Braindead: A ballet of braaaaaaains

That brainy little bastard. Somehow, Peter Jackson - who managed to completely bore and disgust the hell out of me with his first feature gore feast Bad Taste - won my heart (and liver, and... ribs) with his third blood bash Braindead aka Dead Alive.

It's a movie very similar to the former, fully living up to my expectations of an illogical and unimportant plot, a good portion of black gore movie humour and some cool effects. But this already sets it apart from Bad Taste, for even though that one did have all of these qualities, it didn't have them in great quantities. Braindead was never afraid to go for it with everything it had, featuring the stupidest characters making the stupidest choices, saying the worst and hence funniest lines, and ripping each other apart in the most inventive and disgusting ways I have ever seen in a movie of the genre. It's not a big surprise Lord of the Rings had such great effects, when you take a look at the awesomely executed battles of Braindead. Their setting in a huge cottage in New Zealand instead of, well, Middle Earth, doesn't make them any less original and fantastic. Keeping in mind that all of these effects were done without the help of computers only adds more joy to the experience. In that way, this was a very technically interesting movie to me - I kept wondering how they did this and that, where the blood was coming from, whether somebody gargled with water in order to produce the matching sound effects... and so on. Still, Braindead is more than just a technical experience. Its over-the-top-ness in every aspect that you can possibly believe, makes me want to compare it to the extravaganza we see in for instance Baz Luhrmann flicks. It takes a big portion of self-conciousness and commitment to produce something so ridiculous and pure, and I can't help but admire Jackson for that. 

Gore-fans, like me, should keep in mind that Braindead isn't a movie for everyone. The people who cried out in disgust when we watched Fight Club in philosophy class (I know... it's sad) definitely shouldn't search out this one. But if you do enjoy or don't mind a lot of blood, Braindead is probably straight up your alley. If you live in Germany, there's another good reason to watch it, since the original uncut version was, and still is, banned here.

FINAL FRAME

STRAWBERRY

Mixtape Movies: Coming of Nostalgia

The awesomest of all awesome blogathon-creators, Andy from Fandango Groovers, once again saves me from thinking up ways to fit a lot of movies I want to write about into one post. His latest creation is the Mixtape Movies blogathon, where we can assemble 6 movies that have something in common - a theme - and write about that. One of the 6 movies is a wildcard, a movie that stands out from the rest in some way or another.

This blogathon just came out of nowhere into my blogroll and truly saved my day of blogging. I just don't find the time to write about all of the awesome things I'm watching and the moment, and find it incredibly difficult to fit them all into one post that's not just a series of mini-reviews. So here we have the perfect solution for my misery. I guess I'm sort of cheating in a way anyhow, since 5 of these movies are connected in a  very obvious way, but who cares - let's get started. Oh, and since my poor sister, who's in the hospital at the moment, borrowed my laptop, you're not going to get any photoshop in this post.

Mette's Movie Mixtape:

Coming of Nostalgia

My list is inspired by my several viewing of the ingenious 2010 teen-rom-com Easy A, a glorious weekend of watching (almost) all the movies mentioned in it and my chronic suffering from the Peter-Pan-Syndrome.

Watching The Star Wars Trilogy - For the First Time in My Life

Yes, it's me. The only person who hadn't seen Star Wars... until a few days ago! I have had the trilogy in the back of my head for years, but simply couldn't get over my idea of sci-fi not being "my piece of cake". In fact, I had been very fascinated by Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey and Jules Verne's Journey to the Centre of the Earth, so I don't know why the hell I couldn't accept that sci-fi was indeed one of the thickest layers in my piece of cake. But prejudice isn't easy to overcome, and I had to wait for the right kind of Doctor to arrive until I finally got it.

Across the Universe Podcast Episode 3: A Girl Like You

In episode 3, we discuss our top 5 female role models - not as in feministic idols, but as in characters that have some traits we'd like to have ourselves. There's an interesting mixture in the characters we've chosen and we hope we're not going to be sued by Joan of Arc for not including her.
As always a big thanks to our listeners who have been listening to and plugging our little podcast!

Content:
00:38- Chick-Chatter
02:02- Introduction
02:43- Trailer Time
03:32- Interesting Movie of the Fortnight
19:00- General Discussion on Our Top 5 Female Role Models
1:10:22- Plugs and Goodbyes

Music:
The Troggs - A Girl Like You
Laura Marling - Master Hunter
The Beatles - Across the Universe



Across the Universe: The Chicks With Accents Podcast is brought to you by Nikhat Zahra from Being Norma Jeane, Sofia Teixeira from Film Flare and my own humble self.

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HAPPY NEW MONTH: Farewell, May 2013

Still in denial about a certain announcement that made its way to the world of fandom yesternight, I'm trying to recall the month that was May, and I can say this much: it's hard! May went by so fast yet so many things happened, I still struggle to accept all of this. Plus the other thing I can't talk about.
Anway, Across the Universe: The Chicks With Accents Podcast happened - after about two months of skyping back and forth between two continents. It's one of the most exiting projects in my life right now, apart from the usual finding-yourself conflict, and I'm awfully happy it's working out. In fact, we just finished recording the third episode and I really like the way it's going... our chemistry is improving (I hope the listeners will agree with me once they hear the episode) and it's basically a lot of fun to do. Work, but fun. I also find myself listening to many other podcasts now regularly, which is a pleasure. The ways you find to have time to listen... it's amazing. Reminds me of the days I had to find out how to watch more movies. Again, a big thanks to all podcasters out there who've inspired me, us, and everyone who has plugged and followed the podcast so far.

When it comes to my actual watching, May has been a divisive month. I haven't seen much, probably the smallest amount of movies this year, but what I've seen has been very interesting and rewarding. In very different ways...