DVD REVIEW: ZOMBIELAND

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Available now on DVD and Blu-ray

For those who don't necessarily go in for horror (that's me, I'm a wuss!), the bloody edge can be taken off the gore with a few well-timed , well-pitched jokes. So it is with Zombieland, which as the title suggests, takes place in a world where the living dead have taken over and only a few unaffected humans remain.

I have a theory that zombie films are actually vegetarian propaganda: nothing quite turns one off the eating of meat as a member of the undead feasting on human flesh. My theory is supported by Mad Cow being used here by the writers (Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick) as the cause for the outbreak of the zombie virus. Thankfully the writers, and director Ruben Fleischer, have opted for humour over horror, meaning the jokes come much thicker and faster than the blood and flesh chomping.

Jesse Eisenberg plays Columbus. That's his home State not his real name, for recent travelling companion Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) prefers that they not get too attached. Tallahassee's much like Brad Pitt's Lt. Aldo Raine in Inglourious Basterds: he wants as many zombie scalps as he can get.

Surviving on his own up until now by subscribing to a code (he's always been the overly cautious type), Columbus is grateful for the company and protection. Then they meet Wichita (Emma Stone) and her sister Little Rock (Abigail Breslin, no longer Little Miss Sunshine), and, after getting off to a bad start, form a sort of fellowship, eventually deciding to head for Los Angeles after their initial destination fails to deliver any Twinkies, Tallahassee's snack of choice. There's also an amusement park young Little Rock wants to visit and, hey, if you're going to be part of a zombie feast you might as well die with a smile on your face, right?

The journey makes for an amusing road trip and culminates with a great joke involving Bill Murray. Until then, Harrelson, doing a good job of not-quite-crazy, and Eisenberg, who seems to have become Hollywood's 'geek du jour', make for an engaging odd couple. Horror fans may feel somewhat short changed by the minimal gore (though the film's not without its various forms of zombie slaying), but there's plenty to keep us wusses amused.

DVD REVIEW: SIN NOMBRE

Madman Entertainment
Available now on DVD and Blu-ray

Much like the recent French film Welcome depicted the final stages of a young refugee's bid for a new life in London, having travelled via road and foot from Iraq to Calais, Sin Nombre charts two young peoples' bids for new lives in America, having travelled from the south of Mexico.

Sayra (Paulina Gaitan) is originally from Honduras and having recently reunited with her estranged father, joins him and his brother for the perilous trek, via foot then train top, through Mexico to the US border. They aim to meet family in New Jersey who, presumably, made and survived the same trek ahead of them.

El Casper (Edgar Flores) has no real desire to leave Mexico when we first meet him. He's slowly working his way up the ladder, and in the estimation of the leader, of the Mara Salvatrucha gang, and he has a pretty young girlfriend. But then things change dramatically and El Casper makes a decision which sees him take to travelling the rails to the States, as much for a new life as to literally keep the one he has. His and Sayra's journeys become entwined, for better or worse.

Written and directed by first timer, Cary Fukunaga, Sin Nombre captures both the beauty and poverty of Mexico, a third world nation on the doorstep of the 'leader of the free world'. Like Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001) and Rudo y Cursi (2008) (the stars of which, Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna, executive produce here), Fukunaga marries the personal with the political of modern day Mexico, albeit a much grittier, more violent depiction than in those films.

Fukunaga's a talent to watch and my interest has been piqued by his 180-degree change of pace follow-up project: an adaptation of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, starring Michael Fassbender and Mia (Alice In Wonderland) Wasikowska. But until then, Sin Nombre is worth seeking out, as much for the talent as for the world it depicts.

DVD REVIEW: THE VINTNER'S LUCK

Icon Home Entertainment
Available now on DVD and Blu-ray

I'm not a pedant when it comes to book-to-screen film adaptations. I understand that plotlines and characters have to be changed and even excised in the translation: they are two very different mediums and what works on the page doesn't necessarily work on the screen. But so long as the essence, the spirit of the original text is maintained there shouldn't be too much of a problem.

