Day Three was a very good day for film at Fantastic Fest. It went from “Fish Story” to “Toy Story” to Takashi Miike’s “Yatterman” to the one-two horror/comedy punch of George Romero’s “Survival of the Dead” and D. Kerry Prior’s “The Revenant.”

“Fish Story” - rock fist way up

Considering Fantastic Fest usually leans towards highlighting the random and insane side of Asian cinema, the Japanese film “Fish Story” was a welcome change of pace.

Essentially a time spanning ensemble drama about fate, it begins in 2012 as a comet hurdles towards Earth. From there it jumps between four other seemingly unrelated stories, each taking place in a separate decade.

Anchoring the film is the tale of an obscure pre-Sex Pistols punk band as they struggle to find an audience and record a single without compromise. Somehow their song “Fish Story” influences the events that follow in both direct and indirect ways.

The movie works surprisingly well because of how it balances human drama with comedy and suspense. Despite skipping around in time, it never loses focus and remains fascinating throughout. It is definitely one of the best of the fest.

“Toy Story” and “Toy Story 2″ in 3D double feature - rock fist way up

Aside from watching both of these movies upon their original theatrical release, I’ve never really revisited these two films like I have with some of Pixar’s other work.

As such, I had forgotten just how brilliant they are. Both of these films are hilarious, touching, and have aged surprising well. It’s remarkable that they still feel as unique and inventive as ever.

Cleaned up and re-rendered in unobtrusive 3D, this is also the best these movies have ever looked. Much like “Up,” the 3D here is about immersion, not exploitation. The movies have not been compromised and no scenes were altered to included 3D gimmickry.

The double-feature package also included an entertaining introduction and 10-minute intermission that is going to make a great Blu-ray special feature.

More than just a promotional tool for “Toy Story 3,” this double feature is highly recommended, especially for the children born within the 10-15 years since the original and its sequel were released. It really is remarkable that the first fully computer-animated movie still looks as great as it does, especially compared to even recent DreamWorks animated pictures.

“Yatterman” - minor rock fist up

Takashi Miike is one of Japan’s most prolific directors, but his most well-known movies in America tend to be his gore-filled ones. Like Robert Rodriguez, Miike tends to make movies for different audiences, including children. This adaptation of a short-lived Japanese Anime is very much a children’s movie–and a spastic, colorful, and completely illogical one at that.

“Yatterman” is the story of two teenage tech-savvy heroes and their giant mechanized dog as they thwart the plans of the evil Doronbo gang.

Visually and tonally similar to the Wachowskis’ “Speed Racer,” which I happened to enjoy, “Yatterman”’s largely CGI universe is an otherworldly explosion of color. Suitably, this makes it feel like a live-action cartoon with a rapid sense of humor. The jokes hit fast, including lots of references to the original TV series. The goofy atmosphere goes a long way, and overall the majority of the gags hit their target.

However, its hyperkinetic style does grow repetitive pretty quickly, and the appropriately episodic plot does grow a little weary. If you enjoy other colorful CGI driven children’s movies or are a fan of old fashioned Japanese insanity, “Yatterman” is worth checking out.

“Survival of the Dead” - solid rock fist up

The financial success of the disappointing “Diary of the Dead” has brought the master of the modern zombie movie back for more end-of-the-world mayhem. Thankfully, I’m pleased to report that “Survival of the Dead” is not only a high-quality horror comedy, it’s also a worthy addition to George Romero’s original “Dead” trilogy.

“Survival of the Dead” tells the story of two families on a remote island and their centuries-old feud. These are the type who can’t even let something like a zombie apocalypse bring them together. Their disagreements on how to handle the undead leads to a banishment of the head of one of the families.

His path crosses with that of an AWOL group of National Guard members who have decided that taking care of themselves is more important than service to what’s left of their country. Once they return to the island together, things really heat up.

