Ultimate 2010s Blogathon: Train to Busan (2012) by John Rieber

The first guest review of Ultimate 2010s Blogathon is for 2016 South Korean zombie film, Train to Busan by John Rieber, who runs a blog under his own name. He covers a lot of really fun topics from movies, TV and all things pop culture along with spectacular food and travel. Its truly a wonderful one stop for a lot of variety of topics and he always has a nice and refreshing angle in how he shares it! Remember to stop by to check out his blog and give him a follow HERE.

The Terrifying “Train To Busan” Is Now Departing!

Looking back at a decade of great cinema, I’m always interested in seeing films that take an established genre and bring something fresh to the table.  That is certainly the case with “Train To Busan”.

South Korean Director Sang-ho Yeon delivers a modern zombie classic, blending terrific action sequences with rich character development.  

I had heard about this 2016 South Korean thriller, but hadn’t gotten around to seeing it until recently – and it blew my mind!

“Train to Busan” takes place as a zombie apocalypse suddenly breaks out in the country – and a group of train passengers must band together until they reach safety – hopefully – in the city of Busan…little do they know that there is no guarantee they will be let in, and the zombies on the train are multiplying!

The characters are all terrific:  a Father, played by Gong Yoo, takes his small daughter back to his estranged wife – he chooses the train.  Su-an Kim plays the young girl, and her acting is terrific: she makes the most outrageous aspects of the zombie attack seem real.  Also on the train is Dong-seok Ma, who plays a beefy tough guy who must protect his pregnant wife, played by Yu-mi Jung.

Each character is fully realized without sacrificing any action, which begins shortly after the train departs.  As they are leaving this station, the young girl notices someone on the platform seemingly sick – then is shocked to have a bloody hand slam against the train’s window.  And they are off!

One of the most unique aspects of the film is how quickly someone can be killed and turned into a Zombie – and of course, one sick person manages to get on board the train, infecting the other passengers – so the pack just grows and grows and grows! 

In a world where the “coronavirus” exploded onto the world’s stage with sudden ferocity, watching the infected zombies multiply is even more sobering: and each train car takes drastic measures to try and keep the zombies out.

As the train hurtles toward Busan, the plot continues to evolve as the survivors dwindle and the zombie pack grows.  Each of the main characters are given an important plot point – and it’s a film that never lets up on the suspense. One of the best set pieces is when the Conductor stops at a station because he’s been told that the military is there…an incredible action sequence.

“Train To Busan” has set a high bar for all zombie films to come, and one of the most exhilarating films of the 2010’s.

---

Thanks to John for his great review for this South Korean zombie film. Its definitely a wonderful choice as Train to Busan is also one of my top movies of this past decade.

Head over to Drew’s Movie Review to see the next guest review tomorrow!

You can find the list of reviews for the blogathon updated daily HERE.

2016 Wrap-Up!

Its the last day of 2016 and man, I’m starting to feel slightly pampered from previous years and the year-end reports that WordPress used to produce for the blogs. Are you missing that? Doesn’t it just give a sense of love and awesome? Still, 2016 has been cool. While my stats did drop from the previous year in general, I’ve also opened up my horizon to new projects and been working on some creative additions in the background. To say that 2017 might be a little change in direction could be good. After almost 6 years of blogging (in a little over 2 weeks), I think its time to change things up just a little bit.

Today is all about looking back at 2016! We’ll talk about 2017 tomorrow! 🙂

To start with a few stats, 2016 had 61,286 views and we’re now at 2,119 followers! You all are fantastic! Thank you for joining me here!

On top of that, we reach some nice milestones for the blog like…

• Total recipes: 146
• Total book reviews: 138
• Total movie reviews: 619

This year’s top five viewed posts here was actually not published in 2016 at all but previous years:

• Book Review: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (which grabs top spot everyday)
• Arthur and the Invisibles Trilogy
• Lie with me
• Fantasia Fest 2015: Anguish
• Book Review: The Starry Starry Night

Its funny to look at this list because a lot of these are from the earlier days of blogging and the quality is just so bad compared to now, which is much better. I’ve been meaning to reread and rewrite The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes review, just because its so incredibly cringe-worthy to read now.

