The Walking Dead: season 5, episode 14: Spend

This review will not be spoiler free!!!

Again, a few episodes behind since the premiere already aired. But only three more reviews to go, so of course I'll finish them.

Glenn, Eugene, Tara, Noah and new guys Aiden and Nicolas are going to a warehouse to get some products for Alexandria. This however goes terribly wrong when annoying Aiden is being a cunt and shoots on a grenade which causes that he dies, Tara got wounded badly and the walkers are being attracted by it.

Aiden seems to still be living though, but he's that badly injured that he won't live anyway, he says that he once left behind other Alexandria mates in a run because he was a coward, and just then Nicolas runs away as well. Glenn chases Nicolas which somehow ends up in Noah and Glenn being stuck with Nicolas in a revolving door. Nicolas is being a cunt again which causes that Noah got taken by the walkers which leads to a nasty death scene. Eugene managed to take Tara outside and distracts the zombies away from the door so Nicolas and Glenn can escape, Nicolas however is being a cunt again and tries to steal the van from Eugene. Glenn stops him and knocks him unconscious.

Meanwhile, Father Gabriel tells to Deanna that the group can't be trusted and he urges her to kick them out. I don't know why though, he really seems to be a dick all out of a sudden. Maggie overhears him though.

Not an extremely good episode, it was mostly interesting because Eugene seemed to become a bit tougher. It was also nice to see Glenn more in an episode again, I really like his character a lot. It was sad that Noah died, but well.. my theory of when one dark skinned guy dies, another one appears might still exist, because didn't we see Morgan in the beginning of this season...?

The Walking Dead: Season 5, episode 13: Forget

This review will not be spoiler free!

Yeah yeah, I am very much behind with my Walking Dead reviews, it's so bad actually that the season premiere already aired... whoops..
But well, I can't just stop reviewing them almost at the end, so of course I'll finish the last three as well :).

Forget wasn't a very exciting episode, but it showed some interesting moments. The 'crew' is invited to a party in Alexandria, and when they attempt you can see how weird it is for them to be in a 'norma' environment again. Some of them are having troubles adjusting to these new circumstances, which isn't too strange. Some of them are
hiding guns outside the walls for times of need.

Because of the party it gave a bit of an opportunity to get to know the new more important characters. But it also showed simple things such as Rick falling for a woman named Jessie who appears to be treated badly by her husband. Carol is the one who acts as if she fits in perfectly in Alexandria and she attempts to become 'invisible' again, but since it's all an act it seems like she's the only one thinking of the consequences of that place. Because we all know, something will happen again.
She also starts threatening a little boy, which shows a very new side of Carol, it was pretty funny though.

Forget wasn't a particularly interesting episode, nothing exciting actually happens, but well it showed some good character development which is also worth something I guess.

The Walking Dead: Season 5, episode 12: Remember

This review will not be spoiler free!

The group reaches Alexandria, where they get two big houses and jobs to do. Some people of the group enjoy being there, while other still are suspicious of the place. People of Rick's group are all being interviewed by the leader of Alexandria, Deanna, because she wants to get to know them.

My first thought of Alexandria was that those walls definitely aren't looking very stabile. It also reminded me of a less crowded Woodbury. Overall it's a lot like Woodbury since there's some sort of mayor, there are no weapons allowed and stuff like that. Difference is though that they are a lot more free in Alexandria, for example they can go outside and when they go outside they get guns with them.

It was nice though to see the characters in a new environment, with as big highlight that Rick finally shaves again. It's somewhat nice to see him like this again, I think it resembles a new start for him, since he hasn't shaved since season 1. Carl meets people his age, who are all playing video-games and stuff, Carl seems to feel uncomfortable though which isn't very strange considering all the shit he has been through at that age. I actually expected that he would act all tough and would act as if nothing ever happened, but luckily that did not happen.

The episode wasn't uninteresting I must say. We got to know quite a few new characters, who actually seem to respect the new group even though they are the new guys. It's interesting to get to know their secrets, Alexandria's secrets and how this all will evolve. Something interesting was also when Rick said that if Alexandria didn't work out for them, he would take it from them. I thought this was rather selfish and perhaps something Rick would say, but not where the rest of the group would agree with. I also don't understand why they never tried building another safe place after the prison. They have brains, guns and power to build something, but they rather keep searching for something that's already provided for them.

Still, not the best episode ever, but it's going baby-steps in the right way!

The Walking Dead: Season 5, episode 11: The Distance

This review will not be spoiler free!

In 'The Distance' we get to know what the new guys intentions are, his name is Aaron. He tells that he wants to take the group to a safe zone called Alexandria. But because of the group's history with Woodbury and Terminus Rick is very hesitant. The rest of his group wants to go though, it's up to Rick to make the decision if Aaron can be trusted or not.

It's kind of logical that Rick is hesitant about Alexandria, after all they've been through. But for the sake of his children he should know that eventually they'll need a place where they can stay longer. The last couple of episodes were already building up to this moment, even Michonne was saying they needed a place where they could stay, and she's kinda badass.

It's kinda exciting to see a new location different from the woods where they've been the last couple of episodes, but what if this new location is really safe? The show would become almost a regular show, about people who are in a safe location, where nothing happens. That's not something for a zombie show, so even when things may seem safe for a couple of episodes, something is going to happen that will make them leave again. Which will make them roam the woods.. again.

To be honest, I'm not even sure anymore what to expect from this show that will make it good again. The Walking Dead cycle is going to be endless, searching for a safe place > place found > place isn't really safe > they leave and search for a new safe place. Same with characters, one dies, a new one comes in. Now Aaron seems to have a chance to become a new member of Rick's group, I'm pretty sure that someone of the old members will die. Honestly, 5 to 6 season of zombies are just not that interesting, especially if each season starting from season 3 has 16 episodes in it. It's just becoming a never ending cycle until the moment they find a true safe place that has the cure for the apocalypse. And that moment is still far away I think.

I must say though that I read some reviews about this episodes and they were much more positive compared to the ones of previous episodes. People are saying that the show is going back to the roots of the comic books again, which people seem to like. I haven't read any comic book of The Walking Dead yet, not sure if I ever will either. But I must agree that this episode was at least much more interesting compared to some previous episodes. There were a few somewhat frightening zombie scenes again, while walking in the dark which also lead to an awesome looking zombie kill. It even introduced two new characters that were gay, it's a small addition, but it's something that's at least new to this show.