The most intriguing aspect of this and other Romero movies is the fact that in this world, zombies are less of a threat than humans are. This movie is also overall the funniest I’ve seen Romero get. Likewise, a high level of gore and satisfyingly unique kills help the horror aspect succeed, but Romero is actually focused on telling this specific story appropriately.

It’s very welcome to have a new humorous, well acted, gory, and beautifully photographed George Romero film. I’ve missed it.

“The Revenant” - rock fist way up

Wow. I have no idea where this movie came from, but it is great. I decided to see it based solely on the fact that the basic plot description sounded similar to a favorite movie of mine, Bob Clark’s 1974 horror film “Deathdream,” aka “Dead of Night.”

Both films are about fallen soldiers who find themselves in the precarious position of being the walking undead, forced to drink human blood to ward off decomposition.

But that’s where the similarities end. While Clark’s film is a heartbreaking allegory for the way a child’s death can tear a family apart, “The Revenant” is a hilarious buddy comedy with the twist being that one of the friends happens to be dead. Or undead, at least.

The fact that Bart and his friend Joey don’t really know what’s happening to him sets up some great comedic situations. The logical way that the two of them handle trying to figure what exactly the “rules” of his condition are is also fairly ingenious.

The movie ends up going some very unexpected places and the movie just bursts with hilarious invention. My only real criticism is that the length may be a little much for some people, though personally would enjoy watching a multi-hour director’s cut.

While impressively gory and often tense, “The Revenant” does not attempt to be scary, so I can’t fault it for focusing more on comedy than horror. At the end of the day, “The Revenant” is the best horror comedy since “Shaun of the Dead.”

That’s it for my Day Three Wrap-up. Day Four brings the new Terry Gilliam film “The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus,” the French action sequel “District 13: Ultimatum,” and more.

Tags: 2009, fantastic fest, fish story, miike, romero, Survival of the Dead, The Revenant, toy story 3d, Yatterman

Two months ago, Scene-Stealers sitegoer Aaron Hale submitted his Top 10 Zombie Movie list. Rather than do a list of my favorite zombie movies, which would be very similar to his, I thought I’d write about something that gets to the very heart of why we love zombie movies so much, even though sometimes we don’t even know it: The zombie metaphor.

Horror genres are known to go in and out of fashion. The slasher movie, for instance, is fading a bit right now, while (thanks to HBO’s “True Blood” and the upcoming “Twilight” movie) vampires seem to be having a bit of resurgence of late. One genre, however, that never seems to go away is the zombie movie. The reason is simple. Zombies are easy stand-ins for our lesser selves. Essentially, zombies are reflections of who we are at our worst. Or best, depending on what glass you are viewing the metaphor through.

George Romero is the undisputed king of the zombie flicks. A political filmmaker at heart, he is pigeonholed as a horror director because his zombie movies are full of such prescient social commentary. The original “Night of the Living Dead” (1968) was made for $114,000, and its doom-laden atmosphere and breaching of several taboo subjects have caused its legions of fans to perceive it as many different things. It’s a metaphor for homosexual repression, the civil rights movement, feminism, the counterculture, or an unwinnable war in Vietnam, depending on who you talk to.

However you choose to view it, there is no doubt that its budget limitations only lent more authority to the stark situations that it presents its protagonists with. As zombies overtake the land and nobody is able to stop them, an unfit society’s ultimate fate is to be devoured by, in essence, itself.

By the time Romero finally filmed a sequel, 1978’s “Dawn of the Dead,” he had turned his sights on rampant American consumerism. While stopping to outrun the ever-widening plague, Romero’s characters hole up in the one place they feel safe—the mall. A wickedly funny critique of the nature of consumerism, “Dawn” has its main characters not only taking refuge in a mall, but fighting each other for possessions and territory that is completely meaningless considering the apocalyptic situation outside. The humans celebrate what they think to be their final victory in ridding the mall of zombies with a festive orgy of meaningless “purchase power.” More zombies are soon discovered surrounding the mall, clawing helplessly at the glass and looking in on the humans. It is then that one of the partygoers has the astute observation, “They’re us!” while his companion shivers and pulls up the collar on her new fur coat.

