The Rocketz

The Rocketz: Rise Of The UndeadRise Of The Undead (2005)
Hairball 8

Reviewer Rating: 2

Contributed by: JesseJesse
(others by this writer | submit your own)
Published on June 24th 2005So, when zombies come into play, at least for me, I'm expecting something pretty rad. I mean, they're undead! It should be fun, fast, heavy, loud. Instead, the Rocketz give us psychobilly that's a tad bit easy on the psycho. Instead of wailing snarls, I'm given surf guitar reject riffs and 3-part vo.

So, when zombies come into play, at least for me, I'm expecting something pretty rad. I mean, they're undead! It should be fun, fast, heavy, loud. Instead, the Rocketz give us psychobilly that's a tad bit easy on the psycho. Instead of wailing snarls, I'm given surf guitar reject riffs and 3-part vocal harmonies. Though, to be honest, it's more Stray Cats than Tiger Army, and that's a good thing in my book. There's a barroom swagger to it. In fact, I'd be a lot more comfortable calling them plain ol' rockabilly if we were just addressing the music.

The production is raw and sloppy, ready to rock and sometimes roll. But that problem is the poppy, upbeat rockabilly chord progression with the blood 'n guts imagery. "I love to see you bleed" just doesn't work with whimsical pop vocals over a 12-bar blues.

There's not too much more that can be said. If you're a fan of psychobilly, chances are you already know what you like. It's a fairly black and white, cut and dry musical world. You either like it or you don't. That being said, this isn't a phenomenal release, but it's not anything that makes me want to cringe, curl up, and die. Here's a band doing what they want to do. They're technically adept. They probably have a fanbase, but it's probably not anything huge since they're not riding a wave. If this is your thing, you'll probably find something you really like on this release. If this isn't your thing, you probably won't like it.

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Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not respon sible for them in any way. Seriously.

Anonymous (July 21, 2005)

well there was the zombie in day of the dead that felt saddened by the death of the doctor. so i wouldnt slam land for that. its just a proggression from that.

Anonymous (June 29, 2005)

Check out "Stacy" - Japanese Schoolgirl Zombie movie.

Shit, "Wild Zero" is fun too.

i-type-poorly (June 27, 2005)

"Too bad Army of Darkness is the greatest movie ever made."

yeah it is too bad. it would have been a great feather in the zombie movie cap. hail to the king

Anonymous (June 27, 2005)

BSD -

Unlike "emo" the word "zombie" actually has a dictionary definition. Check out this definition of "zombie" from dictionary.com, then explain how Exorcist is a zombie movie again:

"1. A snake god of voodoo cults in West Africa, Haiti, and the southern United States.
2.
1. A supernatural power or spell that according to voodoo belief can enter into and reanimate a corpse.
2. A corpse revived in this way.
3. One who looks or behaves like an automaton.
4. A tall mixed drink made of various rums, liqueur, and fruit juice."

Anonymous (June 27, 2005)

Too bad Army of Darkness is the greatest movie ever made.

Anonymous (June 27, 2005)

Astro- Zombies

-BSD

Anonymous (June 27, 2005)

"so the Exorcist films are zombie movies? Thats a new one on me."

In the strictest sense, yes. The difference being that the devil in particular possesses her and not a random evil spirit.

"Zombie" is derived from voodoo practices wherein the living would be put into a trance-like state of death and then possessed by demons or spirits.

-BSD

Anonymous (June 27, 2005)

You guys are all crazy. Dead Alive is the best zombie movie ever.

i-type-poorly (June 27, 2005)

maybe they didn't have that much of a defence because Hopper was spending all his power and resorces on defending his "castle" and keeping his residents in it happy. The fortess was supposed to be pathetic and fortified all wrong. A greedy idiot was in charge of it all!

Bashing the movie for disagreeing with a character's decisions is weak. I mean, no one saw Dawn and went "What the fuck!? These bikers are destroying the mall! Why don't they join the characters and fight the zombies together?! This movie sucks!"

The tank? I liked it. If you didn't, oh well. I can agree, it's a pretty radical concept, but i think it worked well within the film's universe.

