Zombies are not just an American problem

Zombies are fast becoming the undead of choice in moviemaking circles.

The latest entry is a horror comedy called "Zombieland," which opens Friday. Jesse Eisenberg stars as a nerd who escapes becoming a zombie appetizer because he religiously follows his 47 rules for survival that include "always look in the back seat of a car" and "beware of bathrooms." Eisenberg's fellow survivors include Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin.

Zombies have been climbing out of their graves for decades in Hollywood. Zombies were first introduced as movie villains in 1932's "White Zombie." For the next 70 years or so, zombies were reanimated corpses that shuffled along and while vicious were easy enough to avoid. You could also destroy them by cutting off their heads or shooting them in the head.

Perhaps the greatest zombie movie of this era was George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead." Romero's zombies were reanimated by some kind of radiation and were running amok outside of Pittsburgh. By movie's end, gangs of armed men were traipsing about the countryside gunning down the undead and a few survivors who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Romero also introduced the idea of an

apocalypse with zombies munching on the living and spreading the condition through a bite, cut or blood.

Modern zombies still like to eat the living but they are increasingly fast and sometimes even have the ability to learn. Zombies in Danny Boyle's "28 Days Later" are remarkably fast on their feet and once infected with the Rage virus turn into zombies within moments. Zombies in the "Resident Evil" series have embraced this change and its zombies evolved from shufflers in the first entry in 2002 to being able to nimbly climb towers and chase down the living in 2007's "Resident Evil: Extinction."

American zombie movies have ranged from sheer horror as in "Night of the Living Dead" to teen comedy such as "My Boyfriend's Back" to satire including "Return of the Living Dead" with its punk zombies with pink hair. Nazi zombies that can walk across the ocean floor menace a group of people on a Pacific island in "Shock Waves."  Motorcycle mamas take on a swarm of the undead in "Chopper Chicks in Zombietown." And a scientist probably wishes he hadn't brought the dead back to life in "Re-Animator."

American filmmakers have no monopoly on zombie films. Flesh-eaters are featured in movies from around the world. New Zealand moviemaker Peter Jackson tried his hand at the genre in 1992 with "Braindead." Italian zombie movies such as "Zombi 2" are infamous for their excessive gore. Even the French have zombie movies such as "The Grapes of Death" in which poisoned wine turns the populace of a small town into killer zombies.

Zombie movies have their own United Nations with titles produced in a host of countries including Scotland, Egypt, Thailand, Mexico, Columbia, Germany, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Argentina, Brazil, Japan, South Korea and the Philippines.

Here are six films available on video and DVD for zombie lovers interested in hosting their own international zombie film festival.

"Shaun of the Dead" (2004) -- Simon Pegg stars as a store manager whose life takes an unexpected turn when zombies descend on London in this horror comedy. There's some gore but plenty of laughs as Pegg decides to lead a band of survivors to the safest place he knows, his favorite pub. Other stars include Kate Ashfield, Nick Frost and Lucy Davis.

"Dead Meat" (2004) -- Some kind of zombie infection is being spread from slaughtered animals to people in this Irish horror flick with a cast of unknowns and that was shot on a limted budget. Stars include Marian Araujo and David Ryan.

"[REC]" (2007) -- A television reporter and her cameraman spending the night at a Madrid fire station soon find themselves trapped in a building infested with zombies in this Spanish film that was remade last year as "Quarantine." Stars include Manuela Velasco, Ferran Terraza, Jorge Serrano and Pablo Rosso.

 "Undead" (2003) -- An Australian fishing village is hit by a swarm of meteorites that turn most of the residents into killer zombies in this horror film from Down Under. As usual, a small band of survivors try to escape without being eaten alive. Stars include Felicity Mason, Mungo McKay, Rob Jenkins and Lisa Cunningham.

"Zombie Lake" (2001) -- Nazi soldiers drowned in a pond by resistance fighters during World War II eat skinny-dipping girls and pester the townsfolk in a small village in this quirky zombie movie from France. Turns out, one of the women in town was fathered by one of the Nazis stuck in the lake. Leave it to the French to make a zombie father-daughter love story. Stars include Howard Vernon, Anouchka and Pierre-Marie Escourrou.

"Cemetery Man" (1994) -- Rupert Everett stars as the caretaker of an Italian cemetery who is quite accepting of the fact bodies buried in his cemetery always come back to life a week later and he has to kill them a second time to keep them from escaping. Other stars include Francois Hadji-Lazaro as his assistant caretaker, Mickey Knox and Fabiana Formica.

