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TIFF! Magoo Returns With Reviews Of NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN and Romero’s DIARY OF THE DEAD!
Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here.
Part of the allure of Toronto is that they have a fantastic midnight movie line-up every year, and it seems like one of this year’s highlights must be the debut of George Romero’s latest zombie film. I’m practically frantic to see NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN at this point, but at least I know that one’s going to be in theaters soon. With DIARY OF THE DEAD, I’m not sure how long I’ve got to wait, so this review is going to have to hold me over until I can lay eyes on it for myself:
Hey Fellas! Magoo here
Well it was another fun filled day at TIFF for me, most of which was spent in lines and pondering "why the hell are there hundereds of people lined up accross the street for over 5 hours just to catch the back of Brangelina as they walk into the theater?"
First movie I saw was the Coen's NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, I spent around 3 hours in the rush line waiting to see this one. A quick summary would go a little something like this... Josh Brolin comes accross a bunch of murdered bodies out in the desert, finds a briefcase with two million dollars, nabs it, hits the road and is chased by a psychotic hitman the rest of the movie. Prety simple eh? Well it's a HELL of a lot more interesting than that.
For the majority of the movie we see the movie from Brolin's perspective, it's a cat and mouse sorta thing where the hitman is always just one step behind him. They meet up at one point and there is one of the most thrilling and tense shootout/hide and seek games I've seen in film, extremely well done. There is some serious edge of your seat stuff in this one. Long stetches of slow methodical scenes lead up to some awesome violent outbursts which really kick ya in the balls. The other narrative (and arguably the main narrative) is about Tommy Lee Jones' charactor who is on the trail of Brolin. He is at the end of his career as Sherrif and really wants to end this one clean so he can retire feeling like he has achieved something.
The hitman who is after him is one hell of a character. He has a fucked up moral code he lives by and is quite brutal in his murders. There is one great scene where he flips a coin and asks a gas station owner to call it, the gamble is the mans life, no if ands or buts about it, he's gotta call it and if he calls wrong he gets a bullet in the head. Another cool lil' thing I liked was this dudes rather unconventional use of a canister of CO2. He uses it to bust off locks which is prety cool but not as cool as when he calmly places it against a mans head and blows a fucking hole in it with the shear pressure of it. Also one of the end scenes when he meets up with Brolin's wife is prety sinister.
Now we come to the ending... SPOILER'S GALORE HERE!!! My buddy who I saw this with said up until the last 15 minutes it was probably one of the best movies he has seen all year, but the ending made him think it was total bollocks. I wont get too much into what happens but here are my thoughts on it. When Tommy Lee Jones shows up at the hotel and sees Brolin's dead body he feels exactly what the audience fells, disapointment. The last time we saw Brolin he was about to have a couple of beers with some random chick he met by the pool, now he is laying in a pool of blood. Jones' was too late, he failed, he is disapointed and so is the audience. The whole movie up til this point is tense and action filled, now we are sitting there in the audience going "what? what the fuck happened? gah!!!" I think this was tactic was used on purpose by the director. Jones really wanted to get this one right, to close the case and have everything wrapped up nicely. He failed and he is extremely disapointed with himself. He retires and is left with that feeling that his last signment was a failure. The rest of the movie the narrative is shifted to Jones' character who feels like he didn't do what he was sent out to do. He knows he is getting to old and can't do the job any more. This is really "No Country For Old Men"
So fuck yal who thought the ending was a cop-out or that it was disapointing, that's the friggin point! It was one sweet movie and for sure one of the best Coen Bros. films to date.
Alright the next 3 hours was spent debating with my buddy about whether or not "No Country For Old" men was disapointing or not, we had tons of time to kill because we where in line to see GEORGE A. ROMERO'S DIARY OF THE DEAD!