I would say this was a great episode, because it wasn't. But I sure as hell can say that this episode was a step in the right direction compared to the two previous very shitty episodes.

The Walking Dead: Season 5, episode 10: Them

This review will not be spoiler free!

I'm giving that warning, but I'm wondering why since there literally did not happen anything this episode. It was super-duper boring. I'm already a few episodes behind on The Walking Dead, mainly because I really can't be bothered to keep-up anymore since it really became a shitty show. I will definitely finish watching this season, perhaps even next season out of curiosity, but I can't get myself to keep up with The Walking Dead reviews anymore after this season because they're just not worth it. I will be doing separate reviews of each episode until the last episode of season 5, but after that I'm afraid I won't be doing that anymore.

So, the episode 'Them' is basically about people grieving about the people they recently lost. But honestly I thought it was difficult to tell they were grieving. Sure they were sad and stuff, but what else can you expect from people in a zombie apocalypse. The most exciting thing that happened was when there were a bunch of water bottles on the road with the text "From a friend" on a paper next to it, later in this episode we meet this friend. With the introduction of this new character it's already predictable what next episode is about, is the new guy good or is he bad?

I remember when people were introduced in the beginning of this show I was actually curious about who they were, what their motives are and if they were a good or bad person. Nowadays the show sucks so much I don't give a shit anymore. This show lacks tension, a good storyline and well.. zombies to be honest. I haven't read the comic book, but I can't imagine that this stuff is still interesting after so many books. With a show like this it can become never ending, it's really what I'm afraid for because it's just them roaming around, searching for a save place, when they find the save place they want to mess it up again and start roaming around again. It's a damn never ending cycle. I think it would be smart for the writers of this show to make clear for themselves how many season they are going to do of The Walking Dead, because last thing I heard was that they were considering to continue this show till at least season 12. I'm sorry but I ain't going to watch this boring stuff 7 more seasons.

I think this episodes highlight is supposed to be that when it stormed and zombies were trying to get into the barn they stayed in, they all worked together to barricade the door. Whoopdifuckin'doo, they have been together for 5 seasons and now we're supposed to get emotional or something because they're working together after a few tough days? Come on AMC, you can do better than that.

Nope, 'Them' was not a good episode, again. Prepare for next weeks episode 'The Distance', where we get to know the new character Aaron and his purpose.

The Walking Dead: Season 5, episode 9: What Happened and What's Going On

This review will NOT be spoiler free!

After 3 months of waiting The Walking Dead has returned. Last sunday the mid-season premiere aired and I was somewhat excited to be able to watch The Walking Dead again. This also because the mid-season premieres are often very exciting, just like the season premiere, mid-season finale and the season finale. If you have been following previous reviews of episodes you know that I hadn't much good to say about recent The Walking Dead episodes, I had high hopes The Walking Dead would improve the standard formula and would attempt to make thing surprising again. Unfortunately, it did not succeed.

This season may have a bit of a higher character death-rate but it's still the side characters that get killed off, aka people we don't really care about. Sure it was sad when Bob died and sure it was sad Beth died, but that's more because of the reactions of the actual main characters rather than because of the characters that died. In the mid-season premiere another character died, but again not a very important character. It could've been a sad death but this episode was so goddamn boring that it just didn't matter a whole lot. Normally I cry at every stupid thing, I can't hold my tears at whatever Disney movie I'm watching and I even cried when Beth died even though I hated her intensely. When this specific character died, it should have been sad, because it was a loving character that I actually liked, but the episode ruined it so damn hard.

The episodes name 'What Happened and What's Going On' is actually just that. A short recap of everything that happened with a sad event thrown in. I'm going to say who died this episode so if you really don't wanna know I suggest you stop reading right about now! The one who died is Tyreese, and for those who followed The Walking Dead he has some issues because he couldn't kill a few people and he was a bit of a pussy sometimes. And when the man was bitten he is starting to hallucinate or something and sees the Governor, the two girls, the man who snatched them to Gareth and Beth. All because he thinks it's some sort of Domino effect that got everyone in danger because of Tyreese's failing to kill. 

This hallucination is going on almost the entire episodes, nothing made sense of it and it was just plain boring. Worst part? That stupid Beth was still singing, even when she's dead she can't shut up. Meanwhile, Rick, Michonne and Glenn are searching the place they're at and discuss where they will be heading. It's more a bit of rambling though, since what they said was not important whatsoever. 

By the way, is it just me or is everyone noticing that whenever someone with a dark skin tone is being added to the group, another one dies? For example, Gabriel got in, Bob died. Noah got in, Tyreese dies. And even in previous episodes, T-Dog and Oscar died, Tyreese and Sascha get in. Coincidence? I think not. 

To be honest, The Walking Dead really needs to step up it's game to make it watch-worthy again. Next season I won't probably do these weekly reviews anymore, simply because it sometimes because hard to get myself to watch this again. But then again, I finished watching Lost, so it couldn't become much worse than that, right? Right?! I think they already lost a hell of a lot viewers, and with episodes such as this one I can't be surprised about it since it was plain boring. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead (2014)

Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead

IMDB rate: 7,1

Genre: Zombie, Comedic

Starring: Martin Starr, Vegar Hoel, Stig Frode Hendriksen

My rate: 8/10

You wouldn't know how much I'm bummed out that I only watched this movie in 2015, because otherwise this movie would've been on number 1 for my top 5 horror movies of 2014 for sure. What an absolutely brilliant movie. I already was a big fan of the first Dead Snow, but this one is even more awesome compared to that. The nazi zombies were already a brutal way to approach the zombie genre, but in Red vs. Dead this approach is going a few steps further by brutally murdering children, elders and the disabled. I can already tell you that if you're easily offended this movie is absolutely not right for you.

Here is what Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead about:
If the worst day of your life consisted of accidentally killing your girlfriend with an axe, chain-sawing your own arm off, and watching in horror as your closest friends were devoured by a zombified Nazi battalion, you'd have to assume that things couldn't get much worse. In Martin's case, that was only the beginning.