What did suck was BD "caring" when fellow zombies were killed. All the intelligence was great, but seriously; what pussy he became when he saw zombies getting taken out.

I also rolled my eyes at the painfully obvious zombie fodder (skateboard boy and the two that tagged along with riley).

More or less I loved and hated it just as much as any other Living Dead flick. Theres something wrong with all of GAR's films
Night had Barbera - THE ULTIMATE LOAD. Thrill as she takes of a raincoat for 10 minutes and plays with a couch doiley

Dawn - "You bastards... you bastards" / and that hero music at the end LOL

Day - felt like half of what it could have been with a budget.

Karasu (June 27, 2005)

Land of the Dead, was a fucking, lame, letdown.

The intro of the movie was amazing. The film credits that is. I was for sure it would rock. No. As BSD has mentioned THE TANK!? What the hell. The security was low. Where was the army that would protect them incase of an attack. A whole 3 troops maning the fence? Hello, motion detectors are not that high of a technology. They had a tracker for that lame ass tank. Why not throw a few motion detectors out in the vacant feilds for night time. Not to mention there was night vision in the movie, correct me if im wrong.

i-type-poorly (June 27, 2005)

"A "zombie" is anyone possessed, dead or not."

so the Exorcist films are zombie movies? Thats a new one on me. But yes, the Simpsons zombies ruled.
"See ya in hell."
"Still pushin that boulder?"
"yup"

Anonymous (June 27, 2005)

Don't forget Versus.

-BSD

Anonymous (June 27, 2005)

Best zombie thing is the simpsons halloween special when everyone turns into zombies

-BSD

Jesse (June 27, 2005)

Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, Shaun of the Dead. These are all really amazing movies and on the highest tier. The next one done has Dead Alive and Wild Zero. Then 28 Days Later and Resident Evil.

Anonymous (June 27, 2005)

"Neither is the Evil Dead series while were at it. All those movies are great though."

A "zombie" is anyone possessed, dead or not.

-BSD

Anonymous (June 27, 2005)

No, the thing about "Land", and the reason I'll never "get it" is because it's so much DUMBER than the rest. The Tank? Ugh... Tanks... Ugh. Ew... Ugh... Pffsh.

-BSD

i-type-poorly (June 27, 2005)

whoops, forgot Shaun. Throw that as #3 and drop the rest down.

Also, 28 Days Later not a zombie movie, sorry. Neither is the Evil Dead series while were at it. All those movies are great though.

i-type-poorly (June 27, 2005)

how did i know this would have a Land discussion?

Land of The Dead was great. On par with, if not, better than Day. People may reject it now, but in time it will probably be right up there as one of GAR's best. Right now theres the hype machine that spoils everyone's viewpoint on a film. This movie will age like that one album you hated when you bought it last summer, then you pop it in at winter time while you're chilling out in the house and finally "get it"

my top 5 zombie movies:

1 - Dawn
2 - Braindead
3 - Land
4 - Day
5 - Return of the living dead

Anonymous (June 26, 2005)

See, I'd argue there's a place for the formula film on the list because it establishes the basic framework of the genre (even though it wasn't the first or the best film, it had all the requisite zombie film moments). Though the remake of Dawn of the Dead wasn't as intellectually satisfying as the original, they're still ZOMBIE movies and I thought the remake had a better scare value than the original.

As for 28 Days Later, seems like people either loved it or hated it. There was a lot of fluid loss but, again, it's a ZOMBIE movie....

OC

Anonymous (June 26, 2005)

The OC likes bad zombie movies.

-BSD

Anonymous (June 26, 2005)

BSD is an idiot

Anonymous (June 26, 2005)

"Incidentally, here's my top five zombie movies:

1) 28 Days Later
2) Night of the Living Dead
3) Shawn of the Dead
4) Land of the Dead
5) Dawn of the Dead (remake)"

Are you kidding? The remake sucked compared to the original... It captured none of the political climate and was nothing more than a good formula film. The whole trilogy was better than "28 Days Later", which was simply a boring ramble. The way "28 Days Later" worked ended up being too boring to be effective, and they weren't even really zombies. They were pseudo-vampire rabid thingies. If there was really a city full of those things, bodies would be littering the streets because they needed blood.

