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I was reading through this book, Zombies: Encounters with the Hungry Dead, the other night, and I realized there are so many cool places you can go with the Zombie theme.  This particular book is an anthology of stories about Zombies.  It has stories written by some of the greats like Max Brooks, Ray Bradbury and Stephen King, however some of the best shorts come from some of the less known authors.  However, this is besides the point.

This book captures stories from the Vudu zombie, people coming back to life (not interested in brains), and of course your traditional Romero-Zombies who are hungry for brains.

They all have their place in the Zombie lore, and this book pulls them together nicely.

If you get a chance to pick it up, be sure to check out the short story “Great Wall: A story from the Zombie War”.  It’s actually a “deleted scene” if you will, from World War Z. Guess it didn’t make the final cut.  It’s pretty cool all the same.

3/5 Head Bangs

GET THRASHED is a journey that begins in the early 80s, where Metallica and several other bands laid the groundwork for what would become a lasting impression on the face of heavy metal music. I came across this DVD at my local blockbuster and was excited to watch it. I do not consider myself a huge metal fan. However, I have enjoyed my fair share of thrash metal songs and thrash metal influenced songs.

The documentary does a great job capturing the rise of the thrash metal scene in LA, San Francisco, New York and Germany respectively. It was very interesting to learn more about the thrash metal culture. We have all seen the guy with the jean vest jacket over the black shirt with his favorite bands etched in the jacket. This guy has long hair and refers to 99% of music as “pussy music”. The exploration of this culture revealed a certain surprising intimacy level that all these people share.

I also enjoyed learning about the serious commitment many of these bands had to their music. With the exception of Metallica, no other trash metal band really had the kind of success that allowed them to retire in their mansions. These are true touring “road warriors” that really loved their fans and vice versa. Some pretty cool stuff. I would recommend this documentary to just about any guy and even a couple of tough girls.

3.9/5.0

This remake of the 1951 classic sci-fi film, about an alien visitor and his giant robot counterpart who visit Earth, is an intense sci-fi thriller that has some common land mines that keep it from being a great movie. The special effects, acting, story and originality are all driving factors of why you should see this movie in the theatre.

The special effects are outstanding. Watching the New York Giants stadium get swallowed up in a swarm of evil was amazing. I also enjoyed the evil robot in action, who just 10 years ago would have looked like a cheap video game.

The acting, story and originality all do not take away from the experience and for a movie like this, that is all I can ask for. Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connely do a good job. The story kept me interested and other than one major flaw at the end I liked it. The originality was impressive in how the robot evolves which completely caught me by surprize and is something that I have never seen before.

The movie had two major flaws. The first is the whiny kid which was the pefect omage to the Tom Cruise’s son character in War of the Worlds. Both these characters in these two movies almost completely ruined the movie for me. I mean come on… the world is ending and the last thing I want to think about is a whiny kid with Daddy issues. The second major flaw is an abrubt ending. With out any spoilers, I will just say it was abrubt and the complete opposite of Return of the King.

All in all this was a fun Sunday afternoon popcorn movie.

Rating: 4.35 out of 5

Call of Duty World at War is the most brutal video game I have ever played. The “f” bomb is frequently dropped by your platoon leader and the gore is off the charts. I truly enjoy the Wii zapper experience. There is nothing like aiming your flame thrower at three Japanese infantry and pulling the trigger. As you watch them burn, you swivel to your left and right looking for other victims to burn and it is crazy.

The only down side to the game is the somewhat poor game control. At times it feels unnatural as you navigate the game boards. The Medal of Honor series is far superior.

All-in-all this game is a definite rental that you will enjoy. The story is unique to any other games I have played in this genre and brutality is unprecedented.

The year is 1988. The NES is kicking out some of the best games in history including the original Contra. For those of you who grew up on a steady diet of side scrolling, alien killing, waterfall climbing fun…you certainly will not be disappointed by the most recent installment of the contra series on the Nintendo DS.

Simply named Contra 4 (visit the official site), this installment (the 20th anniversary edition) must have been designed by people who truly loved the original Contra. In fact, the game seems to be an upgraded version of the much loved original. The graphics are upgraded, and some of the levels are changed up a bit, but veterans of the original will notice many similarities including a waterfall level, bosses from the original and a weapon selection that includes spread, fire, machine gun and laser.

As you would expect, this rendition is extremely hard. I suggest playing it on easy at first. There are actually some differences in how weapons respond between difficulty settings. Rest assured that normal and hard will require patience and skill.

The 30 life-code doesn’t work upfront. However, after you beat the game in any of the modes, you wind up unlocking the classic NES versions of Contra and Super C…..where the original Konomi codes do work.

This version does have a great multi-player mode. The bad news is that you need to have two versions of the game (one for each DS) to be able to play. However, this is a small price to pay to once again have the opportunity to leave your friend behind on the waterfall level

All in all, this is a great game that pays tribute to the original in a fun and updated way.