Dead Snow was already an amazing movie, funny, brutal and a true gore-fest. Surprisingly enough the sequel happens to be even better compared to Dead Snow. It's very different compared to the previous movie, not only in setting but it's also funnier, even more brutal and it's filled with even better gore. Right after Martin's arm is being reattached (Idle Hands meets Dead Snow) you'll laugh your socks off with a certain reanimating scene. At that moment I knew how awesome this movie was going to be.

I thought it was pretty cool that they did some sort of America-European crossover, mainly because I think it might prevent Hollywood from remaking Dead Snow. I like Martin Starr, he is in some of my favorite comedies and not to forget the great show Freaks and Geeks. I thought the Star Wars fan was a bit lame, but well, it fits the movie I suppose. Vegar Hoel returns as Martin and while he was a bit of a pansy in Dead Snow, he became pretty badass in Red vs. Dead. Definitely a great performance by Vegar Hoel. Another familiar face is Stig Frode Hendriksen (who also happens to be one of the writers, besides Vegar Hoel), who returns in a different role since his previous character was pretty much... well, butchered off.

I must admit that the entire movie I felt incredibly sorry for the zombie-sidekick. Even though he had some pretty nasty moments, he was pretty much fucked the entire movie. It was a nice touch to the movie though. Not so nice-looking was the zombie sex - gross!

As with Dead Snow, the make-up was great looking in this part. Perhaps even better looking too, it was quite noticeable that the budget was a bit higher compared to Dead Snow. Nazi-zombies were never better looking than this. Some great camera-work and nice special effects as well.

Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead is not only an excellent sequel, it's just an amazingly brilliant movie overall. It contains great acting, some good jokes and some great gore. Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead is even more over-the-top than the first one, and I LOVED it. Definitely not a movie everyone will enjoy, but for those who love movies such as Shaun of the Dead, Cockneys vs. Zombies and Evil Dead will most definitely like this one.

Interested in reading my review of Dead Snow? Click here!

[REC] 4: Apocalypse (2014)

[REC] 4: Apocalypse

IMDB rate: 5,4

Genre: Zombie

Starring: Manuela Velasco, Paco Manzanedo, Héctor Colomé

My rate: 4/10

Ever since watching the first [REC] movie I became a pretty big fan of the series, loved the sequel and was even more amazed by the third part. I know, I know, everyone hates the third part, but I really liked it a lot. I have been looking out to the final part of the series ever since hearing there would be a third and fourth part, so I guess you can say I was so excited when it was finally being released. Unfortunately, Apocalypse ended up being the most disappointing movie in the [REC] series. I must add though that the subtitles were a bit messed up, so I might have missed some important stuff, but I honestly doubt that :).

The first [REC] movie was one of the movies (along with Paranormal Activity) to bring life to the found-footage/mockumentary genre again, ever since of course the magnificent Blair Witch Project. The first [REC] movie was simply brilliant, frightening and awesome. The sequel continued [REC] and brought a whole other meaning to it by adding other dimensions, possessions and other religious explanations. The third part was not in that same apartment building anymore, it plays on a wedding and this is also where they dropped the mockumentary effect (in a brilliant way I can say). They continued even more on the religious part of the movie. The fourth part... was simply boring. The religious part is entirely dropped for some reason and now they're claiming this all happens because of a parasite.

Sure, a parasite, not a bad idea at all, but it is when building up on possessions and religious stuff for three parts were apparently for nothing. The [REC] movies were always interesting and fairly original, but when watching the fourth part it is as watching any other B-Horror movie. It was filled with stupid plots like we see in every other movie, there was just nothing special about this movie anymore. Honestly, it felt like [REC] took their inspiration from Quarantine 2: Terminal this time.

The way I hoped [REC] 4 to be was that it literally led to an apocalypse, like the name suggests. The first outbreak is in an apartment building, so still on a very small scale. The third movie is already a bit bigger, this being in a park, so already in the outside world. With Apocalypse I just hoped that it would be on an immense scale, where many people were getting infected. Instead it plays on a boat. Yes, a goddamn boat. What's the scary thing about that? When it outbreaks there's only a fairly small amount of people that will die, not exciting at all. The only tensive thing about the boat is that the rooms are very small, so it's a bit claustrophobic.

While the make-up was again amazing looking, the special effects were very disappointing. The bunch of monkeys made me laugh rather than scared. They were incredibly fake looking. The acting was a bit disappointing as well in this part, it seemed forced and it was as if I was watching one of those soap-dramas on television rather than a good movie. It's crazy because in the first and second part of [REC] Manuela Velasco didn't too bad, while in the fourth part she was just disappointing. 

[REC] 4 was an absolute disappointment as a conclusion for these series. It made the third part seem like a spin-off because Angela's character wasn't in it, or it made it seem like the fourth part was just some dumb sequel without any purpose. The scale of this outbreak was way too small, the building towards religious purposes seemed to be for nothing and the movie was just simply boring. Too bad that this brilliant series must end with a disappointment like this. 

The Walking Dead: Season 5, episode 8: Coda

This review will NOT be spoiler free!

The mid-season finale has aired! Now we'll have to wait until 8 February '15 to be further bored with this show. Of course I'm exaggerating a bit, this episode wasn't too bad. But was it really spectacular? No. It was pretty much like I predicted it would be, the only thing that surprised me somewhat was the person who died this episode. Yes, someone died this episode, and if you're bothered with me mentioning it you should know that I warned you on the top :). Now, if you really don't want to know anything further then I suggest you stop reading now because names will be mentioned.

I think it's pretty important to warn people about spoilers, because this morning I was scrolling through Instagram and the Instagram page of AMC The Walking Dead decided to post 2 or 3 pictures of that one person with R.I.P. written next to it, meaning I knew this morning who died already when I haven't seen the episode yet. That sucked pretty hard because this was finally an episode that finally could be something interesting, but well, that was pretty much crushed for me. So, again, last warning, spoilers will follow!

This episode wasn't necessarily good, but it wasn't bad either. I think what made it most exciting was the fact that something badass finally happened again, this being that one of the main characters died. It's actually somewhat stupid that they wait until the finales to kill someone again, I hope they won't make this a regular thing because things would become boring and predictable very easily that way.

