For the records

101 ways to kill a zombie

• movie review: Dawn of the Dead
  
  Dawn of the Dead is appealing on so many different levels. As a pure zombie flick it kicks ass. The multitude of ways that the zombies meet their demise is truly spectacular, from sniper-style shootings to the head, sharp objects through the eye and skull, propane gas explosions, run-em-down style with trucks, chain-saw slice and dice, etc...What really surprised me was how funny the movie was: put the characters in tense situations and the sarcastic remarks fly!
  
  The movie was apparently shot in Canada and I felt a intrinsically Canadian influence in the film: firstly the mere presence of Sarah Polley in the film, but secondly the seemingly mundane aspects of what the characters experience was quite revealing in itself and I attribute this to a particulary Canadian influence. There are scenes of the characters growing more comfortable with their situation [the characters have taken shelter in the mall and realize that they are relatively safe there as long as they remain inside] and they attempt to go about maintaining some sort of normalcy[making the best out of a bad situation] such as one of the characters playing a long-distance game of chess on the roof-top of the mall to pass the time with another zombie survivor who is trapped on the roof of the building across the street, or the couple, who were likely strangers to each other before, who have a sexual encounter.
  
  A moral dilemma arises when Sarah Polley's character hypothesizes that being bitten by the infected is what spreads the infection (well duh!) and the other characters, or at least some of them, feel that to stop the spread of infection they must end the life of anyone that is infected, even before they have reached fulled 'zombie-ism'. Do they go through with it? I won't tell. Go see the film.
  
  So this motley group of zombie survivors have to make a decision: a)do they stay in the mall, where their fate most likely lies in either dying from running out of food or the zombies finding their way into the mall or b)do they find a way out of the mall, and get their asses, somehow, as far away as possible from the zombies. I won't spoil the ending but it's a real kick in the gut for both the characters and the audience. Surprisingsly, in my opinion, it works to the benefit of the film.
  
  Other notables: 1) good editing, especially during the credits sequence, 2) the soundtrack was really good, the music which was similar to say a Quentin Tarantino soundtrack, 3) the film is never bogged down by the 'science' of zombies [they never explain how the infection started] but rather chooses to concentrate on the characters and their actions, or reactions, 4) the film is scary enough but never takes it too seriously (compare this to 28 Days Later which was a scary film as well but was also much more dour)



• Picked up two tickets today to see Ted Leo at the Horseshoe in Toronto tomorrow night. I've been watching a bit of the Ted Leo "Dirty Old Town" DVD to get me psyched up. I'm also reeling because I got the last 2 tickets to the show that the Horseshoe had for sale [there are other vendors in Toronto that might have their own batch of tickets for the show still for sale, but I got the last two that the Horseshoe had!] I can't wait.



• 102.1 The Edge has announced the lineup for Edgefest 2004, which is occuring on July 2, 2004 at the Molson Ampitheatre in Toronto. Click here for details. I'm not particularly interested in going this year because of the high teeny-bopper contingent that'll likely be at the show. Otherwise, get Jet to play a 19+ show and I'd be there in a heartbeat[and that's all based on their first single "Are You Gonna Be My Girl?"]