George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead (2007)

Dramamine Of The Dead

Ah, hell. I'd might as well put my two cents in about the new Romero zombie film. I see it has succeeded in disappointing many fans for the most part. That's too bad. But for those who thought this movie was a big letdown, I do see why you feel that way. All around I actually did like the movie.
There is one misconception about this movie I have to address. Many folks think this film ripped off Cloverfield. Not true. I don't know about anyone else out there, but I remember reading about this movie a few years ago. This film hit the market after Cloverfield, but it must have been shot right around the same time. I do know that Romero had the idea for this one a few years ago. SO THERE!!
Romero's original Living Dead Trilogy is required viewing for any hardcore horror fan. For most of us horror geeks, these films served as the gateway to the world of gruesome, extreme and other-side-of-the-fence types of horror movies and a lot of us have never looked back since. They're essential movies! They're as essential as Number of the Beast is to the Iron Maiden fan or Hannah Montana to preteen girls and pedophiles, or "Margaritaville" to every damn ocean cruise you go on.
So many years of repeated viewings of the Trilogy(if you're like me you could do a one man Broadway performance of all three films), and the impact it's had on our movie tastes, how is Romero supposed to top that? Or even get close to that? Eight billion zombie films make it into the theater and video shelves every month anymore it seems. Romero's films don't seem terribly unique anymore. I enjoyed Land of the Dead(a lot of people seemed to), but it just didn't feel the same. It was a good movie, but I just couldn't find myself lumping it in with the Trilogy. Too much time has passed and too many bad changes to the film industry have occurred.
I feel pretty much the same for Diary. I like the fact that Romero went back to his low budget, independent style of film making. Like in Land, he approaches the subject matter with a bit more intelligence than most zombie films. After all, it is HIS genre. Romero and John Russo more or less created the world and the rules that most zombie films play by.
I didn't mind the story of Diary, nor did I mind not seeing hordes and hordes of zombies onscreen. I actually enjoyed the "less is more" type of approach. But as a personal preference, I don't like films that are presented as footage through the camera lens of an individual shooting the events. I don't think it's a dumb idea, I unfortunately get ill when I watch it. I always get a headache and/or nauseous feeling when watching it. Most people don't experience this at all, and it may be piddly, but the fact is that it always does it to me, so I don't enjoy this type of format. I am glad that I watched it however. I probably just won't want it many times unless I take the necessary precautions beforehand. August 18, 2008

And I thought "Land" was bad!

I'm pretty positive about most movies I see. I at least try to look for elements that satisfy me, even if I know the movie is generally viewed as a stinker.

This movie would just not give me five minutes without thinking something along the lines of "oh my goodness this is SO bad."

I think I even said it out loud a few times.

And it all comes down to the acting, really. I hated the gimmick (a movie within a movie), hated the pacing, hated the same old OMG HUMANS ARE WORSE THAN ZOMBIES schtick.. But the acting! The lead actress in this one, I don't know her name (I will check now that I think about it, so I can avoid her in the future) delivered the WORST performance I have seen in a while. There was one decent actress in this movie, but she only appeared for the first five minutes.

The few fun zombie slaying scenes were NOT worth the price of admission. Avoid this movie like you would a roving gang of zombies. August 16, 2008

Lifeless ... but not in a good way.

I love the old Romero zombie films.
I dislike weightless CGI effects.
I despise reality TV.
I hate POV porn.

If your checklist matches any two of the above,
stay away from this tediously uninteresting movie.

Maybe it could've been saved if the DVD included
extra commentary by two robots and a temp named Mike
forced to watch it aboard a stranded spaceship.

August 12, 2008

Unspeakably Brilliant Zombie Film

In this fifth installment of George Romero's zombie saga, he turns his sites on our current cultural pathologies; in this case, it's the society of the spectacle under examination. Romero's acute eye for social satire and his tremendously serious motivations coexist with sterling storytelling ability, some of the finest gore effects in movies today, and a bit of fun too. In other words, Diary of the Dead offers something for everybody, much as Shakespeare, even in his tragedies, always serves up a bit of business with the gravedigger. These days we're more and more apt to be a hybrid audience; we've got a little bit of the groundling in us, a little bit of the highbrow critic. Media has made us what we are, for good or ill, and Romero offers no solutions to our existential crisis. In this film, we're all implicated in one or another kind of living death, even if it's just the ubiquitous passivity of the average YouTube watcher...if we watch and do nothing, we are guilty of the kind of sin even the Pope has no category for, yet. The mall-walking zombies of Dawn of the Dead, dead consumers with an atavistic twitch for product, are now the clickers on hotlinks, the bloggers and blog-readers, the goldfish in the media aquarium (to cite one of the many splendid metaphors in Diary). This is as profound a film as ever the horror genre achieved, a true work of art that will be studied and enjoyed for a long, long time... August 6, 2008

REAL DISAPPOINTED SCRIPT & SHOT!

I know it seems wrong to criticize or -gasp- dislike a zombie movie made by the master, George Romero. Besides his enormous influence in the genre, his ability to mix horror and social satire has been remarkable. But this latest offering, while sure to be enjoyed by Romero purists or forgiving zombie fans, feels dated and frankly, Romero or not, behind the times. Using a shaky first-person handy-cam perspective, Diary records the predictable events and endless rambling, poorly-acted dialogue to tell its story. This style can be seen in recent movies like Cloverfield and Blair Witch and you can either deal with it or not; some people actually report getting nauseas when viewing this editing style. The plot points of the story are typical - screaming, running and shooting all punctuated with buckets of blood and gore. The expected Romero social commentary does predictably deal with weighty issues such as racism and class conflict but it's delivered with awful acting by screechy immature would-be students out to record their own real-life horror movie. I don't begrudge the film's low-budget atmosphere as it's practically a hallmark of the genre. That still doesn't make it appealing. I am typically a fan of B-movie horror so perhaps I just expected more considering it is by the genre master himself C August 4, 2008

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