Even though I saw spoilers before seeing the episode, I was glad to see who the person was who died. This being Beth, the most useless singing character on The Walking Dead. It was actually somewhat sad in the episode because Maggie and co. came back from their 15km trip to nothing and she heard that Beth was still alive, so she was happy and went along with the others on the saving trip. When arrived at the hospital though, Daryl carried the body of Beth outside leaving Maggie heartbroken. It was a sad happening when Beth died, Rick and Daryl both cried and it was a pretty good scene all together.

The rest of the episode was mostly talking though, Gabriel got himself in a mess but got out alive. The others in the church were in danger as well for a short period of time, but it was obvious that the focus of that episode wouldn't be on the church so you already knew that nothing bad was going to happen to any of those characters.

Even though the episode wasn't very exciting, although I must admit that there's a possibility that I would've liked it better when I didn't read any spoilers, I was glad that this episode happened. Beth is finally gone meaning the group doesn't have to hang around anymore to save someone. The whole Beth scene was a bit lame though, the moment before she got shot I mean. Her character was trying to be tough again (which she is definitely not) and for some unknown reason she stabbed the leader Dawn with a scissor which had the immediate reaction that her head was blown off. It was all going very fast and it was somewhat confusing actually.

Now the first eight episodes have been aired I can't say I'm looking that much forward to February again. It's just that there were only 2 really good episodes this season, 1 episode was reasonable (this one) and the other ones were just shit. Fact is that the quality of The Walking Dead has been bad lately and I think that won't change anymore in upcoming seasons. It was nice that someone finally died again for the mid-season finale, but unfortunately that was the only good part about this episode. Apparently at the end there was a shot about Morgan again, but I haven't seen it unfortunately. I guess we'll learn more about him in the second half of the season.

The Walking Dead: Season 5, episode 7: Crossed

This review is NOT spoiler free!

I always put a spoiler warning first in front of TWD reviews but I am wondering with each review why I'm still doing this, considering nothing new actually ever happens. Yes, you might read a bit of disappointment in that sentence which is not really strange after the last couple of episodes. If you're following each one of my reviews of TWD episodes you might know that I liked the first and second episode, everything after that was unfortunately rubbish. 

The story did finally follow all storylines again, after 4 episodes of separate stories. It's nice to know what's happening to each separate group at the same moment, instead of watching an episode about someone you don't give a shit for and having to wait a few episodes to know about the person you do care for. Even though there was a lot going on with following 4 storylines, it was still not interesting enough to make me excited for next week's mid-season finale.

In this episode Glenn, Maggie, Abraham, Rosita, Tara and Eugene are still stuck on the road with Eugene being knocked unconscious. Abraham is being silent and stubborn and doesn't want to say a thing, because he's disappointed in Eugene. Meanwhile, Glenn, Tara and Rosita are looking for water. While doing this they talk, Rosita finally says a few words again and that's about it. Abraham is also finally speaking again after Maggie confronted him. Yay, this was so exciting.

In the church are Michonne, Carl, Judith and Father Gabriel. Judith is being a cry-baby (hah!), Carl is being tough and tries to learn Gabriel how to fight. He doesn't want to and eventually escapes the church, we don't know why.

Beth is in the hospital, trying to save Carol. She's doing something she's not supposed to and she seems to feel really badass about it. There's even mentioned by the leader Dawn that she's tougher than she looks. Truth is, Beth is still an useless character, who is not interesting at all.

Daryl, Rick, Sascha, Tyreese and new guy Noah are going on a trip to try and save Beth and Carol. While trying to do this they encounter a few cops from the hospital. Shit's going (not really) down and eventually Rick and his group have these cops captured. In this meantime Daryl was in danger for two seconds, but that didn't excite much because you know they wouldn't kill Daryl of very easily since he's the favorite of practically everyone. The cops somewhat helping them explain how the hospital's leader (Dawn) is like. But then they're not nice anymore and one of them knocks Sascha unconscious and runs away. /Sarcasm I did not see that one coming, at all /sarcasm off.

Honestly, I couldn't care less who dies next episode at this point. 5 bad episodes in a row is definitely not cool. I'm pretty sure that the next episode will be exciting though, every mid-season finale is exciting. But even though it might become exciting, I just couldn't care less at the moment after 5 horribly boring predictable episodes. Perhaps they should all die and end this bullshit because I can't imagine they will ever reach the awesomeness of the first season again. At the moment the only thing that's not predictable about next episode is who will die, since that could be everyone.

I'm starting to grow tired of this show :(.

The Walking Dead: Season 5, episode 6: Consumed

This is NOT a spoiler free review!

Well, it's getting a bit standard to say but *yawn* what a boring episode, again. I'm getting a bit tired of this actually, sometimes I think it's better to just watch the first episode, the eight episode, the ninth episode and the sixteenth episode since those are the ones that really matter, and are often pretty good. Everything in between is mostly just.. boring. 

The thing that's causing this high boringness of those episodes is the episode count in a season. In season 1 there were only 6 episodes and it was a brilliant show. Every episode was interesting and exciting. The second season was still okay with a total count of 13 episodes, there was a small amount of less fun episodes, but they weren't boring episodes. From season 3 on they started to have a standard of 16 episodes, meaning they need to have actual material to fill 16 episodes with, which I don't think they have. Sure, 16 episodes will bring in more money, but is it really worth risking losing your viewers  for that? It's just a fact that these creators don't have enough material to keep 16 episodes exciting, and I think it will eventually chase away a lot of The Walking Dead viewers. 

To be honest, I think I'm mostly still watching this every monday to avoid the internet spoilers about these episodes. Every monday I'm watching it over dinner, and while it's fun, it's not that I'm still excited about watching it that day. It's not like Game of Thrones for example, where I can't wait till the next episode comes out and I'm watching it the second I am able to. 

This episode is finally giving answers to the ending of the third episode where Darryl came out of the bushes with an unknown person behind him. It was a pretty predictable answer to be honest, after seeing the fourth episode I already figured who it was and I was right about that. The episode wasn't very exciting, it followed Darryl and Carol but they hardly spoke and the few things they said were hardly relevant for the story. It also contained a couple of flashbacks to what Carol did after leaving the prison, but they just weren't interesting, since it still told us nothing new. 

