JamesG
03-02-2009, 01:37 AM
I really wanted to like this one but I am afraid this one did not deliver at all.
This is the fifth of Romero's zombie flicks and in this one he tried to go in the Blair Witch/Cloverfield direction and shoot the film with a hand-held camera by people running around.
The premise of this film is that film students accompanied with their professor from the University of Pittsburg are making a, what else, zombie horror film out in the woods. They hear on the radio the news reports of the dead returning to life. They then drive all around trying to find others, their familes, fight zombies along the way, and survive the ordeal. The film we are watching, according to the plot, was released by the survivors of the film to show the world what they went through.
George Romero has now tried to accompany modern life into the film by featuring things like YouTube videos. The message this film sends is that with so much information around that nobody knows what the real truth is.
I didn't like how stereotyped the characters were; you have the nerdy camera guy. the flirt from Texas, the tough guy from Queens, NY, the religious girl, the Simon Cowell-ish British professor.. I mean come on.
In terms of zombie action there is really very little. You don't see a lot of zombies in this one which was a bit of a disappointment. These are the old-school Romero zombies where they are killed by a shot to the head, are slow moving, and anyone who dies becomes a zombie; whether or not they were bit by one.
Also, if you look at the poster for the film you see a neat shot of zombies in the street, things burning, cars destroyed... too bad no such scene appears in the film.
There were some postive thing about it. One of the characters I liked was the deaf Amish guy the group comes across. They arrive at his barn and the deaf guy runs out attacking zombies with dynamite and a scythe.
Another thing I liked was when the group stumbles upon their friend who is slowly turning into a zombie and he seems to have lost his mind. If you watch the film this guy is just weird and it was one of the best moments of the film.
I give Diary of the Dead a 4/10. It's watchable but not highly recommended.
This is the fifth of Romero's zombie flicks and in this one he tried to go in the Blair Witch/Cloverfield direction and shoot the film with a hand-held camera by people running around.
The premise of this film is that film students accompanied with their professor from the University of Pittsburg are making a, what else, zombie horror film out in the woods. They hear on the radio the news reports of the dead returning to life. They then drive all around trying to find others, their familes, fight zombies along the way, and survive the ordeal. The film we are watching, according to the plot, was released by the survivors of the film to show the world what they went through.
George Romero has now tried to accompany modern life into the film by featuring things like YouTube videos. The message this film sends is that with so much information around that nobody knows what the real truth is.
I didn't like how stereotyped the characters were; you have the nerdy camera guy. the flirt from Texas, the tough guy from Queens, NY, the religious girl, the Simon Cowell-ish British professor.. I mean come on.
In terms of zombie action there is really very little. You don't see a lot of zombies in this one which was a bit of a disappointment. These are the old-school Romero zombies where they are killed by a shot to the head, are slow moving, and anyone who dies becomes a zombie; whether or not they were bit by one.
Also, if you look at the poster for the film you see a neat shot of zombies in the street, things burning, cars destroyed... too bad no such scene appears in the film.
There were some postive thing about it. One of the characters I liked was the deaf Amish guy the group comes across. They arrive at his barn and the deaf guy runs out attacking zombies with dynamite and a scythe.
Another thing I liked was when the group stumbles upon their friend who is slowly turning into a zombie and he seems to have lost his mind. If you watch the film this guy is just weird and it was one of the best moments of the film.
I give Diary of the Dead a 4/10. It's watchable but not highly recommended.