New Geek DVD Day - 02/17/09

 

 

The Good:  Dead Like Me - The Complete Collection

 

Why It's Good:  Dead Like Me was an interesting yet odd little show in which the main character is killed at the beginning of the first episode by a falling toilet and passes on into the afterlife to discover that she's been chosen to be the next Grim Reaper.  Except, she's not the only reaper.  What with there being so many people on earth who are dying all the time, collecting the souls of the recently deceased is way too much work for one person, so there's an entire infrastructure built up around collecting the dead and moving them on into the afterlife and the main character is one of a team of people who are responsible for this task.  The show is a quirky mix of humor and drama which ran for two seasons before it too passed on into the TV afterlife. 

 



 

The Badass:  Freddy Vs. Jason - on Blu-Ray

 

Why It's Badass:  Whenever you have two successful franchises that are in the same genre, it is inevitable that fans are going to start arguing about which property would beat the other property in a fight.  Be it Star Wars vs. Star Trek, Terminator vs. Robocop or even Vampires vs. Werewolves.  These are the things fans do, and when you have large horror film icons like Jason Vorhees and Freddy Krueger it is a foregone conclusion that the argument of who would win in a fight has been raging for years.

 

Then, miraculously, back in 2003 fans were treated to what they had been dreaming about for years.  A film was made which pits the two teen-killing icons in a one on one brawl for the ages.  The result was actually pretty decent and entertaining too.  Now it's available on Blu Ray for your viewing pleasure in glorious HD.

 



 

The Awesome:  Quarantine

 

Why It's Awesome:  You guys know me pretty well by now.  I'm a sucker for anything with zombies in it, and Quarantine is an awesome zombie movie.  Now, let me stop all the nay sayers right now.  Yes, technically the monsters in the film are not undead.  They're infected people.  But just like 28 Days Later is a zombie film, so is Quarantine.  The monsters in this film meet the zombie requirements I have set down as being needed to qualify as a zombie.  They're for the most part brain dead people who only have the desire to be aggressive and attack other people.  Anyone bitten by one becomes one.  They eat, bite or otherwise chew on human flesh.  To me, being the whole "living dead" thing isn't really necessary to make a good zombie movie. 

 

Shot entirely with one camera, the film reminds us of Cloverfiend, but fear not for this is about a billion times better than Cloverfield.  Also, the single camera isn't constantly shaking and you can actually see what's going on for once.  The film's plot follows a local reporter and her camera guy as they are doing a fluff piece on the local firemen.  Suddenly a call comes out and they're off to an old apartment building where an strange outbreak has occured.  Once inside, the building is sealed up by government forces and the poor people trapped inside find themselves surrounded by the growing number of infected people who are all trying to kill them.