They did find out where Beth is and now Carol is trapped there as well and I guess that the next two episodes will be about rescuing both. Perhaps it doesn't even end in two episodes, perhaps they let us wait again until february for the mid-season premiere. Thing is, I'm not really interested in what happens next. I think someone will die and I'm hoping it will be Beth, since she's causing a lot of shit every season. 

Please Walking Dead, just stop making 16 episodes every season, you just can't live up to it. Keep the episodes exciting by keeping it simple. Less is more! In all seriousness, it better be good again soon, since these boring episodes are just bullshit and somewhat a waste of time. 

The Walking Dead: Season 5, episode 5: Self Help

This is NOT a spoiler free review!

Another episode of The Walking Dead, and yet another episode that wasn't very interesting. It wasn't a boring as the previous one, but still.. not very entertaining either.

This episode was about Abraham and his crew who are trying to get to Washington because Eugene claims to know how to solve the world as it is. In Abraham's crew are Tara, Maggie, Glenn, Eugene and Rosita which aren't the most interesting characters to be honest. Tara is just there to make a lame remark once in a while, Eugene is talking smart stuff that no one understands and this episode might have been the first one where Rosita actually spoke more than two sentences. The only one with a bit of a story are Glenn and Maggie, but their role isn't very big anymore the last couple of episodes, so their contribution to this episode wasn't much either.

Abraham and co. are on their way to Washington but their bus breaks down. This is still only 15 km from Rick and his group. They kill some walkers, seek shelter and find a new bus. In this episode we learn a bit about Abraham's background story but still not enough to really know him. He scared away his family apparently, got depressed, saved Eugene and here he is. He's being a pretty big dick to everyone who stands in his way to get Eugene to Washington which is getting somewhat annoying since it happens every episode. 

Because Abraham is being a dick, Eugene eventually breaks down and says that he lied to everyone, he doesn't know what caused the apocalypse and he doesn't know how to fix it either. This stops the fight and this also pretty much stops the episode. It was a pretty big bummer actually, since the viewers were counting on him being the big savior, but apparently all these episodes spending about it were... well useless actually. Eugene does still claim though that Washington is the best place to survive, and that they should still head that way. 

This episode was pretty boring. It was Abraham's background story, a bit of zombie fighting and Eugene's big confession. The Eugene confession was actually the only thing interesting about it and in my opinion they shouldn't have paid an entire episode on this since it was just not worth it. 

I'm hoping next episode will be better again, in the previews we saw Darryl and Carol going on Beth's mission. We already know about this that Darryl got back alive with someone else and that Carol ended up in the same hospital, so I'm hoping they still have some exciting stuff for next episode since we already know a lot about it. 

The Walking Dead: Season 5, episode 4: Slabtown

This is NOT a spoiler free review!

The fourth episode of this season was definitely one of the lesser enjoyable ones. If you follow my TWD reviews you know that I was quite impressed (against my expectations btw) with the first three episodes. The fourth episode however was not very impressive. 

This has a very clear reason, which is the return of Beth. For those who don't know Beth was kidnapped and for a few episodes she disappeared. Now she's back and we get to know her story. Apparently some people tried rescuing her from the zombies and took her to some sort of hospital. At first it seemed pretty normal, almost as if the world hadn't end, but of course this is never the case with this show. To be honest I didn't really get what was going on in this episode, it was all kind of confusing. 

Beth was taken to this hospital where she was cured by a nice looking doctor. Then a woman shows up who's being a bitch. She's bitch-slapping her and stuff, saying she now owns them. Anyway, she got a real anger problem. The doctor appears to be a selfish bastard that kills to be more important. Oh, and there's a raper cop. This cop does get killed though in this episode, which is pretty much the only thing that I admire from this episode, since that scenario would become very predictable else wise. 

The most bothering thing about this episode is of course Beth herself. Most annoying character from TV history I suspect. Thinking she's tough, while she's just an irritating useless person. It's not just that it's a terrible character, she's being played by a terrible actress as well, Emily Kinney. Her emotions don't show at all, and when they do, it looks very fake. Because of this it's terribly hard to connect with the character. 

It's true that the creators of the show try to give Beth a bigger role, but it just doesn't bother me anymore. To me she'll always be that one useless character that can't emote and is just boring as fuck. Melissa McBride's character Carol got out of that, but I find it very hard to believe that they can pull off the same thing with Beth.

The episodes wasn't very interesting, it was slow and things were predictable. I liked that the raping cop got killed off immediately, but that's about it. We don't know much about this place yet, but I'm not sure if it will lead to an interesting story ever. What I am curious about it how Carol ended up being there as well, and who was with Daryl at the end of the previous episode. I'm slightly disappointed in this episode, but there's still enough yet to come, so I'm pretty interesting with future episodes.

The Walking Dead: Season 5, episode 3: Four Walls and a Roof

This review is NOT spoiler free!

Again, a bit late with my review. I'm sorry but I was very busy with school. The third episode of season five wasn't too bad I must admit. Compared to the previous two seasons it's actually not too bad at all so far. It was again an episode with quite a bit of action and good action I must say. 

Season 4 was pretty much one big build-up towards the whole Terminus thing and to be honest I expected that the Terminus thing would go further a while in season 5 as well. It actually ended with this episode and that's something I'm pretty happy about. If you've read my rant in my previous review, you know that I was quite afraid they will take profit of this for way too long, but luckily they knew when to stop with this storyline. The whole Terminus thing took 4 to 5 episodes perhaps in total, 2 from the previous seasons and 3 from this one. And that's not too bad, I think. It's also because there was a break from a year between the second and third episode that made it bearable. When these 5 episodes would've been in one season it might've become boring, but now it was timed quite good I think.

At the end of the second episode we saw Bob being captured by the Terminus people, or the Hunters as they call themselves. The Hunters are a group of cannibals who happened to be eating Bob his leg when he woke up. I already said this before but I think it's pretty awesome to have a group of cannibals added to The Walking Dead. It would've been quite unbelievable that there wouldn't be one group of sick people who didn't go that road. Cannibalism is something pretty disturbing and I thought it's a nice addition to the show. I already expected this, we all did, but Bob was indeed bitten by a zombie, meaning the Hunters were eating tainted meat. 

