Plane

Welcome to the first film of 2023 which has made the blog cut, because as you know dear reader, only good stuff makes the blog. So, let's get to it. "Plane" starring Gerard Butler. "Greenland," another Gerard Butler action picture landed (see what I did there) on this blog back in 2021. Gerard Butler seems to find himself in first class (wink) action pictures. What's it all about? Yep, you guessed it from the title, it's about a plane. It crashes in a lawless, rebel controlled part of the Philippines (it was actual shot in Puerto Rico), a place where these fiendish bad guys will happily execute missionaries if their hostage demands aren't met. Oh, I forgot to mention there is a prisoner on-board the plane (Mike Colter) and well, he is an ex-military something-or-other, a.k.a. a bad-ass mother-fucker. Between Butler and Colter, they are going to rescue our passengers. Ridiculous, sure. Fun, absolutely. So line up for a flight ticket and strap in for the best action picture of January! 

Black Summer

 When "The Walking Dead" first aired, I LOVED it. There was a gritty realism to it and I ate it up. It was a zombie show I would never give up on. Then fast forward six seasons later and poor Glen got his noggin bashed in. At this point the story arcs seemed to be on repeat. Like "The X Files," TWD just went on too long. Even though I swore I would never stop watching, I did. That was 2016 - coming up to seven years ago. 

There have only been a dozen zombie films I've enjoyed in the last two decades: Zack Snyder's remake of "Dawn of the Dead," his "Army of the Dead," George A. Romero's "Land of the Dead," "It Stains the Sand Red," Alex Garland's "28 Days Later" and Jim Jarmusch's "The Dead Don't Die." "Word War Z" was just okay for me. Last year we got "The Sadness" and "Virus-32" - both solid zombie entries. 

I haven't gotten into the new "Resident Evil" series. I confess, I enjoyed the first film and the last one, "Welcome to Racoon City;" the rest, not so much. 

 I had abandoned all hope there would ever be anything as good as "The Walking Dead" again on TV. I would just have to wait for the next film to arrive. Then, over the Christmas holiday season, by accident, I stumbled upon "Black Summer." I'm once again giddy, like I was when "The Walking Dead" first came out. Oh yes. Oh yes. 

Kathryn Bigelow created one of the greatest on foot chase sequences in the history in "Point Break." Throughout several episodes, I thought, this is something Kathryn Bigelow would be proud of. "Black Summer" has some of the greatest foot chases I've ever seen on screen. It also some of the greatest camera work I've ever seen. "Look at this shot!" - me screaming at the TV. No really.

The show is atmospheric, moody, dark. It has a minimalistic score that sounds like it was influenced by John Carpenter. When we get to the second season, the zeitgeist of "The Thing" feels omnipresent. Without any huge stars attached (but everyone here is bloody brilliant) this gritty, dark, zombie series ranks up there as one of the best horror series every made. It's slated for a third season. Catch it on Netflix.