Officially, television rots your brain.
Unofficially, these are three things I’ve watched lately that I really enjoyed. 🙂
1. The Girl with All the Gifts
First, it’s a zombie 
movie…but before you roll your eyes at me (“Karen, I get it. YOU’RE INTO ZOMBIES!”), it’s a fresh take on the genre, which, I recognize, has gotten pretty tired.
This one takes place in post-apocalyptic England, and I think it’s the not-too-distant future because the technology looks like the stuff we have today.
The movie opens in a military bunker where a group of schoolkids, who look like normal kids but definitely aren’t, are all restrained and strapped into wheelchairs in a sterile military classroom with a teacher.
Basically, humanity has been overrun by a fungus that transforms human beings into brainless, flesh-eating monsters.
It’s the plants, man… They’re gonna take over the world.
Anyway, the kids were born to zombie moms, so they’re half-zombie, half-human hybrids who still crave flesh, but they’re also intelligent and capable of reasoning.
TWIST! 🙂
The movie follows one of the teachers and one of the zombie-hybrid kids, Melanie, who’s exceptionally bright, and there are moral dilemmas and conundrums about evolutionary biology.
It’s smarter than your average zombie movie but by no means slow. Highly recommended if you’re a sci-fi buff. I rented it on iTunes last weekend.
2. Vampire Academy
OK, so we go from zombies to vampires now (yes, I realize how this sounds). Vampire Academy is a few years old, but I don’t remember when it was in theaters (if it was in theaters). It’s based on a YA book series called — dun-dun-dun! — Vampire Academy.
It gets a shockingly bad score on rottentomatoes.com, but don’t let that deter you. It’s really fun! It’s like a vampire Harry Potter in the O.C.
Picture it: three species of vampire. The Dhampir are half-human, half-vampires trained from childhood to act as the bodyguards of the Moroi, the gentle, peace-loving mortal vampires with an affinity for magic. The third group are the Strigoi, the classic immortal blood-sucking evil monsters.
Young Dhampirs and Morois train, frolic and fraternize at St. Vladimir’s school, a.k.a. the Vampire Academy.
This movie’s all about Lissa, a Moroi vampire princess, and her protector, Rose. They run away from the academy but are forced to return, which is when mayhem ensues.
It has its cheesy moments…but I think it’s a pretty good fantasy/horror mystery buddy movie. It’s one of those happy, cheesy things that are fun to watch on a rainy afternoon. It’s currently on Netflix.
3. Carrie Pilby
I have this theory that if you want to find a good movie on Netflix, you have to start and stop at least five really terrible movies first, haha!
Just fire up Carrie Pilby already. Save yourself the trouble.
Carrie is a brilliant young woman who lives in New York. She started college at Harvard when she was 14 and gradated a few years later, but even though she’s beyond book smart, emotionally, she’s in shambles.
She can’t carry on a conversation with her dad without it turning into an argument, never wants to leave her apartment, doesn’t have a job, or friends. Her personal life is kind of a mess, but she’s working on it.
The movie takes place over the holidays as Carrie works her way through a “to-do” list of activities designed to help her get her life on track. It’s funny, poignant, and I laughed out loud several times. It’s also on Netflix.
That’s what I’ve been watching lately (along with American Ninja Warrior, of course). How about you?
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
I loved the Vampire Academy series. They made Rose more of a goofball than she ever was in the books and the movie had a really cool like sly type of humor, being cooler & more fun than other paranormal type movies buuuttt it seemed like it was lacking something. Low-budget maybe? The guys were almost all bad pics too casting- wise, imo especially Dimitri. He is supposed to be super hot, badass, smart, charismatic fighter dude and he seemed kinda blah. Idk…the books were so good but while the movie was fun & I would watch again, it fell short of the book and my expectations. The movie was a guilty pleasure basically!
Hi Lorraine,
Yeah, it seemed a little low budget. I had no idea there was a series until I watched the movie. Gonna put it on my list of things to read!
What are ya currently reading? Anything good?
Hi Karen, have you ever watched Shaun Of The Dead? I loved that film!
I saw the first one! I thought it was amazing, and the performance by Sennia Nenua blew me away.
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Look at you, weeding through all the mire to find some good shows! 🙂 My netflix queue currently runneth over but it’s hard to find the time to watch anything. The latest series I ran through was Gomorrah (Italian, subtitled, mafia saga). I did like it but sort of question why since every character is just a horrible person. HAHA!
I’m here for the vampires and zombies, so I’ll add both of those to my queue. I watched a movie on Netflix last weekend called VHS. I rolled my eyes a few times at some of it but overall a pretty good horror flick, if you’re ok with gory (horror movies are my favorite)! There are two sequels and I might get those out of my system as well.
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Hi Karen!
Thank you for sharing with us ur favs , I was looking for something exciting on Netflix the other day but I’m here in Canada so it may be a different scenario with options on Netflix.
Love you as always
Xxxx
Bebe
I’m really happy to hear that “Carrie Pilby” is good, since I liked the book a lot when it came out.
I’ve been watching “Orange is the New Black” for the first time (I just got Netflix recently), and I’m in the middle of season 4. Once I’m all done with it, I’m planning on watching “Wentworth” next, which I’ve heard good things about. Otherwise, I’ve been watching “American Horror Story: Cult”, “America’s Got Talent”, and am patiently waiting for the new season of TNT’s “Major Crimes” to start.
One recent stand out has been Stranger Things. The young actress who co-stars in this is just phenomenal. I can’t wait for season 2. We’ve been watching a lot of crime, who dunnit dramas from overseas. Some are TV movies and some are mini-series. They’ve included; The Tunnel, Happy Valley, Line of Duty, Marcella, River, Paranoid, Jack Taylor, Top of the Lake, The Kettering Incident and the French TV show Spirals. All available streaming. I want to watch Broadchurch, but Dear Husband thinks it would be too depressing, as if some of these others haven’t been. I’ve been wanting to re-watch The Wire, too. Yes, we watch a lot of TV/movies. Oh and we just saw Close Encounters of The Third Kind, because it’s the 40th anniversary of it.
Just watched Ozark on Netflix and loved it! It was really good and I love Jason Bateman and Laura Linney. Stranger Things was a great one too. I also just recently watched Sons of Anarchy. I never watched it while it was on TV and it was pretty darn good.
I loved the Vampire Academy series and was sad they decided not to do anymore movies after the first one. I think they promoted the movie as just another “teen” movie so it didn’t get the recognition it deserved. There was so much more potential for other movies with such a great series!
Loved vampire academy. Also you must watch Ozark.
Also, I know this is a Netflix conversation But, I’ve just gotten around to watching Big Love, which is on Amazon now. Fascinated with the polygamy drama. Can’t imagine ever going there myself but I like to watch.
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I love love love Vampire Academy. I watch this movie at least once a month. I was surprised that it didn’t get the publicity that it deserved.