If you’re anything like us, you know the dead matter ALL the time, not just on July 30th, 2010. But in this case, we’re talking about the long-awaited DVD release of Midnight Syndicate’s feature film The Dead Matter. Why rule the living when you can control the dead?

Not only that, but they’re having a contest for REAL Midnight Syndicate fans: make your own video to one of their songs and have it featured on the DVD release. Cutoff date is May 3rd, so ye have three months to get it done! Here’s the contest rules, plus a few words from your sponsor:

Avatar has nine noms alone, while the rest are fairly well represented by the new ten-strong Best Picture category.

Best picture
“Avatar”
“The Blind Side”
“District 9″
“An Education”
“The Hurt Locker”
“Inglourious Basterds”
“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
“A Serious Man”
“Up”
“Up in the Air”

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Yeah, its another vampire film, but this one deals with the global end game instead of emo teen angst.

It’s been ten years since a global outbreak has transformed the earth; vampires are everywhere and everyone. While immortality has eradicated previously unsolvable medical problems from cancer to the common cold, one key issue remains: feeding a population with a quickly disappearing food supply. As the few living human beings left are being hunted down or kept alive to farm for blood, a vampire hematologist named Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke) works tirelessly with a team of scientists to find a synthetic substitute that can sustain the masses. With time running out and a population beginning to starve, another solution presents itself but one almost unthinkable to vampires… a possible cure.

While the flood of today’s love affair with vampires deal in romantic encounters, masquerades or world domination, here’s one that tackles the real problem: if everyone who wanted to be a vampire could be, who would be left to feed upon? Daybreakers is a remarkably ambitious film telling the story of a global crisis on a relatively small budget, and at least a small chunk of that is spent on all the gore and blood fountains you don’t see in Twilight sequels. While the artistic license taken in restoring human beings may intentionally mirror religious rites (a subject otherwise omitted by the production), wouldn’t it make sense that the cure is every bit as mystical as vampirism itself?

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Compelling performances and an intriguing story undermined by poor direction and editing, and it’s a shame, too.

Precious (Gabourey ‘Gabby’ Sidibe) is an illiterate and overweight teen who is kicked out of school when discovered pregnant with her second child. Without a school to attend, Precious is forced to endure living with her mother Mary (Mo’Nique) in a rundown Harlem apartment while ducking an occasional swinging frying pan. A new opportunity presents itself when Precious is enrolled at an alternative school, but how can she succeed in a second chance at a better life while still living in the shadow of her hateful and self-serving mother?

There’s are some powerful performances in this film, from the lead role and her mother to the angelic school teacher Ms. Rain (Paula Patton) and the concerned social worker Mrs. Weiss (Mariah Carey.) The subject matter is equally affecting, showcasing the bottom rung of a society happy to provide taxpayer-funded cyclic welfare for poorly-supervised leaches instead of encouraging individuals to better their lives and themselves. The end product of the film, however, does a poor job of providing a flowing narrative that renders the story and subject matter inert. How did this go so wrong?

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We done a bad, bad thing! At the last possible minute (and sparing no expense), several members of the OFCS got together with their webcams and put together a cool little awards show with ME as the host! Okay, not really, but I’m in there a few times. Enjoy!

Part 1:

Part 2: