Podcast Episode 28

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In Episode 28 we are talking westerns and cyborgs. First Adam continues his "Class of" retrospective with the second in the series, "Class of 1999". Then Mike reviews the 1964 spaghetti western Sergio Leone classic, "A Fistful of Dollars". We also talk about what we've been watching and recent news items including "Mad Max Fury Road" and "Walking Dead Season 5". Enjoy!

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Joy Ride 3: Roadkill - Review

Joy Ride 3 sees Rusty Nail return with his trusty tractor trailer to run down a new set of victims. This time his sights are set on a group of young street racers on their way to Canada to take part in a competition known as the Road Rally 1000.

The original Joy Ride is a movie that surprised the hell out of me when I first saw it. Filled with suspense, likable characters, good acting, a simple premise and a frightening antagonist it was easy to be sucked into the story and come out at the end satisfied. That’s why it’s so disappointing to see this become nothing more than a modern slasher franchise that utilizes characters we can only barely like, features kills that feel like rejects from a Saw movie and seems to be positioning Rusty as a wise-cracking slasher in the vein of Freddy Krueger rather than an ominous presence hidden behind the wheel of his truck.

The film opens with two meth heads in a motel room, high as kites and having sex. They run out of meth so they come up with the bright idea of calling a trucker on the CB radio and robbing him of cash and drugs. Of course they call up Rusty Nail who proceeds to tie them to the front of his truck and tell them that if they can hold on for one mile he will let them go. You can see why I make the Saw reference as most of the kills are setup in a way to torture the victim and draw out their death. So right from the opening scene we have two characters being killed by Rusty who fully deserve what they get. Seeing them be run over by his big rig is satisfying rather than terrifying. I will say that Ken Kirzinger chews up his role as Rusty Nail and is a good fit for the role but setting up the audience to root for him is a mis-step.

After this opening we are introduced to our main cast of characters. They include two incredibly annoying women and a bunch of completely underdeveloped male characters. We are simply supposed to define them by the fact that they race cars. The only character I found myself even remotely liking was Austin and that was because he makes a Large Marge reference which I can totally appreciate. It’s the only scene in the movie where I found myself smiling.

As you can imagine the remaining run-time is filled with the racers running afoul of Rusty and he kills them off in various creative ways while they continually make horrible baffling decisions. He ties onecharacter to the top of his truck and drives full speed under a bridge. He places one characters head between a lift and the bottom of his truck slowly crushing it. He sets up an elaborate contraption where one characters head is slowly wrapped with a chain and impaled. There are a few others as well but most involve some sort of elaborate setup. Again, this is why I make the Saw comparison. He puts in so much work to kill these people when all he has to do is run them over with his truck.

I don’t have much more to say about the movie. It’s from the director of Wrong Turn 3, 4 & 5 which I have yet to see but haven't heard many good things. Hopefully the Joy Ride franchise calls it quits at 3 and we aren’t exposed to any additional sequels though I doubt it. Overall it’s a formulaic run of the mill slasher movie with unlikable bland characters and an unoriginal uninspired story that left me bored. There are some good gore effects, decent car chases, and the acting’s not half-bad but that’s hardly enough to save this movie.

Score: 1.5/5

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Antisocial - Review

Zombies are everywhere in pop culture. The success of the Walking Dead has only helped to catapult them further into public popularity so it’s not surprising that the number of zombie films out there is so high. It’s not much different from the slasher movie fervor in the early 80’s and, like those, the zombie films desperately try to find a way to spin the concept in a unique way and set themselves apart from the herd.

Antisocial is a film with its “spin” based around social media. The plot concerns a group of college aged adults who are a small part of a larger worldwide obsession with a website called the Social Redroom. It’s basically a fictional version of Facebook where everyone can connect with friends, share pictures, post updates about their lives etc. but, unbeknownst to them, the site has been transmitting a subliminal signal which causes users to become addicted to the website. One day during a normal update to the site the signal goes bad and infects everyone with a virus that puts them into a violent zombie like state. Only those who haven’t accessed the site remain safe from the virus. Due to the nature of the transmission of the virus it only takes a day before most of the world is infected.

The concept of a visual or auditory signal that turns people into zombies via technology isn’t entirely new. Movies like “The Signal”, “Pontypool”, and even “They Live” utilize the concept to some extent as well as books like “Cell”. If done right, the concept can work incredibly well since most of us rely on these technologies daily and the thought of them turning on us is kind of unnerving.

Antisocial primarily wants to function as a satire hiding under the guise of a zombie film. The movie pokes quite a bit of fun at the people who use social media and is quick to point out the shallowness and stupidity of those who use it. There is, however, an issue with the way the filmmakers approach the topic. It’s clearly stated in the film that the signals transmitted via the site are what cause those to be addicted in the first place. This takes the blame off of the users and turns it from a film poking fun at a societal issue where the users are the cause of their own demise into a film where the users are the victim. I am fine with this approach as it makes sense in some ways so that we better empathize with the characters as victims but it doesn’t hold up as well as a satire of the social media generation. It would have been interesting had they removed the subliminal message aspect and just made it an unexpected side effect on all of the users as a result of a regularly scheduled update. This would have maintained the message about our current obsession on social media and the consequences of that obsession.

One additional issue with having the cause of the virus be dependent on a website is that the power has to stay on for the entirety of the film for it to continue spreading. If the world were really being overrun by billions of zombies in the matter of a single day the power grid and all communications would cease pretty quickly yet internet, cell phones and power continue to work right up until the end. It’s a minor flaw but difficult to believe.

While I take some issue with the overall message of the film there are aspects that work well. For one, the characters are likable. Some of them fall on the side of bland but at no point do we really hate any of them and I found myself feeling generally bad for some of them as they became infected. There is also some good effects work. Most of the effects are practical including one scene with a drill to the head which is effectively cringe-worthy. There is also some minimal CGI work but it blends well with the film and practical effects.

Overall Antisocial’s major failing is that it can’t fully pull off the satire angle that I believe the filmmakers were attempting. It works as a zombie film in the way that any post Night of the Living Dead zombie film works. If you can manage to take a group of people and hole them up in a house for an hour or so while maintaining some sense of suspense and whetting our appetite for gore then you succeed. It’s more a question of whether or not the film can distinguish itself from the others in the genre and, in my opinion, Antisocial doesn’t quite do that. However, I commend them on attempting something different and mildly recommend it.

Score:2/5

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Podcast Episode 27

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Episode 27 features reviews of two very different movies. First, Mike reviews the 2007 horror comedy "Hack!". How bad could a slasher movie sendup starring Winnie Cooper from "The Wonder Years" really be? Adam follows up Mike's review with his take on the first of the "Class of" trilogy, Mark Lester's "Class of 1984". We also talk what we've been watching, Nightbreed, The Purge and more! Enjoy!

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Podcast Episode 26.5 - It's Time for another Minisode!

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Episode 26.5 was a last minute recording so in lieu of our regular format we recorded a minisode! In this minisode you can hear our thoughts on the new Predator and Rambo movies, the MPAA, a slew of box sets and more. In addition to an overabundance of news talk we also give our reactions to a variety of movies and series we've been watching including Almost Human, the Re-Animator trilogy, Bates Motel, Trophy Heads and more! While 26.5 may be formatted as a "minisode" we certainly aren't lacking in content! Enjoy!