There was pure electricity in the air! This was seriously one of my favourite TIFF experiences. Sitting in the theater before hand you could feel something amazing in the air, I'd say at least 40 people in the audience where members of the cast and crew (as it was shot in Toronto alot of them where there). They hadn't seen the movie yet and you could just feel the excitment off of them. Then George was introduced, I have never seen so many people jump to their feet to give someone a standing ovation like this. The man is very well respected and at that moment it kicked in that we were about to watch a new George A. Romero movie and not one that was over seen by some major studio, but one he financed 100% independently. After a bit of an introduction the movie was under way.
The movie starts with a news crew outside an apartment building where several people have been shot. This is 100% raw uncut footage, we are seeing what they are seeing. As they are filming the dead bodies being put into stretchers one of em starts twitching. Us in the audience knows what’s about to happen, but the people at the scene don't have a god damned idea. This is the first day of the zombie outbreak, no one knows what is going on. Sure enough the bodies come back to life and start causing shit. This opening scene was so brilliantly done that the audience gave it a huge round of applause after it was done.
The rest of the movie is shown through the eyes of several cameras. Mostly by one dude, a documentary film makers who was out in the woods with his classmates filming a mummy movie. We also see footage from security cameras, cell phones, web cames etc. This is NOT Blair Witch with zombies!!! The movie plays out as a narrative film, what we are seeing is all the footage edited together by a surviving member of the crew.
The hand held film work makes this movie down right terrifying at some points. The movie scared me.... movies don't scare me anymore! There are tons of jumps and shocks that make the audience yelp. I was sitting next to a chick who screamed each time something surprising happened, which in turn shocked me and made me remember why I love going to the theater to see movie instead of downloading it (a pox on all you downloaders!) Aside from the shocks there are some really tense sequences where you are on the edge of your seat. Not since when I saw the original "Night of the Living Dead" as a young lad have I ever been scared by a Zombie movie. You really feel as if you are right there, experiencing what is happening first hand.
How can you kill a zombie and make it fresh and interesting? There have been 100 zombie movies, it's all been done right? Hell no! Romero kills of zombies in some really interesting ways in this one. A jar of flesh eating acid smashed over the head of one of the living impaired stands out.
The Amish Dude!!! This guy was great! And he goes out in an awesome way to boot.
Another thing that must be addressed is the social commentary. It wouldn't be a Romero zombie movie without some underlying look at humans and how we live our lives and do our thing. The information age is clearly the target here. In this day and age as soon as something happens it is uploaded online or blogged about within a couple of hours. Everyone has a camera and everyone has access to YouTube, so we the people are the new media. News censorship is also a target here, footage of the initial zombie attack is edited by the news stations but the stuff uploaded by regular citizens is the real deal, we see what the major corporate media empires don't want us too. As with the rest of the Romero zombie movies the underlying message isn't shoved down our throats, it is merely something in the background that makes us go "yeah, that is true!"
The movie ending with a roaring standing ovation, the audience was behind it all the way. George looked like the happiest bastard on earth, his fans loved his movie. The Q+A actually had some decent stuff in it (about time people ask interesting questions instead of "what was filming the movie like?" ala Argento's screening on Thursday). One really interesting question was about the use of race relations in "Night" and also a small segment in "Diary". He basically said it is an issue that is always underlying and that will never change. He mentioned about the Katrina aftermath when news stations reported about black families "looting" when they where looking for supplies to live off of. He talked about the civil rights movment back in the 60's and how although leaps and bounds have happened since then, that it is still an underlying situation. He told a really interesting story about how when "Night" was finished being edited, they loaded it into a car and where on their way to New York City to drop it off when on the radio they heard about Martin Luther King Jr. being assassinated. Not sure if that lil' tid bit of info has been mentioned anywhere before but it was a prety cool story nonetheless.
"George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead" was friggin awesome! Wayyyyyyyy better than "Land of the Dead" and totally comparable to his original trilogy. When this one hits theaters GO SEE IT!!! Don't download it, don't wait for DVD, get yer ass in the theaters and watch it.
Well that's all for now. I still got tickets for a few others so I'll send em in as I see em.
~mrmagoojesse~
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first btw
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I really hope that this guy is right about Diary. But my expectations for any Romero will be so high. . .as it shall be for No Country.
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Finally a zombie film worth getting excited about, hopefully the guy is right and Romero is back in form.
