Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17682310
The Last Man on Earth - (1964)
I've been prepping for something and doing research which has created a long list of films I want to see, one of which was this,
The Last Man on Earth, the first attempted adaptation of Richard Matheson's
I Am Legend. I'm very familiar with
The Omega Man, which came out in 1971 starring Charlton Heston and the 2007 version which retained the title of the book and starred Will Smith. This earlier version was an Italian/American co-production and starred Vincent Price as the titular character. This was produced only 10 years after the book's publication - and I think it was one of those that was filmed in both Italian and English, as was common in Italian productions at the time. My comments are about the English version.
Everybody involved appears to have been very earnest to make this the film you'd hope it would be, but it's low budget hampers the project so very badly. Corpses on the street occasionally move and breath, and the epic grandeur we're used to from the 1971 and 2007 adaptations can only be hinted at in a few shots.
Legend's 'vampires' doddle around like zombies at night, wielding wooden planks and are laughably easy to deal with (Vincent Price has no problem pushing them away.) Occasionally we go back in time to before the plague, where Price's Dr. Robert Morgan (Robert Neville in the book) loses his wife and young daughter during it's onslaught. He tries to give this production some gravitas - as does everyone - and in a better production, with the original choice of director as Fritz Lang, this could have been something. As it is, it's a curiosity.
5/10
By Studio and or Graphic Artist - Can be obtained from the film's distributor, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=60386394
The Dead Don't Die - (2019)
This film appears to have been quite divisive! I was nearly going to give it a pass, considering all the flack it's got, but in the end I just couldn't. I mean, a Jim Jarmusch film with a cast like that about an over-the-top zombie invasion of the world? I can count 9 of my favourite actors in the ensemble (Well, 8 actors and one legendary Godfather of Punk.) I've never seen a Jim Jarmusch film I haven't liked, the last being
Paterson, which I know wouldn't have pleased everyone, but I thought was terrific. My expectations were
still low going in though. What was I to make of it all?
Well, I thought it was genuinely funny and enjoyable. Whether it was a comment on present times, or the age-old use of zombies as representing the modern consumer - it didn't matter much to me. A fourth wall breaking partnering of Adam Driver and Bill Murray as small town policemen, Tilda Swinton as a Scottish alien wielding a samurai sword. Iggy Pop as a coffee-loving zombie. Steve Buscemi as a right-wing douchbag farmer. The only character that didn't work for me was the wise old Hermit Bob played by Tom Waits. The rest was just a bit of fun, and it amused me a great deal. I'm guessing this film was picked apart on this forum when it was released so I'll just leave it there - put me in the 'liked it' column.
7/10