It would've been quite interesting to see if the tainted meat would've had any effect on the people. The meat was being cooked properly, but unfortunately we don't know if they would've gotten infected as well. This is because Rick and his group are pretty sick of all shit going down and they took justice in their own hands this time, and quickly as well. In most seasons you see them hesitate when they capture the bad guys because you can't just kill a living human without reason, but I'm glad that's over because it means the Hunters were dealt with once and for all.

That's pretty much the main storyline in this episode, and in my opinion it was pretty interesting. The more tiny story lines of this episode included Abraham wanting to go to Washington, which he eventually did. This means that Glenn, Maggie and Abraham's crew left the group, but I suspect that they will meet again sometime. It was also about Tyreese overcoming his fear of killing, which he did eventually. He's quite a cute character actually, since he probably looks the most badass compared to the rest, but he's the sweetest. Always walking with the baby and stuff, very cute. 

At the end of the episode we got a glimpse of what might come in the next episode, and perhaps the rest of the season. Darryl and Carol got back, we saw Darryl in one piece but he was being all mysterious about Carol who was in the bushes. Unfortunately the episode stopped here so we'll have to wait till next episode to know if something was wrong with her. For those who don't know yet, they were chasing the car that took Beth away, and I expect that the rest of the season will be about those people. We did see a glimpse of Beth in the next episodes' trailer, meaning she's still alive. It seemed like she was in a hospital of some sort and things were messed up. I'm actually quite curious where the show will continue to go after this. What's a bit strange actually is that Maggie just left while her sister hasn't been found yet. 

The third episode was quite good, it dealt with the bad guys and showed some perspectives of the human nature. It also made me very curious about the next episode. I think so far this season is better compared to season 4. It's still too early to really tell though.

The Walking Dead: Season 5, Episode 2: Strangers

This review is NOT spoiler free!

Oops, I'm a bit late with this one. I actually saw it right when it came out, but I totally forgot writing about it. As usual the episode was less exciting compared to the first episode, but well, that's pretty standard with The Walking Dead. Sometimes I think it would be best to just watch the first episode, the mid-season finale, the first episode after the mid-season break and the last episode of the season since they're the most exciting ones. I wouldn't say that this episode was boring, but it lacked action. 

In this episode there's a new character introduced, a man named Father Gabriel who claims that he has not killed anybody (alive or not). Of course this raises a lot of questions since the guys is still alive after 2 years or something. He seems to be okay, but well, everyone that seems okay in this show will turn out to be a dick, so we'll have to wait that one out.

I'm probably the most impatient person ever and I couldn't help but check the internet about a few facts about him, since he is of course a character in the comic book. The TV show doesn't follow the comics exactly (for example, Andrea and Sophia are still alive), but it does follow it somewhat. I will not tell anything about it though, since you might not want to know the details. If you do, you can always check the internet yourself :). According to the comics though, there's still a shit load to come for next seasons. 

The thing that I'm often annoyed about with TV shows is when times are finally good again, it lasts like a quarter episode and shit will go down again. It's a bit comparable with Lost, every time they're close to being rescued the show gets another season meaning it needs to continue it's storyline and everything will be bad again. And with The Walking Dead I'm afraid it will get boring eventually because it just keeps on going, when times are good, thing will go down again and it will just be never ending. When the first episode of this season was released there was an announcement that The Walking Dead was being renewed for a sixth season, which is pretty unbelievable since the first episode might be good, but the rest might be shitty as hell. 

It's obvious that The Walking Dead is not as good anymore as it used to be (and with that I mostly mean the first season, perhaps the second one), but the makers have the attitude to keep on going while it's popular. Meaning, one day the show might not be popular enough anymore, leaving the watchers with an open ending, because it suddenly gets cancelled. That's the thing I like with Breaking Bad, there are only five seasons and they only start gaining this popularity in season 4 or so, but they knew when to quit. They knew to quit on the right time without expanding it story onto endless seasons. Even Game of Thrones already knows when the last season will be, and that one will be quite hard since they're still waiting for the new books to come out. That's what The Walking Dead creators should do, to know when they should stop, because I expect this will go nowhere eventually. 

Okay, sorry for this small rant! Now onto the episode, shall we? 

Again - spoilers!

This episode the group runs into Father Gabriel like I explained before, and well he has some kind of secret only we don't know yet what it is. He seems like an awesome character though and I'm actually hoping the will join the group. I think he might be very interesting. I think it will take a few episodes to get to know his story so at the moment I can't say a whole lot about it yet. 

Another thing is of course the Terminus people. It was pretty clear that the whole build-up to Terminus wouldn't be wiped away in one episode. This episode we got to know their real story, and it's pretty sick. I've heard the rumors of course, that these Terminus people were actually 'the Hunters', who happen to be cannibals. Well, they are cannibals, and in my opinion it's a pretty badass addition to the storyline. It was not really clear what happened, but I think that Bob was bitten in the basement. That's probably why he was outside, crying, when they took him. The Hunters cut off his leg -I expect the bitten leg- and well, the episode ended with them eating that leg. I'm not sure if them eating that leg will infect them though, I sure hope so. Anyway, we'll probably find out the next episode. 

This moment was very vague, I'm not really sure what was going on actually. Carol was outside, killing a walker. She ran into Darryl, and then something with a car and another car. It was really confusing, I had to idea where they were and where all the cars came from. Sure I recognized the car that took Beth and I know that that will be their lead to Beth but the whole scene was just weird. Speaking about Carol by the way, probably the most awesome character development ever. I don't really care about Beth, but I'm curious who took her.

Wow! Long review! Sorry for the rants, and sorry for the actual little review. I'm curious about next episode, hopefully it will be a bit more exciting though. 

The Walking Dead: Season 5, Episode 1: No Sanctuary

This review is NOT spoiler free!

It's that time of the year again, a new season of The Walking Dead has started! For those who don't know already, I was a big fan of the first season, the second and third season were okay, but I wasn't the biggest fan of season four. We were left with a big cliffhanger where most of the group was locked in this so-called sanctuary Terminus. The last episode of season 4 was pretty tensive because of this cliffhanger, also the group was finally almost back together, which was pretty nice.