Zombies are the lowest examples of the lower class. They shuffle forward in a hideous lurch; their brains are turned to mush; they moan and groan, producing no intelligible speech; and are driven by one simple, base desire—to eat human flesh. Nevertheless, they seem to overpower their faster, supposedly smarter foes in the human race due to their sheer numbers alone. In Romero’s “Day of the Dead” (1985), this class warfare is more evident than ever before.

“Day” takes place mostly in a military installation, where a sadistic and volatile Army commander—a satire that’s devoid of any subtlety whatsoever—lords with glee over captured zombies. His increasingly psychopathic behavior becomes a problem for scientists trying to study one the living dad to try to figure out how to stop them. Like any good classic horror film (see “Frankenstein,” “Freaks,” etc.), pity grows for the monster, and as military and science turn on each other, it’s the zombies we end up rooting for.

Rich humans are holed up in an indoor oasis and the poor humans must fend for themselves on the zombie-infested outside in Romero’s satire of Bush-era America, 2005’s “Land of the Dead.” One significant change from his past films, besides a bigger budget and some “name” actors like Dennis Hopper and John Leguizamo, is that zombies are evolving. They begin to remember elements of their past human lives, and start to learn from their experiences. Of course, it is a disgruntled human who threatens the encased city with exposure, and when the zombies do eventually overrun, the humans discover—irony of all ironies— that the electric fence that previously kept the zombies out has become a wall that now prevents their own escape.

Rather than continue his continuing narrative, Romero re-imagined his zombie plague from a different perspective with this year’s ill-conceived “Diary of the Dead,” which attempted to address the current user-driven YouTube revolution and general societal mistrust of the government and its fear-mongering. There are some great ideas buried somewhere within, but the movie is too in love with its own out-of-touch, 60s-era sloganeering.

Famous directors like Peter Jackson (“Braindead” aka “Dead Alive”), Sam Raimi (“The Evil Dead” series), and Lucio Fulci (“Zombi 2”) have also put their distinctive marks on the genre, but it was Edgar Wright’s loving send-up/tribute “Shaun of the Dead” (2004) that ventured most closely into the metaphorical by presenting an appliance salesman who stands in for all of sleepy Great Britain. The scene where he goes down the block for ice cream, oblivious to the fact that his street has been turned into a zombie hell is a perfect metaphor for the way we can sometimes plow through our own daily routine with blinders on. Shaun eventually wakes up and fights to save his family and his relationship with his girlfriend—did I mention it was a comedy? The movie is now considered a cult classic and is partly responsible (along with “28 Days Later” and the “Dawn of the Dead” remake) for the recent resurgence in zombie films.

Which may explain why the King of Zombies, George Romero, is back in production again, this time on “Island of the Living Dead,” due out in 2009.

Tags: 28, alive, braindead, dawn, day, days, dead, diary, evil, george, island, land, later, living, metaphor, night, romero, shaun, zombie

George Romero’s “Land of the Dead” is the fourth zombie movie in the last three years to be given a mainstream release in America. But one must only look as far as the name that appears before the title to realize that this is not a calculated attempt to piggyback the genre’s newfound popularity. Instead, it is the legendary director’s long-awaited follow-up to 1985’s “Day of the Dead.” It is also only the fourth zombie movie Romero has made since inventing the genre in 1968 with “The Night of the Living Dead.”

“28 Years Later” re-invigorated zombies with a sci-fi twist, and last year’s re-make of Romero’s 1978 opus “Dawn of the Dead” was fast and furious for the MTV generation. “Shaun of the Dead” paid hilarious tribute to the master, and it is now an established cult hit. But none of these zombie flicks sport the wicked satire that Romero offers in all of his films, including, I am happy to report, “Land of the Dead.”

