Random Notes

When I saw the Carriers DVD at the mall, it had the look of a "before they were famous" movie trying to cash in on someone who'd since achieved stardom. In this case, Chris Pine of Star Trek reboot fame.

I was correct. The movie was made back in 2006 and has been languishing on a shelf ever since. Now that Captain James T. "Set My Underpants to Stun" Kirk is all famous, they made his image much bigger than the rest of the ensemble for the DVD cover.

It's actually pretty good. The story is a post-apocalypse tale of four young people in a car, driving around and trying to avoid a plague that's wiped out most of humanity. If you can watch it and not think of Stephen King's The Stand, you've been living under a rock for the past few decades. The only thing missing was a series of dreams about Randall Flagg or Mother Abigail. In tone, it's closer to King's short story "Night Surf," which was about a group of teens on a beach while Captain Trips turned the world to coughing shit.

I can't imagine the budget was very high, but they squeezed every cent out of it. The movie looks great, the acting is pretty decent, and the story doesn't really disappoint, although it's a bit grim. I described it to a co-worker as "the quiet apocalypse."