Zombieland

I pretty much finished the music for what may very well be the final track of the Eleventh Hour‘s debut album – Escapism.  I feel I’ve created a special, upbeat track and I eagerly wait to hear what Bill comes up with in terms of vocals for this one.  For better or for worse it is a song that has taken the journey to its limits.  Epics, through pop songs, through epics and full circle to a pop song.  This has probably been the most productive era of my career.  Seriously… take a look at the album in its incomplete glory.  Isn’t it a wonder to behold?!?

Anyway… as I say, there is a little way to go yet.  The final song may well push one of the current tracks off the album – we are still determined to produce a 12 track album.  Also, bear in mind no-one else has heard this album at all yet.  Just you, the readers of this site, and the few on Soundcloud.   Soundcloud is the site that I use to ‘host’ the music.  It enables me to get a quick snapshot of whether a song has what it takes.  To be honest, all the songs have gone down very well.  The Eleventh Hour, so far, has been a success.  The next step of the process will be to make the rest of the world aware of it!!!

I had another spare moment last night so I watched the film “Zombieland“.  It had been recommended to me by my cousin so I gave it a go.  Now, again, with any review of a film I feel it’s important to give certain caveats.  I am a Zombie fan.  Plain and simple.  The original Dawn of the Dead is one of my favourite films.  So obviously this review is skewed due to that fact.  Also, bear in mind that, unlike the majority of the world, I didn’t find Shaun of the Dead all that funny!

So… Zombieland.  Short review this one!  Great film.  Loved it.  Jesse Eisenberg plays a great nerd (no shit Sherlock) and Woody Harrelson plays a marvellous action hero.  Combine that with a cute girl and thousands of ‘zombie’ kills and you have a recipe for success in my eyes.

However, there are really no zombies in this film.  It conforms to the current trend for ‘zombie’ films of having a disease that ravages the world and turns people into flesh-lusting animals.  Not zombies.  The dead do not rise.  “When Hell is full the dead shall walk the Earth” – not here.

But this film is a thousand times better that Shaun of the Dead.  I may be being a bit hard on Shaun of the Dead but it just did nothing for me.  It had its moments of course.  I loved the “throwing the records at the zombies” sketch and I liked the quaint English slant on the zombie apocalypse .  But overall, Zombieland has more than the edge.  I love the idea of the rulebook.  Similar to Scream, or, you know, the current batch of ‘knowing’ horror films, this film also describes “the rules”.  The rules to follow if you’re trying to survive the zombie-led end of the world.  This theme is followed through to the very end and is well executed.  Clever and brilliant.  A really cool action/horror/comedy.  Not a patch on the original Romero zombie trilogy in terms of depth.  But purely judged on the game it’s playing, this film is a laugh.  A great spectacle for a “B-movie” and a great waste of an hour and a half.  Even my girlfriend liked it!