Had a lazy Saturday as I tried to wrap up knitting Javon's baby blanket (I succeeded - it looks great!). Watched three films, and since I've already posted one, here are the last two. Enjoy!

The Grand

Zak Penn, one of the writers of X-Men 2 and X-Men 3: The Last Stand, decided to move from action into writing and directing a comic mockumentary looking at the competitive world of poker.

The 2007 film The Grand follows a rag-tag group of players who were good enough to make it to the big competition, held at the Rabbit's Foot Casino in Las Vegas. You've got casino owner "One-Eyed" Jack Faro (Woody Harrelson), brother and sister Larry and Lanie Schwartzman (David Cross and Cheryl Hines, respectively), veteran LBJ "Deuce" Fairbanks (Dennis Farina), the German (Warner Herzog), newbie Andy Andrews (Richard Kind), and the seemingly autistic Harold Melvin (Chris Parnell) all duking it out to see who will take home the $10 million, winner-take-all grand prize.

The movie is a bit over the top, but what mockumentary isn't? You can tell that Penn was inspired by Christopher Guest, and he did such a great job of creating a fun, "educational" and entertaining ride. I give this three and a half out of five blind bluffs.


Day of the Dead (2008)

I never thought I'd utter this sentence, but I have finally seen the most implausible zombie movie.

I know that sounds like an oxymoron, but as someone who has seen more than her fair share of zombie films, trust me when I say that this film takes the cake on absurdity.

The 2008 film, directed by Steve Miner of Lake Placid and Halloween H:20, features quite a few famous people, which is surprising considering it is a straight-to-DVD release. Mena Suvari, Ving Rhames, and Nick Cannon all star in this monstrosity (and no, that's not me being punny).

You know a film is going to be awful when one of the A-listers is immediately eaten alive, and sadly, it's not Suvari or Cannon. Worse, when the A-lister comes back to life...or should that be death...as a zombie, he immediately eats his own eyeball. Did he miss lunch? Really, are zombies going to be so crazed for human flesh that they munch on themselves?

I wish I could tell you that was the worst of this film. Unfortunately, the poor residents of this tiny Colorado town are not just turning into zombies; they're turning into SUPER ZOMBIES! They don't die the traditional zombie death. The plague that inhabits their bodies, mimicking the flu, puts them into a trancelike state. You can only tell they die, because their skin immediately starts decomposing (nearly rotting people's flesh completely off in some cases). Oh, and by the fact that they now can leap great distances, run faster than HGH-ridden track stars, and crawl up walls and along the ceiling.

Yeah, you read that right.

The only saving grace of this film, and the sole reason why I didn't give it a one out of five, is that it finally answers the question, Do vegetarian zombies eat flesh? If you want to know the answer, you'll have to watch this laughable film. Only then can you understand why I give it a whopping one and a half out of five SUPER ZOMBIES!