This episode was filled with a lot of action - finally. The last few episodes in previous seasons were just a bit... I wouldn't say lame, but it was pretty close to lame. They were just using too many episodes for useless stuff and using multiple episodes to build up to something. I hope they won't do that again, and in my opinion they started this season off amazingly. Sure it was slightly predictable, but that doesn't really matter since the viewer wants that most of the group stays alive.

If you're still reading this, this is where the real spoilers start!
This episode starts pretty much where the last one left of. Rick and his group are trapped inside Terminus. Meanwhile, Carol and Tyreese are wandering in the woods when Carol decides to go to Terminus, while Tyreese stays behind with baby Judith. In Terminus Carol manages to distract everybody, meaning Rick and the group could escape. Afterwards, Carol is being reunited with the group. She brings them to Tyreese, meaning that Rick and Carl are finally reunited again with Judith.

It was a nice episode, it really was. It was tensive, but also brutal and awesome. There are some pretty nasty deaths, and it's quite awesome that Rick and co. aren't dealing with all this shit anymore. They immediately kill anybody who is crossing their path, which is nice. Previously it lead them to situations where they were almost killed, but they're kinda done with it, I think. There were finally tons of zombies again and that included also some nice killing of them. In the end there was the final reunion with the entire group, which was a touching moment. At first I was scared they would drag the reunion over half of the season again, but luckily they did it right away. The only one still missing right now is Beth, but in my opinion she isn't really missed. I wouldn't care if she was dead, actually. She's an useless character who only sings. In the end we got a nice little surprise with Morgan showing up, perhaps he was the one kidnapping Beth? I'm also still interested in the Terminus people, since there are rumors they are cannibals. I think we aren't done with them yet actually, so maybe we still get some inside scoops.

This episode was a promising start for this season, it made me really excited for the other episodes. Perhaps The Walking Dead will finally be interesting again!

State of Emergency (2011)

State of Emergency

IMDB rate: 5,2

Genre: Zombie

Starring: Jay Hayden, Tori White, Scott Lilly

State of Emergency is another one of Netflix' horror movies, it seemed pretty interesting actually. On the poster we see an entire horde of zombies attacking some dude, and the description was promising as well. After seeing the movie I can describe it in one word: 'meh'. It wasn't a bad movie, but it was definitely not interesting either. The poster was not very realistic if you compare it with the movie.

Here's what it's about:
Chaos consumes a small town when a chemical facility explodes releasing a deadly toxin. moments after the leak, the town's residents show signs of mutation, causing the military to quarantine the area leaving any survivors helpless and trapped inside. The story follows Jim, a young man isolated within the red zone, as he eludes flesh eating zombies in an attempt to win back his freedom

This is another one of those vague zombie movies where it's not very clear how it all started. We know that it happened because of an explosion in a factory where they make chemical weapons. This obviously has some effect on some people, but it's not clear who are affected by this, and why some are not. I think it's always a pretty interesting and important fact to know the details of an apocalypse. I'm not really sure if these people are even really zombies since their biting doesn't seem to change other people in zombies. 

The zombies are also a bit weird, some guy is literally shouting for 5 minutes and the zombie inside isn't reacting, but when the guy is trying to escape the zombie by running to some sort of attic and he makes on teeny tiny sound by walking around, the zombie is immediately reacting. I think the makers tried a bit too hard in this moment to create tension, even though it's pretty unrealistic. The zombies seem to only stand still at one spot, they just show up out of nowhere, which is a bit strange. They just keep standing there for all that time, doing nothing. Sure, I have no idea what else they should do, but they hardly seem dangerous since they can be easily avoided. 

The acting isn't very good overall, there's this guy named Scott (played by Scott Lilly) and he's the absolute worst of this movie. He's so emotionless and unrealistic. I must admit that the dialogue isn't great either, so everything they say sounds kinda lame and stupid. Jay Hayden plays the main character Jim and he's quite a good actor. He was pretty outstanding compared to the rest of the cast.
The thing I always find very peculiar in horror movies are the female characters, since they're still paying way too much attention to doing their make-up in the biggest apocalypses ever. I really think that no matter how vain the person is, someday she will give up being pretty for nobody.

State of Emergency is a very slow movie, with not much interesting going on. The poster suggests that there are tons of zombies, but in fact we only get to see very few. They don't even seem very dangerous when you're just not so stupid to walk into them. The whole situation doesn't seem very threatening at all actually, they're in quarantine, but the government does provide food and stuff, so they're absolutely not completely helpless. State of Emergency isn't necessarily a bad movie, but there's just not a whole lot going on, nothing that makes it interesting or something.

My rate: 4,5/10 

Dead Within (2014)

Dead Within

IMDB rate: 3,9

Genre: Zombie, Drama

Starring: Dean Chekvala, Amy Cale Peterson

My review of Dead Within will not be very long, the movie wasn't very interesting and actually nothing really happens. I think it's safe to say that this movie made me feel dead within. Really, you might think I'm exaggerating, but in this movie absolutely nothing happens. 

Here's in short what's going on:

Six months after the outbreak, a man and woman have survived by isolating themselves in a remote cabin. Starved for resources, they must confront the horrors that threaten them from outside and from within.

Sounds pretty interesting right? Well, it wasn't. First of all because you actually don't notice a thing for this starving for resources. They still have water (!), batteries for normal light and candles. They perhaps don't eat shit-loads of food, but they don't have to skip a meal either. They even have a bottle of wine now and then. The guy goes out every now and then to search houses nearby to search for more food and stuff, unfortunately we don't get to see a thing of his adventures, because this movie mainly focuses on the 'demons' inside the cabin.

This movie is listed everywhere as a zombie movie, but fact is that we only got to see one zombie, who's only a child. The other two zombies we get to see are in a flashback, which isn't very interesting to be honest. Oh, there's even a small flash of the dog being a zombie. You can actually just see that the dog is just wearing some color or something that must look as if you can see his bones and stuff, and instead of more scary this dog becomes more adorable because of it. A bit of a fail if you ask me. In the movie The Returned we didn't get to see a zombie either, but that movie was just strong on a whole different level. This movie just tries a bit too hard to be interesting, which it just isn't.