-BSD

Anonymous (June 26, 2005)

Shaun of the Dead fucking rules. Land Of The Dead was pretty terrible, which is a shame but there we go.

Joe

Jesse (June 26, 2005)

But that problem is the poppy, upbeat rockabilly chord progression with the blood 'n guts imagery

Sorry to disagree with you here, but one of the best things about the Misfits was their affinity for combining the most upbeat music with vivid and gore-filled imagery. Remember "Last Caress" or "Braineaters?"

The contrast was always part of the fun.

Regardless of the upbeat melodies, there was a sinister edge to The Misfits that was captured in the intensity of their music. Danzig is a wailer. This guy, however, is a poppy singer. See what I'm getting at?

Anonymous (June 25, 2005)

Because other zombies joined the group. As the scene where the zombie gets zapped by the fence indicates, there are plenty of zombies just randomly roaming around.

OC

Incidentally, here's my top five zombie movies:

1) 28 Days Later
2) Night of the Living Dead
3) Shawn of the Dead
4) Land of the Dead
5) Dawn of the Dead (remake)

Anonymous (June 25, 2005)

Oh yeah, I meant "How could the small-town sized group of zombies magically multiply so much before hitting the city?"

aubin (June 25, 2005)

Anonymous (June 25, 2005)

The basic political themes of the others are in Land, but they're executed in a super-unrealistic way. The city itself was just not executed well. Fans of bad sci-fi will like it. It's kind of a not-as-good Day of the Dead, and Day was already the weakest of the original trilogy.

Things I would have taken out or changed:

The underground vice den in the slums- The originals showed that humans would band together to fight a common enemy. This one discards that idea with the zombie cage-fight and picture-taking scene. JUST DUMB. In the others, humans feared zombies to the extent that this would never happen. And that made sense. If your city of a couple thousand, or maybe only couple hundred, was surrounded on all sides by the roaming dead, what would the spectacle be in such things? The execution was also all wrong. The way it looked was like something out of fucking Mad Max 3... Just bad. Especially with the midget.

The way the zombies grew intelligent- SO many things about this were filled with holes. Why did the totally mindless zombies begin to follow the reasoning zombies? How did they go from being totally solitary creatures to using team work (how did the mindless zombies even comprehend orders?)? How did the black mechanic zombie learn all of this stuff so quickly? How did he know that they could fucking BREATHE under water? How did the small-town sized group

List of people who should have been ripped apart by zombies:

The fat Asian guy (preferably BEFORE making the bad joke about stolen cars)
The mentally disabled guy (him getting killed early on could have fueled more character developement for the main guy. He really didn't add much to the movie and proved to be an annoying distraction from any possible suspense)
The whole crew of the stupid Dead Reckoning. In fact, the movie would have been better off without that bullshit, anyway.
The whole of the town's population (The ending was HAPPY. HAPPY, for Christ's sake...)

It should have ended with Asia Argento and the main guy escaping narrowly from the zombies eating everyone in the town.

-BSD

Jesse (June 25, 2005)

That makes me very sad that it wasn't good. Dawn and Day of the Dead and Night of the Living Dead were great because it was much more to do with the human aspect of dealing with zombies instead of the action aspect.

Anonymous (June 25, 2005)

Also, the whole subplot about the super-tank... DUMB.

-BSD

Anonymous (June 25, 2005)

Land of the Dead seriously blew. All action, no suspense. It would have worked perfectly were it a Resident Evil movie, but the whole idea of the zombies "re-learning" was stupid from the start.

Also, what's with the happy ending? Ech...

Maybe it's because I watched the original Dawn of the Dead this morning, but I'm seriously doubting George Romero will ever be able to re-animate the corpse of his talent and integrity.

-BSD

Karasu (June 24, 2005)

In more interesting Zombie news : Land of the Dead tonight.

stevejonestherealbones (June 24, 2005)

wanna be phenomenauts?

i havent heard it...but thats what i think from the name cover and your review.....

so i will raTE this low

- jones the bones

- stevejones8770@yahoo.com

pwfanatic (June 24, 2005)

i always have a hard time when an album mentions zombies and doesn't live up to the expactations that those zombies placed on it.