Tag Archives: The Grey

A tiny review of “Dead Rush” (2016)

“Dead Rush” (2016) isn’t quite as bad as other reviewers have made it out to be; it’s a passably entertaining zombie feature that I’d rate a 6 out of 10.  It occasionally rises above its central gimmick to create a few moments of suspense and emotion.  (The gimmick here is that the entire film is shot from the point-of-view of one man in the middle of a zombie apocalypse.)

That point-of-view device does wear a little thin by the end of this feature-length film … and I’m a found-footage horror movie fan who usually doesn’t mind that sort of thing.  This movie might have been better overall if the viewer weren’t required to follow those “shaky-cam”-type visuals for quite so long; my understanding is that it was adapted from a well received short film.

If there was one thing that bothered me the most, though, it wasn’t the POV.  There is a recurring shot in “Dead Rush” that I liked a hell of a lot, involving the main character’s memory of a loved one.  It’s made even better when it is rather creatively used as a framing device at the film’s end.  A little reflection, though, made me remember that this shot seems to crib a little too much from a similar effective recurring shot in 2011’s “The Grey.”

What the hell … if you need a zombie horror fix, you could do worse than “Dead Rush.”

 

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What’s that mystery movie poem? Ask your favorite flick nerd.

I like Liam Nesson.  I like how he portrays quiet, reflective, even self-effacing characters in movies — then just straight up murders everyone when finally provoked.  There’s a dichotomy in that that I find beautiful.    Even when his body count reaches a third of the population of San Diego, he still comes across as just being so goddam NICE.  (I was taken with “Taken.”)

I didn’t laud “The Grey” quite as much as other filmgoers.  I really, really liked it, but its message seemed lost on me … is the film telling us it is better to give up?  Not to try?  Why the various defeatist plot resolutions throughout the film?

Anyway — about the poem.  The Internet Movie Data Base message boards tell us that it has countless fans, many of whom ask about its origin.  Answer — it was written specifically for the film, my director and screenwriter Joe Carnahan.

Here it is:

 

Once more into the fray

Into the last good fight I’ll ever know,

Live and diie on this day.

Live and die on this day.

 

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