Popcorn Zombies

Graham Craycraft “All I Want From You” is the first album of North Carolina duo Chatham Rabbits. Sarah and Austin McCombie decided to leave the safety and security of day time careers and step out into the world of full time, no backup, this better work, musicians. Their debut album released on January 11, 2019 consists of ten songs at forty minutes and is a genre mixture of country, bluegrass, old time and others. Chatham Rabbits pulls immediate sounds from groups like Mandolin Orange, Gillian Welch, and even a bit of Old Crow Medicine Show on song “The Fire.” Austin and Sarah take different songs to lead the vocals, but they all carry an enchanting thread through its entirety. You could put on this album and just lay back in a quasi dream state. Many of the songs on this album have classic themes or subject matter seen in this genre and others. Love, longing, hard living, etc. What is most impressive in this album is the ability to take these classic subject matters and tell the...

By Michael Momper Clint Eastwood is 88 years old and still going strong. His capable hands are all over his latest movie, The Mule , as he plays the lead role and directs the film as well. It seemed that many critics were initially apprehensive about the idea, as some mentioned that he seemed to be playing the same grizzled and stubborn old man that he has played before, such as in Gran Torino . Many critics, unfortunately, completely fly off the handle when they hear racial slurs in a movie, despite what the message of the movie is. This is a very ignorant way to digest a movie and I feel sorry for them for having missed some great film-making. If you are a fan of Clint Eastwood or dark American dramas, read on, because chances are good that a little bit of rough humor and nicknames are not going to make you jump out of your seat and protest. The Mule is an extremely entertaining genre piece because it deftly blends multiple plot devices; it is at its heart a characte...

By Michael Momper Some movie franchises are bound to chug along indefinitely, for better or worse. It certainly seems that the Rocky franchise is an example. Transformers , Jurassic World , Star Wars ... with never-ending franchises like these, there are always stumbles along the way as the filmmakers often will coast on nostalgia and hearken back to what made the first movie famous, or will give in to other tired cliches just to cash in on the blockbuster mania. Occasionally there will come a new entry in the franchise with a fresh angle or spin, and I certainly felt the first Creed movie had this factor. A new perspective was given to the viewers, seeing a new up-and-comer through Rocky's aging eyes. I don't believe Creed II has the same must-see factor, however. In terms of run time and pacing, this movie was pleasant enough I suppose. There was nothing that would make people leave the theater early or anything... enough fights and decent family melodrama t...

Graham Craycraft Christmas is here. Whether you want it to be or not, but let’s be honest, we all know you do. The Christmas season is the best there is for the birth of God as man, family, music, sharing gifts, the eggnog (spiked or not), but also movies. Christmas movies are their own category of film and a booming one at that. In this list I will be omitting what people love to pretend are Christmas movies like Die Hard (sorry, New Jersey relatives) and The Godfather (sorry, Dad). I do not want to try to definitively rank some movies over the others so the list will be, for the most part, in no particular order. Let’s get into it. 10. The Nightmare Before Christmas The Nightmare before Christmas is Tim Burton’s bridge between Halloween and Christmas with the king of Halloweentown, Jack Skellington, getting tired of the same old boring scares. He finds the portals to the other holidays and stumbles into Christmastown to be utterly amazed at his results. Things of course sp...

By Michael Momper  Picture if you will a woman you have just laid eyes upon for the first time, a woman who absolutely takes your breath away. She is one of the most gorgeous women you have ever laid eyes upon, and with her image comes the faint hope that she could possibly be yours and be as good as you are imagining. You continue to gaze her way, thinking that she must be some kind of angel as she moves with the grace of a swan and you think to yourself that you have never seen something like this before, and you are completely caught off guard. You approach her to strike up a conversation, and find out if your hopes and dreams could somehow be exceeded with an equally unmatched depth of personality to match her striking beauty. However, your hopes are soon to be dashed as the inevitable truth comes forth- she double majored in anthropology and women's studies. She's an obnoxious and self-righteous vegan. She has a tramp stamp of Nickelback. She only drinks Red...

Graham Craycraft The Coen Brothers teamed up with Netflix for their latest film The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. The Coen Brothers are perhaps the most famous American writing and directing team with many more wins than losses. So even after their most recent film Hail Caesar! I still remained optimistic about their upcoming work. This film is a collection of six short stories all taking place in the American Midwest. The stories range from lighthearted spoofs to some pretty dark, tragic stories. The anthology gets its overall title from the first story so let’s start there. Staring Tim Blake Nelson as Buster Scruggs, the gunslinging, velvet voice, outlaw, the film gets its vibe and face. This is one of the funnier pieces filled with over the top death scenes and some clever word play on the part of Mr. Scruggs. The first installment in the anthology is not afraid to poke fun at westerns that try and take themselves too seriously. They used the same style in one of their previo...

By Michael Momper It's Halloween season, and that means it's time for some fresh new movies chock full of ghouls, ghosts, vampires and demons... as well as the occasional worn-out slasher re-tread. Halloween is a season with an infectious and catchy spirit, one that many aging and dull horror franchises can take advantage of by capitalizing on their reputation and the glee that comes with the festivities. It is the right atmosphere for the inevitable resurrection of countless old horror tropes, jump scares and all-too-familiar icons. Michael Meyers is one of these icons. He was, at first, an intriguing slasher creation- no verbal communication, seemingly no motives, no visible face, the weapon of choice being the close-quarter and intimate figure of cold, sharp steel. But as soon as his mystique began to take hold of viewers and translate into franchise-capability, his legacy was blunted by the incompetent hands of bad directors and writers, like Rob Zombie...