But for those who have read, and loved, Elizabeth Knox’s novel, The Vintner's Luck, you’d best avoid director Niki Caro’s adaptation. Caro (she directed Whale Rider) has not only excised characters and storylines, she has removed the central relationship – between the vintner, Sobran, and the angel, Xas – which made the novel the beautiful tragedy that it is. Without this central story, The Vintner’s Luck is just another period film (set in Napoleonic France), albeit one about the art of winemaking.

And try as they might, Jeremie Renier, Keisha Castle-Hughes, Gaspard Uliel and Vera Farmiga can’t even produce a good cask wine let alone a vintage drop from the bare vines of a story they have been given.

Some books are “unfilmable”; their plots and characters don't easily lend themselves to a cinematic rendering. The Vintner's Luck is one of my favourite novels and while I originally deemed it unfilmable (mostly because one of the main characters is an angel with the white-feathered wings, and films with angels usually don't work), I also longed to see the film version. As the adage goes, be careful what you wish for.

I'm not sure why Knox would approve an adaptation of her novel, or why Caro would want to direct it, without that central story. Without spoilng the secrets of the novel, it could be dubbed 'Brokeback Vineyard', and without studio money (and thus interference), Caro really had no reason to baulk at the homosexual themes.

But she has, and her cowardice has reduced what could have been an ambitious failure to a failure of no distinction (although Farmiga's wardrobe makes an impression!). Do yourself a favour and read the book.

FILM REVIEW: I LOVE YOU TOO

Roadshow Films
Opening May 6

Romantic comedy is not the genre of choice of the Australian film industry. Comedy, yes. Rom-com, no. It is very much a Hollywood genre and I feared that Peter Helliar, best known as longtime sidekick to TV's Rove McManus, had bitten off more than he could chew with his screenwriting debut, I Love You Too, a typical rom-com other than being from the male point of view.

Jim (Brendan Cowell) and Blake (Helliar) are best buds who cruise the Melbourne night clubs in search of sexual conquests. Neither is particularly charming or attractive but Jim is usually more successful than his rotund buddy, and so it is one night when Jim spies Alice (Yvonne Stravinski). Cut to three years later, and Jim and Alice have set-up home in the “bungalow” in the backyard of what was his parents' home but now houses his sister (Bridie Carter) and her partner.

Jim and Alice seem to have the perfect relationship, everything, that is, but a ring. Alice wants marriage and children but Jim isn't even capable of uttering 'I love you'. It's not they he doesn't, it's just that he can't. The deal breaker comes when he offers Alice a commitment ring and she decides it's time she headed back to the UK.

It is in the aftermath of their break up that Jim meets Charlie (Peter Dinklage), a widower (with what must be one of the best apartments in Melbourne!) still mourning the loss of his wife. Jim decides Charlie, based on his knack for romantic letter writing, is the perfect ally in winning Alice back.

But Helliar and director Daina Reid don't go down the modern day Cyrano de Bergerac route, preferring instead to fumble towards the inevitable rom-com denouement with varying degrees of success. Subplots involving the death of Jim's parents and his sister's pregnancy seem superfluous, while the efforts of Blake to maintain his friendship with Jim provide some comedy but don't delve too deeply into the nature of mateship, which wouldn't be unwarranted given that Helliar's screenplay is written very much from the male perspective.

The film's major asset is Peter Dinklage. Australian audiences will recognise the American actor from the popular Brit film Death At A Funeral (2007) (he also appears in the upcoming US remake, reprising the same role), but he also appears in one of my favourite films of the '00s, The Station Agent (2003). He lends a much needed gravitas as well as innate comic timing to the proceedings.

And what of Megan Gale making her screen debut? Given the publicity leading up to the film's release, you'd be forgiven for thinking the model-turned-actress had a starring role. She doesn't but you can't blame the marketing team for using what they had. Gale is involved in a minor subplot with Dinklage's character and as much I would like to dump on her, she doesn't embarrass herself (not that she should be writing an Oscar speech anytime soon).

The same goes for the film. I Love You Too is a valiant attempt at a rom-com which succeeds slighlty more than it fails; a couple more rewrites would have helped Helliar's cause. It's a likeable film but it's not 'the one'.