Henry Gibson was quite the character

Henry Gibson was living proof that you don't have to be a star to be popular in Hollywood.

Gibson, who died Monday after a brief battle of cancer, was 73. Most recently he had a recurring role as a judge on the William Shatner-James Spader legal comedy "Boston Legal." To many baby boomers, he will best be remembered as the Southern poet on "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In."

Gibson was a frequent guest on many television series as far back as the 1960s on shows such as "Bewitched" and "Mister Roberts." He made his film debut as a college student in the Jerry Lewis comedy "The Nutty Professor" in 1963.

Gibson didn't make a lot of movies in his career, but he made the most out of his performances in them. He was memorable as the voice of Wilbur the pig in "Charlotte's Web" and equally memorable as Clifford Stool in "Evil Roy Slade" and Dr. Eugene Nortz in the Lily Tomlin comedy "The Incredible Shrinking Woman."

Here are six of Henry Gibson's more memorable performances. All of these movies are available on video or DVD.

"The Blues Brothers" (1980) -- Gibson co-stars as the head Illinois Nazi seeking revenge after Jake and Elwood (John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd) make them jump off a bridge in this musical comedy. Other stars include Cab Calloway, John Candy and Carrie Fisher.

"The Long Goodbye" (1973) -- Gibson co-stars as Dr. Verringer in Robert Altman's take on private detective Philip Marlowe's (Elliott Gould) investigation into a woman's murder. Other stars include Sterling Hayden and Mary Rydell.

"Nashville" (1975) -- Gibson co-stars as country singer Haven Hamilton in this Altman film about the craziness and wacky characters at a political convention. Other stars include Keith Carradine, Shelley Duvall and Ned Beatty.

"Long Gone" (1987) -- Gibson co-stars as the owner of a second-rate minor league ball club in the 1950s South. Other stars include Chicagoans William Petersen as the player-manager and Virginia Madsen. Teller from Penn & Teller also co-stars as Gibson's son.

"The 'burbs" (1989) -- Gibson co-stars as Tom Hanks' new neighbor Dr. Werner Klopek in this goofy comedy about life in one messed up subdivision. Other stars include Rick Ducommun and Bruce Dern.

"Magnolia" (1999) -- Some critics said Gibson's bitter barfly character was the best thing about this Tom Cruise movie. Other stars include Julianne Moore, William H. Macy and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

'Dirty Dancing' star Patrick Swayze remembered

Actor Patrick Swayze lost his battle with pancreatic cancer this week. The star of "Ghost" and "Dirty Dancing" was 57.

Swayze was a rare kind of Texan. Not only did he play football but he was an accomplished dancer who practiced with the Joffrey Ballet among other troupes.

The dancing came in handy for his role as a dance instructor at a 1960s Catskills resort in his biggest hit "Dirty Dancing."

Swayze also was one of those rare Hollywood types who stayed married to the same woman for more than 30 years. He met his future wife, Lisa Niemi, when she was 15 and a dance student at his mom's Houston dance studio. They married in 1975. They starred in one movie together in 1987's "Steel Dawn" about a warrior who helps survivors in a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

In his career, Swayze co-starred with some of Hollywood's bigger names. He was a soldier looking for his missing father in Vietnam in Gene Hackman's "Uncommon Valor." He was Jamie Lee Curtis' married boyfriend in "Grandview U.S.A." He was a hockey player alongside Rob Lowe in "Youngblood."

Swayze's younger brother Don also is an actor/stuntman. He was a stuntman on his brother's "Letters From a Killer.''

Swayze most recently starred in the made-for-cable show "The Beast," which was filmed in Chicago right after it was disclosed he had pancreatic cancer. He told talk show host Barbara Walters earlier this year that his alcoholism and heavy smoking probably played some part in his contracting the deadly disease.

Here are six films representative of Swayze's career in Hollywood.

"Dirty Dancing" (1987) -- Swayze became a leading man with his performance as dancer Johnny Castle in this unexpected hit about a girl's (Jennifer Grey) summer vacation at a Catskills resort in the early 1960s. Other stars include Jerry Orbach, Jack Weston and Cynthia Rhodes.

"Ghost" (1990) -- Swayze cemented his place as a screen heartthob with this film about a man's journey into the afterlife after he's murdered. Other stars include Demi Moore, Whoopi Goldberg, Tony Goldwyn and the late great Vincent Schiavelli as an angry spirit that teaches Swayze's character the ropes.