In a world completely overrun by zombies, there is an isolated city of humans protected by electric fences and surrounded by water. Like any civilization, there are the haves and the have-nots. The upper class live in luxury, provided by a rich businessman named Kaufman (Dennis Hopper) in the self-contained hi-rise towers of Fiddler’s Green, where the rich can live their lives free of the worries of the outside world. The have-nots, on the other hand, live in abject poverty and pass the time with typical low class diversions like gambling, drinking, and prostitution. Are the zombies barricaded out or have the humans locked themselves in?

When the dead begin to walk in zombie movies, it has a way of unifying humanity under the banner of survival. Romero’s vision, however, is more interested with the eventual destruction of the humans’ natural bond, and his movies spotlight humanity’s ugly side. An ex-hooker named Slack (Asia Argento) is attacked by zombies in a ring for the amusement of a crowd, and is saved by Riley (Simon Baker), the only person there who realizes the depravity of the situation. The humans have debased themselves so much that they revel in their own exploitation.

Riley’s travel companion is Charlie, a slow-witted burn victim who is also a crack shot with a rifle. Like “Of Mice and Men,” he is Lennie to Riley’s George, and the pair reluctantly work for Kaufman, venturing outside the city to ransack dilapidated buildings for supplies. Riley yearns to quit pillaging for the walled-in society and head for the open spaces of Canada, while his comrade-in-arms Cholo (John Leguizamo) wants to escape in a different way. He believes that he’s paid his dues as a foot soldier and deserves to live in the carefree extravagance of Fiddler’s Green.

The themes of oppression and greed are tied even more relevantly in “Land of the Dead” than any of its predecessors, making this a more overtly political film. There is the requisite amount of racial slurs and white men behaving badly that peppered “Dawn” and “Day,” but Hopper hilariously parodies ruling-class selfishness, playing Kaufman with the self-awareness of a virtually indestructible man. When Kaufman refuses Cholo entry into the Green, the warrior kidnaps an armored vehicle for millions of dollars in ransom. Kaufman petulantly refuses to pay, screaming, “We will not bargain with terrorists!”

Kaufman’s vision exists and thrives by turning a blind eye to what goes on in the outside world. This may work in the short run for some countries, Romero suggests, but it will eventually be their undoing. The zombies, in a nifty parallel with “Frankenstein,” are beginning to learn. Under the leadership of a burly gas station attendant zombie who just happens to be black (Eugene Clark), they overcome obstacles through trial and error and stumble on the ability to operate machine guns. Hopper’s outrage at the unlikely intrusion of the brainless zombies into his sacred community is the same as it was when Cholo wanted to join the club of rich exclusivity— “You have no right!” It is also may be a scary reflection of deluded CEOs everywhere.

While Romero certainly works up a good amount of sympathy for the zombies, he also relishes in watching them get destroyed in all sorts of creative ways. If gore is what you crave from a zombie flick, then “Land of the Dead” delivers the goods there as well, albeit in an R-rated format, unlike its predecessors’ low-budget unrated versions. He and famed makeup man Greg Nicotero also revel in the gory deaths of those selfish humans, and those are doled out in almost equal parts.

One scene in particular sums up Romero’s idea of the desperation of those in power and the stubbornness to which they hold on to it. Terror sweeps over the rich people when the zombies break in. Unlike “Dawn of the Dead,” the mall is not empty this time, and they feast on the fleeing members of privileged society. As one victim scrambles fruitlessly to get away while his legs are being munched on, his arms are stretched out to anything or anybody he can grab to help. What he comes up with is the leg of a terrified woman who is moments away from escape. Instead, the man trips her up, foiling her escape, and she is eaten as well.

Perhaps the movie’s original title suited the film better: “Dead Reckoning.”

Tags: Land of the Dead, movie, review, romero