Blinkfan does Diary of the dead

[blinkfan]

I've always been a fan and supporter of the zombie genre, thus making me a Romero fan. The man basically created the genre and Night of The Living Dead, Dawn and Day are all fantastic zombie movies. Those three movies are undeniable classics and great films. Somewhere along the line, George A. forgot how to make classics.

Everybody knows about Land already so, I won't get into it. But when I saw that, I thought; It was just a stumble his next film will be amazing.

Then I heard about "Diary of The Dead". The premise being a gang of film students film the beggining of the zombie outbreak.
I sat in my computer chair and thought "Cloverfield with Zombies? Brilliance." I went to all my friends who lost faith in mr. Romero and told them. "I told you, just a stumble. Diary is going to kick ass and take names"

I was wrong.

I popped it into my DVD player with high expectations and was seriously let down. It's not that its a horrible movie, in some parts it's great. It's just that the characters are incredibly unlikeable. At first I thought it was the first stage of character development. It wasn't. You're stuck with a bunch of pompous, self important, cast of characters for your leads. There are only three characters that I myself didn't hate. All three are underused.

Now that I got my hate of the characters out of the way let's get down to social commentary. SC is a major thing in GAR films. I understand that. But the point is to keep it subtle, Night, Dawn and Day are both fantastic because of this. In Diary we have a narrator, who you can really tell, wants to be Sarah Connor. And every 5 minutes or right before the action. We are told the commentary behind the scene and what it's supposed to represent.

And finally, the dialogue. It's one dimensional, stupid and unfinished.

Ultimately, I extremely disliked it. If your a fan of Romero, i'd rent it but thats only if your a fan but only if your hardcore and can stand watching an hour and 30 minutes of Romero ruining the formula he perfected with his first 3 films. If you aren't go rent 28 days or Dawn of The Dead (Original or Remake) instead.

[BlackCatWhiteCat]

Great job! I'm glad you reviewed this. I had no idea what Diary of the Dead was even about. I'm a big zombie genre fan as well, and a big fan of Romero, but when I saw Land of the Dead I was literally yelling at the screen. Luckily everyone else felt the same way and therefore I did not get pummelled. That piece of cinematic poopie made George whoever he is dead to me. I hated it that much. So Diary of the Dead was nothing but a blip on my radar.

You're right....that IS a brilliant zombie movie idea. Has this ever been done before? If not, then it makes you wonder why someone didn't think of it earlier. Too bad Romero apparently crapped all over it.

I almost want to see it, but I'm not sure I could handle something as bad as Land again. If I survived that, can I make it through this one any better?

Thanks again.

[blinkfan]

Can you handle, extreme and pointless social commentary being shoved down your throat? Cause if you can, you could handle this movie. Although, if you hated Land that much, i wouldn't give this a try, it is much worse than Land.

[BlackCatWhiteCat]

Jul 11, 2008 14:01:42 GMT -5 blinkfan said:

Can you handle, extreme and pointless social commentary being shoved down your throat?

I have. Do I wish to? NO. As stated previously, I can handle the pre-Land Romero stuff, but....If it's worse than Land then it's a done deal. The social commentary wasn't even a little bit why I hated that movie so much. It was...well...basically EVERYTHING else. The movie bites so hard. Sorry...I'm using your review page for my anti-Land vitriol.


Carry on...