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September 10th, Shambled Around, Ate Some Brains. September 11th, Shambled Around, Ate Some Brains...
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You sure? Maybe there have been 101 or maybe 98?
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Pussy.
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This is bullshit. These so-called "empires" don't show this kind of thing (real world equivalents) because they'd get their asses fined off for showing it, plus little kids might be watching, and it would be outright irresponsible for that fact alone. It has jack and shit with "hiding" the truth from us poor little, ignorant small fry.
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well could they?
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They were. If you steal items from a store, no matter the circumstances, you are looting. Again, more horseshit semantics and trying to make America look like some police state. Most of the turds reporting this type of shit aren't American citizens and don't have a single clue about what they're talking about. It's pure hate and based on made up information or 2nd hand hearsay at best.
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Yes, it's been mentioned a million times including the DVD commentary. Welcome to 5 years ago.
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The Borg can assimilate anything... Actually, I have no fucking idea, but I'm now wishing I would have taken the spoiler warning more seriously for No Country.
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i've been waiting for diary of the dead reports all day. yes i'm a nerd. i didn't know about the king thing, but i'm not a douche-bag...
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To get me interested. "Land" was shitty, it had some moments, but not the "return" of the great Romero anyone was hoping for. The guy hasn't made anything worthwhile since the mid '80s, and somehow I doubt he was just biding his time until this very moment.I'm even originally from Pittsburgh and was born with this built-in soft spot for the guy. But c'mon, "Land" was his big golden opportunity to prove he was still a worthwhile filmmaker and he blew the hell out it. My built-in soft spot suddenly hardened the moment the credits started to roll on that one.
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Sep 09, 2007 10:19:58 PM CDT
remember the punk chick from Return of the Living Dead?
by boomers_lips
her name was Trash.
but when she became a zombie, her face got ugly. -
not the toasters, but the bio-lons like Six, D'Anna, and the Final Four?
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sounds entirely consistent with the book. It really threw me when I read it. Read it a 2nd time a year later and it really worked.
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sue me.
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especially all the talking.
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I'm a Romero fanatic and No country for old men looks like a nice return to the old days for the Coen Bros. Can't wait.
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where this headless zombie walks up to the car, and everyone's like, 'what the hey?', then suddenly the zombie lurches forwards, and his head swings over his neck, barely attached by thin threads of skin, and he bites the guy on the arm.
that part was awesome.
god forbid we have a movie with talking. and romero movies never have lots of talking. -
i just don't get the hate for the movie. sure, there were some cheesy parts and it wasn't perfect, but it was a great movie.
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...although no doubt cost more than the Brit effort (6000 quid!). Fortunately as it was made in the UK, Zombie Diaries is not a zombified Crash-style 'Racism for Dummies'.
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that's what i heard.
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shot for 6000 quid and unfortunately marketed as a zombie action film (not the filmmaker's fault), when in fact it's more of a Blair Witch meets nihilistic view of what people are driven to do when confronted with disaster? Zombie Diaries is worth watching, but don't expect a zombie horror flick. You have to be willing to forgive 2 bad acting performances too!
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i want it to be good, cause i love zombie movies. i was just reading about it on imdb, and the response generally wasn't favorable.
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still i have faith that i will enjoy diary of the dead.
hopefully i'll see the zombie diaries too and will enjoy it.
but has anyone heard about flight of the living dead? it's a real movie! -
...but if you're not interested in indie filmmaking, then I doubt it'll be of much interest. Trouble is Zombie Diaries is being pushed as a Romero-style zombie actioner - the artwork, synopsis, everything... so all these ADD tweeny horror fans are buying it from their local Tescos (after seeing the fantastic DVD artwork) and wondering why there are no hordes of zombies attacking London :)
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i'll have to check it out. even though i don't know what a tesco is.
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I've seen it, and it's fun (it's on Channel BT). Way better than Snakes on a Train ;) I dunno when it got trendy to hate on Blair Witch - I guess it's tall poppy syndrome, being the most profitable film EVER. Maybe saying it was like Cannibal Holocaust would've been better.
