KGB Productions

I just had to go see World War Z being an avid "zombie" genre film fan.  I had never read the book by Max Brooks , about eyewitnesses account of the zombie outbreak, but I have read a few chapters here and there and what I read seemed interesting.  What the movie does is compile all those survivors accounts into one character's view of the outbreak.  Gerry Lane played by Brad Pitt is a former employee of the UN's health organization.  He is seen in the first scene of the movie making breakfast for his family.  He has two daughters, and a wife, and we find out that he quit his job due to what it was doing to him.  But that is latter on in the movie, and in the beginning of the movie we see Pitt interacting with his family while making breakfast.  We hear on the radio and on the TV that things are happening in the world, but like all news with a 24 hour cycle it is background noise to the characters.  For us the audience we all know that someth...

If I had to name one film that blew my mind when I was a teenage it would have to be "Dawn of the Dead".  George Romero's " Dawn of the Dead " is a film that is on so many levels it boggles the mind.  A horror film, a satire on society, a statement on consumerism, and a sequel.  That's what "Dawn..." is and in lesser hands it would not have been effective, but because the filmmaker is George Romero this film hits the audience on all levels.  I was about 14 years old when this film came out, and it was one of the hardest films to see for me back then.  Released without a rating it only played in several theaters, and if you were not accompanied with an adult you didn't get in.  I saw it in Germany while visiting my aunt, and in Europe it was called "Zombie 2".  Argento had made a film called " Zombie " previously and called his cut of Dawn "Zombie 2".  Little did I know that there were two versions of this film.  ...

So I broke down and saw this film, and in a way I'm glad I did. Survival of the Dead is no masterpiece, but it is better then Romero's "Diary of the Dead", and shows some promise even though the story seems too preposterous. The whole story about letting the zombies live just seemed too off-beat. I mean zombies and bullets seem to go together. I mean what's the point in keeping a zombie alive? So the conflict between the two families doesn't make mush sense. What did make sense was the story of the survivors of the zombie Apocalypse. That's been it for me and I believe a lot others too. In the most interesting zombie film "Dawn of the Dead" Romero was going for the whole breakdown of society. He used comic book violence to get a point across without beating our heads in with the message. In essence it was fun and yet if you took apart the film there was a lot there. Even in "Day of the Dead" Romero goes darker and the violence becomes ...

So I finally sat down and watched George A. Romero's " Diary of the Dead ". I am a fan of Romero's, and I do like his work, but Diary is a film I was very much disappointed with. The premise is interesting. Have a bunch of students videotape there experiences as the Dead start coming back. Make them film students doing a horror film, and add your own irony to the film within the film. Throughout the film we the audience are subjected to the "narrator". You know the one who tells us what is happening and who tells us of her or his plight. In this case the narrator is Debra Moynihan played by Michelle Morgan. The narration seemed to get in the way for me. I felt detached and I didn't care at all about our protagonists. Also the narration is annoying at times. I can hear Romero hammering away at a point about civilization and whether we need saving or not. For freaking sake please! don't lecture me. I can figure this out myself. Ultimately the narration...

It's George Romero's birthday today, and to celebrate I figured I talk about one of his films. The film I choose is Knightriders starring Ed Harris . I do remember the film when it first came out in 1981. It was double billed with Romero's " Dawn of the Dead ". I remember an afternoon of fun that day when my friend and I went downtown to see both films. Knightriders isn't a perfect film, and many critics have pointed out at 145 minutes the film does drag, but it still remains one of my favorite Romero films. It's an amazing film and I'm always taken aback by the many different themes Romero tries to cover in the film. In ways the film is ahead of its time. It talks about corporate sponsorship, and being true to oneself. If you listen hard enough you can hear Romeros anthem of independence within the film. Ed Harris who gives a hell of performance in the film as Billy should be noted here that this is one of Harris' first performances on film. Bef...

The latest Moviemaker magazine has a interesting yet brief interview with George A. Romero. Romero for those who don't know is & was the director of " Night of the Living Dead " (the orginal one), and it's sequels " Dawn of the Dead ", " Day of the Dead " & " Land of the Dead ". He's also done a lot of other films also, but that's probably where you've heard the name before. In the article he talks about being an independent filmmaker in today's market, and he reveals some interesting tidbits on his deal with the "dead" films. For instance Romero does not get much from his films. It seems as though others hold the rights to them. The article talks about what he is doing, and what he would like to do. He was awarded a lifetime achievement award from the National Association of Latino Independent Awards in 2007. Romero is currently living in Toronto where he is finishing two more films about the dead ent...