie does have it share of gore and gratuitous violence but honestly thats part of what makes this movie so much fun. Watching the different ways they kill off the zombies is just amusing and had me cracking up most of the movie. For example how often would you see a zombie get beaten down by a banjo?

This movie could be called our country's answer to Shaun of the Dead, but with a way better ending. Within the first few minutes of this movie you will be laughing you're ass off and having a good time. One thing that real got me going was the appearance of a certain celebrity that I was completely shocked to see would do a film like this, but damn I'm glad he did since he was extremely funny. This is by far my new favorite zombie comedy and I would love to go watch it again. One last thing before I sign off until the next film is this: Always follow the rules and make sure that when the zombie plague hits make sure you have Twinkies handy since you never know who might want one.