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fangoria? it's run by retards. i was watching an interview with romero about dotd and it was not pretty. during an interview with one of the actresses they kept cutting to stills of asia argento in lotd, as if they were the same actress. and the host interviewer guy was a total date rapist.
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i'm sure it's really scary. just that when other filmakers use it to describe their movie it seems kind of unoriginal and gimmicky.
kinda like snakes on a train.
romero said it was something like 'first person subjective'. -
First person subjective - makes it sound posh. Blair-style is cheap, so the style is used mainly by people who've got an idea but no money. Tescos is a supermarket in the UK. Avoid ALL films by Asylum - Snakes, Invasion of Pod, Transmorphers etc, they're just made to sucker money off people who can't read.
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transmorphers.
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i'm gonna see modest mouse play with rilo kiley tomorrow! i love their old stuff, but their new stuff is kinda iffy, especially rilo kiley's. and i heard one of their songs on the radio the other day, so they kinda sold out.
romero, however, hasn't sold out. he doing it his way, on his terms, like a true knightrider. -
awfully quick. especially since the people inside the Emerald Tower were running. and the zombies were just...walking.
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..They're just looking for a place to stay. Just like us".
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Under the conditions this guy describes seeing DIARY OF THE DEAD it sounds like it would be impossible not to have a great time with it. That doesn't necessarily mean it's a great movie. I think I will wait for calmer mouths and more considered opinions before I lay my cash on the counter.
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When I first heard about Diary I thought, meh. But now! Holy s**t. I need to see Diary of the Dead so badly. Need to find out when it's coming to UK cinemas!!!
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Sep 10, 2007 7:41:06 AM CDT
So when we get Romero's 'Tea Time of the Living Dead'
by dr gregory house
Brits gottaeat...errrrr...drink.
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I didn't know people could eat televisions, Cadillacs, and electronic equipment to survive. I will update my Boy Scout handbook immediately.
Puh-lease. -
Just to be clear, the point was that in the news reports, black s were coming out of a grocery store carrying bread and water after "looting" it, but whites doing the same thing were "searching for supplies". I saw the reports myself and couldn't believe the bias.
I was also at the screening Saturday night, and the reviewer missed mentioning that there were several "zombies" in attendance. They were members of Toronto's "Zombie Walk"group and were a lot of fun! I too was very leery about the whole "Blair Witch" angle, but was VERY pleased with the final product! DEFINITELY worth checking out, folks!! -
I had family living in the area around Katrina and believe me there was "looting" going on. Not bread and beans but stealing TV's, dvd players, stereos from businesses and houses! I was disappointed in Land of the Dead overall but this movie sounds pretty good. Ill give it a change at Fantastic Fest in a few weeks.
http://tinyurl.com/pv8do -
Ever notice these First-person, "recovered" footage movies are always done by someone just starting out in their careers? Romero has the chops to fully realize the potential of this gimmick and create something unforgettable. Land of the Dead was just OK in my book,which is fine, but this looks to be something special.
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and I hear that color TV's and Air Jordan's taste better when you melt a lil' government cheese on top. As far as the media reporting the same activity differently, maybe it's because it's a little more rare to see white folks "looting" ...
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Anyone else watch Zombie's Halloween a second time and discover that it's not a bad timewaster compared to the PG-13 crap we all got used to?
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Very few of the people looting (black and or white and latino) were carrying out food and water. The people that were carrying food and water were being helped by police, this is not something told to someone who knew someone, I was there and saw it with my own two eyes. The people looting were taking all kinds of electronic equipment and sporting goods. I watched two young men being chased out of Footlocker carrying all different kinds of Nike shoes and jerseys, when the cops stopped them and handcuffed them, people were screaming "racists" and throwing debris at the officers. Living on the Gulf Coast during that week you could see the worst (as i mentioned above) and the best of people. Spike Lee didn't show any of the good people did for each other on his HBO documentary. He showed people telling stories of how the mean whites from the suburbs pulled guns on innocent blacks looking for food and water. He didn't show the young black men helping older white women who were too old and weak to carry what little supplies they had,or the white mothers helping the black mothers feed there children and care for there elderly. I like zombie movies but if you want to skewer pop culture,show zombies attacking one of these spoiled idiotic bitches from MTV's My Super Sweet 16,show the zombies eating brains and flesh at that party while the Paris Hilton wannabes are screaming "dad make the zombies stop ruining my party,are they like retarted or something", now that would be awesome.
