While we are talking about old Peter Jackson movies, this was the OG zombie gross-out comedy!
Dead Alive, known as Braindead internationally. I absolutely love this movie!
I actually remember being shocked that instead of Sam Raimi (who was at the time, a fan favorite to make LOTR), it was discovered that Jackson was trying to make short LOTR demos, and trying to secure the rights to Tolkien's works to WB (which they approved through their on-life-support New Line Cinema studio), instead. Given their similar low budget zombie movie backgrounds, and with Rami going on to make Spider-Man, it was a time where the good guys were winning!
Sadly, it turns out that both of these directors seem to have run out of inspiration. Look at how even at his age, Spielberg is still relevant. Like him or not, James Cameron is still relevant. Where are the pioneers of shock-horror/comedy? Burned out, I guess. It's kind of sad to me. Sad that PJ couldn't ever figure out that aside from LOTR adaptations, less is more, and lean cuts mean leaving some of your hard work on the cutting room floor in the name of a better viewer experience. It also means extras for movie lovers to discover later. For The Hobbit, it could have been a great TV series, which padded the core single movie experience. I would guarantee that people would still be talking about it today. Same with cutting out 15 minutes of King Kong, especially the Brontosaurus stampede scene. The movie could have been one of the all-time greats!
Where is Sam Raimi now? He created the masterpiece that was Spider-Man 2, only to follow up with uh,.... what came next, and his movies after that seemed rather uninspired to me.