"To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar" (1995) -- Swayze branched out big time with a performance as a crossdresser in this quirky comedy also starring Wesley Snipes and John Leguizamo as fellow crossdressers. Other stars include Stockard Channing, Blythe Danner and Chris Penn.

"Red Dawn" (1984) -- Swayze really broke through with his performance as a resistance fighter in the early days of a World War III being fought in America's midsection. Other stars include C. Thomas Howell, Charlie Sheen, Lea Thompson and Jennifer Grey.

"Point Break" (1991) -- Swayze stars as a surfing bank robber being pursued by FBI agent Keanu Reeves in this quirky crime film. Other stars include Gary Busey, Lori Petty and James LeGros.

"Next of Kin" (1989) -- Swayze stars as a Chicago cop who has to deal with big city crooks and gun-toting backwoods relatives after his brother (Bill Paxton) winds up dead. Other stars include Liam Neeson, Adam Baldwin, Helen Hunt and Andreas Katsulas. Look for a young Ben Stiller as the mobster's son.

Hollywood salutes America's working men and women on Labor Day

Besides being the traditional end of summer, Labor Day is the day to honor America's working men and women.

We won't comment on the fact that almost 10 percent of Americans are without jobs, the highest percentage in 26 years. We also won't point out that many Americans with jobs -- from the fry chef at McDonald's to the pharmacist at the corner drugstore -- will be at work on Monday.

Labor Day is still a three-day celebration often punctuated by parades (Frankfort's parade is at 1 p.m. Sunday), cookouts and, more recently, fantasy football drafts. In other words, it's a party.

Over the years, movies have featured about every kind of job out there.

Doctors and nurses have been portrayed in dozens of movies including "The Interns," "Patch Adams" and "Medicine Man."

Lawyers and judges were featured in films such as "Anatomy of a Murder," "Presumed Innocent" and "The Verdict."

Modern cowboys fall in love in "Brokeback Mountain," while Old West cowboys try to bring in the herd in "Red River."

Coal miners use violence against uncaring owners in "The Molly Maguires," while unionizing efforts are followed in "Matewan."

Fishermen face an unruly Mother Nature in "The Perfect Storm," while a milkman trades his cartons for boxing gloves in "The Kid From Brooklyn."

A young man's family sell electric appliances while he pursues a music career in "That Thing You Do."

Secretaries rebel against an uncouth and sexist boss in "Nine to Five," while a one-handed baker steals his brother's fiance away in "Moonstruck."

A woman fights for better working conditions at a Southern textile plant in "Norma Rae," while a man tries to connect with a student in "Teachers."

Here are six films available on video and DVD that are a tribute of sorts to working Americans.

"All the President's Men" (1976) -- Two Washington Post reporters (Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman, pictured above) work tirelessly to uncover the Watergate conspiracy that helped bring down Richard Nixon's presidency. Other stars include Jack Warden, Martin Balsam and Hal Holbrook. Also worth viewing: "The Paper" and "Call North Side 777."

"The Choirboys" (1977) -- Police officers in Los Angeles blow off steam and fight bureaucratic higher ups in this film based on Joseph Wambaugh's novel. Stars include Charles Durning, Louis Gossett Jr., Perry King, James Woods and Randy Quaid. Also wort watching: "Fort Apache: The Bronx."

"Backdraft" (1991) -- Chicago firefighting brothers (Kurt Russell and William Baldwin) battle each other as they hunt an arsonist in this Ron Howard film. Other stars include Robert De Niro, Donald Sutherland, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Scott Glenn. Also worth watching: "Ladder 49."

"Blue Collar" (1978) -- Three bored autoworkers (Harvey Keitel, Yaphet Kotto and Richard Pryor in a straight role) get drunk one night and break into the union office and set in motion a chain of events. Also worth viewing: "Gung Ho" and "Tucker: Man and Machine."

"The River" (1984) -- A man (Mel Gibson) fights the weather, a banker and other hardships to save his family farm. Other stars include Sissy Spacek, James Tolkan and Scott Glenn. Also worth watching: "A Place in the Heart."

"Tin Men" (1987) -- Richard Dreyfuss and Danny DeVito are rival aluminum-siding salesmen in 1963 Baltimore in this Barry Levinson film. Other stars include Barbara Hershey and John Mahoney. Also worth watching: "Used Cars" and "Glengarry Glen Ross."