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How the hell are you going to turn a talk back about (what will hopefully be an awesome) Romero zombie flick into some sort of "Well I know someone who lives with someone who worked with..." trivialised (sp?) comment on what happened with Katrina??? I do agree with liljuniorbrown though, get the zombies running round hoovering up the "But I wanted the red Lexus daddy!!" brigade, now that WOULD be class, lol!!!
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I think my brain is going to hurt if I try and rationalize that in any coherent way...
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dude Romero is not known for subtlety, i mean check out Dawn of the Dead. but whatever, in this fucked up day and age somebody's gotta have the balls to shove a message down an audience's throat (in a fun way and not a Crash-esque finger wagging, overserious way). shove that message down there George A Romero, shove away!
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and have met him several times and he is a great guy. That being said I am amazed at the apotheosis of this guy as a director. Even he has said that he is overrated. People waiting hours in line and giving him standing O's wherever he goes. Im sure Ill see it again on the 20th. It's a mystery...
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...please get him some writing lessons and hire a proofreader. Good Lord, this guy sucks as a movie reviewer. He rambles on tangents, he doesn't know how to punctuate or use grammer, and he lacks any style. Come on, guys, how about some quality control around here? If Diary of the Dead is even half as poorly produced as the review, it has no hope.
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Cormac McCarthy who wrote the novel and who is an amazing author ended the story in a very similar way. The book has a sub-text element that is going to be very hard to put in the film. Its all about how society is helping to create a whole new breed of bad guy.
What Magoo described sound right. Having Jones play the defeated Sheriff will be a switch and I am exiceted to see him do it. He is the old school character that can make this movie work. -
Sep 10, 2007 9:08:16 PM CDT
"the underlying message isn't shoved down our throats"
by thegreatwhatzit
Say what? NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD's "racial" diatribe was communicated rather subtly (concluding 5 minutes when Duane Jones is shot and incinerated). But Romero's political platitudes have subsequently been shoved up our asses (shameless in the tepid LAND OF THE DEAD). DAY OF THE DEAD was dreadfully cartoonish, its politics mired in caricatures (military/bad, woman/good, ad infinitum). At least the "satire" of DAWN OF THE DEAD was dismissed in a single line of dialogue. The worst, to date, has been the NIGHT OF THE DEAD remake (central female character stares into the camera and drones, "We are them and they are us". UGGGHHH!).
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Moriarty didn't write that review retard, he just introduced it. The name of the author of those reviews is in the title of the article, learn how to fucking read.
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...test of time. Yeah, the same style od editing from the previous pics was not there... but think of this this way: it was 20 some-odd years inbetween films. They're not going to look the same. I have to admit, I had doubts about WHY I liked it after everyone was trouncing on the film. I went back, dipped into film school mode and realized... Land of the Dead is no different from any of the other Romero zombie films in terms of style and writing. Technology changed and our love of the "orginals" didn't. Its jarring to see a Romero film in today's age because he hadn't made one in almost over a decade. Take a look at "Land" again sometime... Halloween is coming up and odds are you'll be able to find it in the 9.99 section of Target. I stand by my love for this film and hope others will in the future.
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I think I just filled the cup.
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Wow, what a heartening, thrilling, and well-written review. I hope this gets theatrical release, goddamn it!
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and I don't understand how or why other people don't love it.
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The acting in his movies sucks and LOTD was shite. Also Day of the Dead was rather boring. The man has one true classic under his belt, a cult classic of gore, a near-miss, and several boring films, including MARTIN. That shit was boring.
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amen.
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Directed by George Romero, starring Tommy Lee Jones!
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