Round 1 Match 2 AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND (#5) VS FRANCE (#4)

Here is a match that 3 weeks ago would not have been a match.  You would have asked me "Hey Matt what do you think of French Zom...." right there i would have slapped you silly before you could finish.  "NO!" I would have ranted and raved as I threw old yogurt all over your stunned self.  But today, same question, and I would reply "hmmmm That's a good question friend."  What made the difference?  The Horde, that's what.

AUSTRALIA/NZ	FRANCE
Black Sheep	The Horde
Undead	The Horde
Dead Alive	The Horde
Last of the Living	The Horde

As you can see I've already reviewed a couple of these.  While it might look one sided to some to me this is a VERY hard decisioin.  Despite all the flaws France has as a country and a people they have crafted one of the best zombie movies I've ever seen.  If you couldn't tell i listed Australia and New Zealand as one just to make things even.  I thought they would get less upset than if i tried to make Japan and China one catagory.  It just made more sense this way.  Black Sheep will get a good review from me because it's just an awesome gory gem.  Undead was really good and Dead Alive was a "5 hand" Zombie Classic!  But have you seen "The Horde".  It's the Shindler's List of zombie movies.  It's epic.  With that said i have to give this match to France!

Round 1 Match 1 CANADA (#9) VS JAPAN (#8)

For the first round of my tournament I've pitted Canada VS Japan in the battle of the best zombie movie producer.  Japan is off to a poor start as I find reading subtitles takes away from the movie a bit, especially for an action movie.  One minute I'm reading the lengthy monologue by the main character and....shit!  I missed a neck biting.  Canada speaks English (I haven't seen any Frech/Canadian zombie movies) and that's comfortable for me.  Below is a list of zombie movies for each country.

CANADA	JAPAN
Pontypool	Versus
Fido	Tokyo Zombie
House of the Dead	Stacy
Meat Market	Wild Zero

Both have a couple of duds and i haven't yet reviewed any for the blog.  But bet your ass I've seen a bunch of them.  Tokyo Zombie was boring and silly.  Versus was sort of a zombie movie but more a karate movie than anything.  Stacy was original but low budget and just plain bad.  Wild Zero I've never seen so the jury is still out on that one.  But Canada oh Canada.  I didn't realize that Pontypool and Fido were Canadian.  Perhaps I've short changed Canada.  I saw that House of the Dead was Canada (which i really thought was from the US) so i checked on the sequel House of the Dead 2: Dead Aim.  I liked the second one better so it makes sense that it's from......THE US!!!  It still kind of sucked though.

I'm going to give this round to Canada with a healthy shake of the hand.  Pontypool was well made and truly frightening at times.  Sure the premise was kind of out there and there was very limited gore but it still worked.  This movie is a very different and will  be the first movie i review when i get back to my movies.  Fido is a classic that belongs in every zombie movie collection.  It's campy and funny with just a splash of that gore that you really need to pull it all together.  Billy Connolly made a better zombie than he did a hitman (Boondock Saints anyone?).

So that's it.  Canada will move onto round two where they will take on the powerhouse USA.  Japan will go back home with heavy hearts and a renewed sense of urgency.  Write and produce my Asian friends.  You have much work to do!!!

Tournament of the Dead Begins

So I'm on the road and all my worldly possessions (save some clothes and my ipod) are on a ship enroute Seattle, WA.  What does this mean for you my devoted readers?  No zombie/beer reviews for a couple of weeks.  So what is a man to do?  I am going to take on one of the debates that has ravaged the zombie watching community...Which country rules all in zombie movie production?  Below is the bracket I've com up with including the initial ranking for each Zombie movie releasing country.  Now not all countries are involved as i only have 10 slots.  Some countries put forth only a handful of horrible films and therefore are not included.  Other countries have only 1 zombie film yet still get a decent seed?  Well it's my game and there is a method to my madness.  The initial rankings may not indicate the final outcome as I'm going to take into account any comments that people post to try and sway my opinion.  If you think Zombi 2 is the pinnacle of zombie movies, tell me why.  If you think China has a couple of gems that I've overlooked then let me know.  Otherwise.....well it's my game.  Because the US has a bye in round 1 my first post will be JAPAN VS CANADA!!!!!  A brutal fight to the undead!!!!  Tune in next time fore the results.