As for 2016 posts, the top 5 are:

• Announcement: Ultimate 80s Blogathon
• Netflix A-Z: xXx (2002)
• Netflix A-Z: Nymphomaniac Vol 1 &2 (2013)
• The VVitch (2016)
• Netflix A-Z: Kiss of the Damned (2012)

There may probably be a new blogathon in 2017 seeing the success of 2016, but more when its all decided! I’m also glad that Kiss of the Damned made it as top viewed because my binge watching of Gilmore Girls is making me love Jess aka Milo Ventimiglia and he is in that little indie film.

2016 Recaps

2016 was a year of highs and lows for blogging. The good part of that I learned how to be organize and work a little ahead of time and at least have the material ready for writing beforehand. It only took five years but I got there! I’m liking the whole system.

Game Warp Podcast was the second achievement. Starting that up over at That Moment In with my awesome cohost, Elwood Jones from Fromt he Depths of DVD Hell. Funny how one thing leads to the next and how the blogosphere and Twittersphere brings out all sorts of cool friends and projects. Game Warp Podcast is something of a dream that I’m only starting to believe is happening. Its a first step into something that I had been thinking about it and I promise that more announcements regarding gaming and whatnot that is in the brainstorming stages will be revealed. But Game Warp Podcast is one of my main focuses right now and it has really made me grow and revive a lot of the love.

We never made any formal announcements, at least I never did but That Moment In Podcast is not longer a thing. It hasn’t been for a few months. It was extremely fun while it lasted. However, if you have dropped by That Moment In lately, I have dropped by with David for short movie discussions/reviews paired up with his written review. There has only been two so far but its been fun. Check it out if you have time. Here’s one if you’d like to give it a listen for Korean thriller, The Wailing.

Unfinished Projects

As with every year, there is always things that just don’t end up getting a spot or just simply get procrastinated. One of those projects is the Classics. I took a break from reading classics last year and really just read The Little Prince and didn’t even end up wrapping up the Jane Austen from 2015 which I was just missing Northanger Abbey. I do plan on picking that up in 2017 as I have some nice books lined up sitting in my Kindle longing for me to read it.

Netflix A-Z is currently in the progress of wrapping up its current round focused on indie genre films for the most part. We’re at T. So we’ll wrap that up in early 2017. And I’ll probably restructure it a little as I will for the movie reviews section.

Other than that, Baking Through Disney started out in the year pretty well until I got stuck on Fantasia and what to bake. I’m not giving up on the project though. I’ll be setting solid goals for 2017 that I’ll talk about soon.

Overall…

2016 was a bit of a mixed bag from my motivation to wanting to change where it was going to just in general everything. I did have a great time being more organized and podcasting more and learning new things. I think that is the main thing for me that I’ve learned over the course of 2016, blogging is the opportunity to explore new things and learn new skills. I love making videos and editing and all the work that goes with it. I’m embracing a different side of approaching it and also heading out to events and unboxing and really trying out new things. Events will become a much more frequent thing here. I’m starting to jump into what I want tomorrow’s post to be for the 2017 look ahead.

What I do want to say other than the stats and endless babble going on is…

HAPPY NEW YEAR! ALL THE BEST IN 2017!
THANK YOU FOR BEING HERE AND READING THIS AND JOINING ME ON THIS WONDERFUL BLOGGING JOURNEY!

My Anticipated Movies of 2016!

2016 looks like a blockbuster year.  It has a ton of movies coming out from some popular book to movie adaptations to some really good looking horror and then moving into live adaptations and video games turned into movies. There are a few sequels and superhero movies are still apparently a thing even though they are starting to annoy me a little bit at this point. Then we have one where I think is just milking a franchise and trying to grab those fan boys and girls just like its book itself was to me. And then, even for some rather bad first parts, there are comebacks with a second movie with a bigger and better cast, but we’ve all seen enough movies that sometimes the cast itself can act its butt off but if the script is empty and/or cliche then it just falls apart anyways. I’m not making speculations and I reserve any expectations but these are the choices for this year that I hope to catch in theatre.  I always try for 12 movies seen in theatres every year (plus the 10 or 11 from Fantasia Film Festival on the side).