Dead Within is an extremely boring movie, instead of zombies we get to see a woman going crazy because she's being isolated for too long. And actually, it's quite a bitchy move because that guy is only protecting her by keeping her inside, and she's just going plain crazy on him. The entire movie you were hoping for more action, because at first you have no idea what the movie will go to eventually. I thought they would starve slowly or something, or got chased away from their safe place, but nope, the bitch was just going crazy. The female character really is a selfish unthankful bitch. 

Dead Within is 91 minutes of plain boredom. It's not horror, it's not interesting, it's just nothing. This movie could've been somewhat interesting if there was a twist at the ending where it would appear that the guy was lying to her for six months and that the world would've been normal again, and he would just kept her locked in or something. That would've made it just a tiny bit more interesting. I absolutely don't recommend watching Dead Within, unless you like being bored for 91 minutes :). 

My rate: 2/10

Review: Antisocial (2013)

Antisocial

IMDB rate: 4,4

Genre: Zombie

Antisocial is a very boring movie, I think the best word to describe this movie is 'superficial', because everything about it is very superficial. From character introduction, to characters personalities, to storyline. The movie is pretty rubbish. 

There's absolutely no character development in this movie, you immediately know this because characters are introduced by their social network profile. It actually stops there, we see their name on their profile, a few pictures and that's it. I think the developers of this movie thought that if they just showed us their social network account, that they wouldn't need to spend time on the actual characters. Of course, the social network accounts is somewhat important for this movie, but introducing your characters like that is a bit superficial. 

The movie is pretty standard, although it seems to think that's it kinda original. There's a bunch of people on a party, by the way the most boring and again, superficial party ever. The main character is pregnant with her boyfriend who just dumped her. This pregnant thing seems to be thrown in so we would start gaining feelings for this character, which fails pretty hard. The pregnancy thing is only being mentioned a few times in the beginning, after that we never hear from it again. Pretty useless. The other characters are even more boring than the main character, they really are the biggest bunch of. yes again, superficial characters in a movie. There's pretty much a zombie apocalypse going on outside their house, and these characters are still interested in checking their social media accounts. Oh, and of course, the nerd that could save all of them isn't with them, so he needs to be contacted through the computer, because again, sitting behind a computer is so damn important in these cases. 

The acting is absolutely horrible, it's like 5 years old playing in a theater for the first time. You can really notice that they wait for each other to say their lines. It does fit with the flat personalities of their characters though, which is sort of a positive thing? 

The zombies are pretty weird. First of all, when someone is turning into a zombie, and they just happen to have christmas lights around them, the lights start to light up. Because of course, when a human turns into a zombie, it gains the ability to produce electricity...... Or, when someone gets killed, the dead humans (not zombies yet) seem to gain the ability to film from a bodypart and upload this live to their social network account. A human doesn't only seem to produce electricity, no it gets a webcam and internet access in their body as well!

This movie wants to make a modern twist at zombies movie, like The Social Network (there's even a Jesse Eisenberg look-a-like) and World War Z mixed together or something. It just fails terribly at it. Antisocial takes the term computer virus a bit too literal in my opinion. Perhaps this movie could've been something if it was just a regular zombie movie, without the social media stuff involved. The movie is slow, boring and weird. Not worth a watch.

My personal rate: 3/10

Review: Quarantine 2: Terminal (2011)

Quarantine 2: Terminal

IMDB rate: 5,3

Genre: Zombie

Last week I watched the movie Quarantine. For those who don't know this already, the first Quarantine movie was a remake of the Spanish movie Rec. Honestly, I often like remakes but this remake just sucked. The second part was surprisingly enough a bit better in my opinion though. Mostly because it was nothing like Rec anymore and just took it's own road. It was definitely not a great movie, but I liked a few parts of it.

When you know Quarantine you know what the sequel will be about, which is zombies. The movie starts in an airport and soon is in an airplane. Now, because you know that there will be zombies eventually in that plane you pay attention to everything. The sick pilot for instance, you hate him already for getting in the plane while he is ill. But eventually, he wasn't the one who was sick (at least, not sick enough yet). When the passengers board you know that the movie creators really picked the easiest targets, a child without his parents, a cripple, a fat dude and a pregnant girl. There even was a cat on this plane. There really are only a few strong people on this plane so you just know things will get rough.

I really liked that this movie starts off in a plane, because there's just not a whole lot of places you can hide, so when things started, it was interesting to see these people fight off the zombie in such little room. It was very claustrophobic which gave a great twist to this zombie story. It was actually quite tensive for awhile, and I was very glad when the plane landed. When the plane lands things aren't over yet, because they're being put in quarantine in what I would say was the luggage storage in the airport.

The zombies looked good but they were a bit odd. Like when someone was bitten, they just talked and literally a second later they turned into a zombie and got aggressive. In most movies the people die first before turning, which is a bit more logical if you ask me. Another odd zombie was when the cripple man was bitten (by a rat!), he couldn't walk before, but when he was bitten he suddenly ran around again. I'm not really sure if this is how it's supposed to work...

The acting was kinda rubbish in this movie. Very fake and unbelievable. Mercedes Masöhn plays the main character Jenny, she is supposed to look as a strong leader but fails greatly at this. Her acting was rubbish, but somehow it did fit with how dumb her character was. Josh Cooke plays the pretty boy Henry who is supposed to come with this huge plot twist, even though we knew all along what was going on. I wasn't a fan of his acting either, his eyes were kinda... dead and emotionless through the entire movie. His looks were saying "look at me, I'm pretty and strong and I'll save you all", but his eyes said... well nothing actually. Wasn't convinced by him. The worst of them all was the young kid George, played by Mattie Liptak. Please, stop acting or try harder because this was just rubbish, even the cat was more convincing compared to him. Terrible character as well.

The movie isn't too bad but could've been a lot better. Choosing better actors for example would've made this movie a lot more interesting. The set up is interesting and the story develops quite nicely, but man, those characters are written so terribly bad. And well, when the actors aren't very good, the characters will only seem more terrible. I really liked the part when they were still in the air, it was very tensive and really made a good start for the movie. There were quite a few good scares well. The character development and storyline was what made this movie less good.

My personal rate: 5,5/10