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Reviews
Autumn (2009)
A regrettably bad zombie movie
We watched Autumn years ago and still use it as the yardstick by which we measure other bad movies. For us, "Autumn" has basically become shorthand for"a very, very bad film".
I can't muster the psychic energy to care enough to review this stinker, but I'll give one quick example of the bad writing and low budget that plague the movie. At one point the characters build a fence to keep out the zombies. The characters even say any fence built for that purpose would have to be really strong. When we then see the fence with hordes of zombies pushing against it, the fence is just a cheap, waist-high thing, what appears to be a sand fence, those little fences used to keep sand on beaches in place, and definitely not strong enough to stop a single person, much less a horde of shambling zombies.
Quarry (2016)
Amazing
Quarry is a rich mix of characters, storytelling, acting and historical accuracy. It's disappointing and almost unbelievable that Cinemax canceled the series.
The series takes place in Memphis in the early 1970s, and the close attention to historical detail of Memphis from that era stands out beautifully, similar to how Mad Men artfully recreated 1950s New York. I was a boy in Memphis during this same time, and I do remember the racial tension, bussing, the odd manners and fashion of a metropolitan deep South city in transition. As far as I can remember, Quarry gets that place and time almost perfectly.
Having just discovered Quarry online, I binge-watched the first season over a weekend, then tried to find information about why Cinemax would cancel such a compelling and gorgeous show. Apparently, the show was a victim of transitions at Cinemaax that included changing the kind of content the company wanted to support and be known for. If true, I remained stunned that Cinemax didn't want to be known for carrying Quarry. It's like if HBO had decided that it didn't want to be associated with The Sopranos, or A&E with Breaking Bad. Quarry is great TV, and Cinemax's decision to reject it is telling and damning.
The only silver lining is that one amazing season was made, and there is always the book series on which Quarry is based. If you haven't watched the first amazing season, I obviously highly recommend it.