I’m done with my rambling. Let’s check it out! Trailers and a little explanation as to why they are in my anticipated list in the order of their release dates according to CinemaMontreal.com 😉

The 5th Wave [January 15]

I’m going to aim to read the source material before heading into the movie or deciding if I will go see it but the trailer looks decent.  The concept of the aliens and war works and I’m a fan of Chloe Grace Moretz so this has a lot of promise for me. However, I can’t shake off the feeling that its a little Katniss mixed with The Host and a billion other YA books that has recently been adapted to the big screen.

Anomalisa [January 15]

The music, the animation style, the stories about being human and life: those things all work for me.  Its as simple as that being the reason why I’d want to see this. It looks like a great movie which might just have something to say.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies  [February 5]

I’m on record to be in love with Pride and Prejudice.  The era, costumes, class of classics are fantastic.  Some of you may have an issue with zombifying many things but I don’t.  I really like Zombie movies and there are some really fantastic and creative takes to the genre itself.  When you mesh two popular things together, you could be surprised at what could come out of it.

The Witch [February 26]

Witches, creepy, good atmosphere, intriguing storyline. I think this one has a lot of potential to pack in a good horror adrenaline rush.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children [March 4]

no trailer

I was pretty unimpressed with the novel because it didn’t sell what it was trying to portray but there is no doubt that there is a really dark atmosphere here and who else can do a better job than Tim Burton who might just find his footing again with this one.  Plus, it has one of my favorite young actors, Asa Butterfield.  I really think he can pull this off.  I wonder how they will portray the peculiar children also.

The Jungle Book [April 15]

I’m not exactly sure about the whole Scarlet Johansson narrative in the trailer but the ton of the movie is absolutely breathtaking.  It looks absolutely wonderful.  These Disney movie live adaptations are turning into downright visual feasts.  It does have me all excited to check it out. And I’m not even a huge fan of The Jungle Book animated version to begin with.

Captain America: Civil War [May 6]

Its a weird feeling to be most anticipating Captain America.  I’ve felt that he’s really grown on me because the Marvel franchise is the best with Captain America’s two movies.  He feels real and just everything works.  Captain America portrays his honor well and for this one, we have a few of the other superheroes coming in.  I’m not sure if I like the overlap but it could work out.

Now You See Me: The Second Act [June 10]

It is rare that I put sequels in anticipating lists but this year, there seems to be a few. I love magic movies and I really bought the concept of Now You See Me.  The general feeling was pretty average to this one but I think that it could seriously work as a sequel if they play their cards right.  Although, I can’t help having a feeling that they might be stretching the story a little but somehow, I’m still pretty excited about it.

Star Trek: Beyond [July 22]

Star Trek is a little hard to pinpoint my excitement. They have made a really nice action-adventure so far.  Into Darkness was not as great as the first but the tone of Beyond is really different and the trailer might have increased my excitement a little.

Assassin’s Creed [December 21]

no trailer

While I haven’t played much of Assassin’s Creed, I do acknowledge that those games have fantastic graphics and the characters are quite good.  My husband is a huge fan and with Michael Fassbender involved and my immense love for him, I really hope that this is one video game successfully adapted into a movie.

The Little Prince and Eye in the Sky are potentially on this list except it has no set release date yet.  They seem to both be supposed to hit theatres in March 2016 except Montreal doesn’t seem to have a date set so for your pleasure, here are the trailers as well!

RUNNER-UP: 13 Hours, Warcraft, Finding Dory, Deadpool, The Secret Life of Pets, The BFG, Through the Looking Glass, The Legend of Tarzan, Suicide Squad, The Adventures of Tintin: Prisoners of the Sun

WHAT MOVIES ARE YOU ANTICIPATING THIS YEAR?