Versus

Note to self: If I ever join the Yakuza, be sure not to bury my bodies in the Forest of Resurrection. They have this unpleasant way of ... resurrecting.

Such is the premise of the delightful VERSUS, an audacious Japanese picture that combines the delights of samurai, yakuza, zombies, warlocks, and karate in a bubbling, delicious stew of gory fun. This is the kind of movie that doesn't just have zombies, it has zombies with guns. It doesn't just have samurai, it has both classical swordsmen and modern guys with leather overcoats and techno-katanas. This is a movie that's so ridiculously over the top that I was willing to forgive it its many inconsistencies (and its antagonists' lack of skill with their blades) while I gaily tapped my foot along with its thumpin' electro-pop beats and watched the carnage ensue.

This picture is moving manga. Its characters are so over-the-top that not once will you confuse them with real people, but you will have fun seeing just how far they go. What a great time at the movies.

Land of the Dead

In LAND OF THE DEAD, the zombies have won. A city full of remaining humans have walled themselves in to Pittsburgh, and they've established a brutally Darwinist social system, with Dennis Hopper at the apex.

So, the first thing LAND OF THE DEAD has going for it is Dennis Hopper at the apex of a social system. And really, it just gets better from there. The viewer could start wondering about how that's possible, but this is one movie that asks you to not ask too many questions. Once you start down that road, it isn't long before you're thinking, "How do they generate electricity?" and "What, exactly, is the foundation of their economy?" I think you're better off enjoying the jump-scares, wierding out on Leguizamo's unmistakeably ICE AGE Sloth -like vocal inflections, and admiring the creative and professional effects and makeup work.

LAND OF THE DEAD is big, audacious, splattery fun, with a helping of social commentary on the side. I enjoyed it so much, I give it four nnnnnnnnggggggghhhhhhhhssssssss out of five.

Cemetery Man

CEMETERY MAN had a stellar premise, but it doesn't deliver.

The movie takes an inherently fun story about a cemetery watchman who's duties including rekilling and reburying the reanimated dead and tries to infuse it with so much existential angst it winds up burying itself. How do you suck the life out of a movie featuring a troop of zombie boy scouts and a carnivorous flying head? You do it by saddling it with head-scratchingly repulsive supporting castmembers, brooding ponderings on the nature of life, and a degree of carnage that's so far from fun that you cease to care about the well-being of critical members of the cast.

If you're looking for a movie that knows how to have some fun with the zombie genre, see SHAUN OF THE DEAD again. That picture never forgets what it's about.