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Quint puts a bullet in the head of George Romero's DIARY OF THE DEAD!!!
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. When I first heard the concept of George A. Romero’s DIARY OF THE DEAD I wasn’t exactly taken with it. The pitch line was BLAIR WITCH meets NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and that didn’t sound at all interesting to me.
However it was George Romero and he’s earned a lot of trust when it comes to Zombie movies. I wasn’t sold, but I kept my faith in Romero’s vision.
The film opens with some raw news footage, what is widely regarded as the first footage capturing the zombie outbreak. It’s one camera with a newscaster preparing her report. You hear the cameraman as they go over what the report is going to look like. They’re covering an apparent murder in a rather poor apartment complex.
How we’re introduced to the plague set my mind at ease. This was not only creepy, but really smartly executed. The opening made me sigh with relief. It captured exactly what they were going for with this updated introduction into a somewhat parallel Romero world. The way we see the outbreak in the film is just the way we’d see it now, either on TV or through the web.
Thank God, I thought. But then the rest of the movie started.
We’re introduced to our main characters shooting a mummy movie on video in the woods near their campus. It was about the first couple of times they winked at the camera going, “Man… we’re sure in a Romero zombie movie, aren’t we?” that the fear came creeping back.
Yes, it’s cute to hear them joke about how the mummy is moving too fast and that dead things move slow. I get it. I can even forgive it because it sets up a good situation later, however they even bungle that.
What I was most disappointed with was the lack of any sort of subtlty or layering. Romero’s movies have always had a great subtext, be it satirizing consumerism in DAWN or racism in NIGHT. Here there is no subtext. Just text.
It’s not a cryptic line, “They’re us.” It’s multiple people staring into the camera blatantly talking about our need for pure information, untainted by the commercial network news spin.
I saw a movie a couple years ago at the American Film Market that I was really excited to see. It was the new Dario Argento movie and it was called THE CARD DEALER. I walked out of that movie extremely worked up. It was horrible and even worse, it didn’t feel like an Argento movie. It maybe felt a little bit like someone trying to ape an Argento movie or mimic an Argento movie, but that only made it more upsetting.
I feel very much the same feeling about DIARY OF THE DEAD. It feels like someone trying to make a George Romero movie. “Hey, I got a message! Let’s slap it on there! Hey, let’s homage Romero’s early work and talk about how slow the dead would be!”
I think one of Romero’s strongest traits as a filmmaker is who he picks to be the focus of his films. I love every one of the characters in the house in NIGHT. Such great, layered work there. Same with DAWN. The group is perfectly fitted with each other. Flyboy is plain as hell, but he has a nice arc and he’s off-set by Roger. Even in DAY OF THE DEAD you have a bug-fuck crazy bad guy and tons of interesting and colorful characters, not the least of which is Bub, the zombie.
The college kids that are the focus of this movie are completely uninteresting. They’re as clichéd as can be, the choices they make defy all logic and, worse of all, they’re just dull. It’s a bunch of Flyboys without a Roger.
What’s even sadder is we are introduced to a few characters that are actually really interesting as our RV full of retarded, self-important college douchebags drives the backroads.
My favorite character in the film was Samuel, a deaf Amish man who is particularly old school in taking out zombies. But he’s only in the movie for 4 minutes. If I was King of All Movies, I’d grant Romero a budget to just make a movie about Samuel surviving the zombie plague. How great is that? A mute dude who refuses to use any of the benefits of technology to survive a zombie uprising? How badass is that?
But, no… we have to get a few more tearful “I have to record this instead of helping because it becomes real when I put the camera down and I can’t let that happen!” to the camera.
Then we meet the leader of a Black militia that goes against any sort of stereotype you’d expect. Again, a nice Romero twist on things and the other interesting character in the movie. And again, he doesn’t get much screentime.
The whole idea of seeing this only through footage is an interesting one, but at the same time it still just boils down to a gimmick, which is fine, but a gimmick needs strong character work and good actors to make it more than that.
The acting is bad throughout, particularly in the leads. There's even one girl who is playing a Texan... yee-haws and all... Her accent drops throughout the movie and that wouldn't have really been a big deal if her character was at all interesting.
Listen, I’m happy Romero sold the movie to the Weinsteins and I’m also happy that my disappointment in the movie doesn’t seem to be the common opinion if the reviews out of Toronto are any indication. I don’t like feeling this disappointed by a Romero film and I wish I could give myself over to this one like many others have, but it just didn’t work for me.
Maybe with the success of this film Romero will keep getting to make movies the way he wants to make them and he’ll pop out some great indie work in the coming years. I certainly don’t think he’s lost his touch, I just think he made a misstep with this one.
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
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haha, bitches!
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is most likely gonna suck. It's true. Let's get some more No Country for Old Men reviews.
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at all, you know you should avoid. "This year's Indiana Jones!" "Like Jaws on stereoids!" "It's Napoleon Dynamite on viagra!" "Transformers on rogain!". You get the point. That said, I'll give anything by George Romero a look.
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Face it, kids...it was great while the social commentary was slight and you had to actually think to figure it out, but now he just beats you over the head with it. Zombies "are just looking for a place to go"? COME ON. What happened to the Romero who directed CREEPSHOW? I miss that guy.
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Congrats, kid. Now hit puberty and kiss a girl sometime in the next decade.
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...so it comes as little surprise to me that Romero's next movie might not work, either. Don't get me wrong. I love the guy for his Night and Dawn, which are two fantastic movies. Night of the Living Dead is an absolute favourite movie of mine and it features an ending that really packs a wallop. I understand Day of the Dead didn't work out the way Romero wanted and while it's kinda crappy, it's still kinda fun. But Land of the Dead, for which I was so excited, felt bland and generic to me. After Resident Evil and armies of Fast Zombies, I was overjoyed at the thought of the Zombie King returning to the big screen with some old-school, bad-ass zombies. But what I got instead was an uninspired b-movie featuring hammy acting and cheap thrills. Oh, and there was a message about evil corporations or something in there, too. I also thought the ending sucked, with the lame "they're going home" line being tossed out there. So I'm prepared for the possibility of another Romero disappointment. But that said, I'll still see anything he does. Because Night and Dawn are so good, they pretty much demand that of me.
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...being a lifetime fan of Romero and Fulci. But I was ultimately disappointed by LOTD. But, I gotta tell ya, I'm more hyped for W.W.Z.
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...after that piece of shit that was LotD you knew this was going to suck, didn't you?
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have never heard the word zombie?
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have never heard the word zombie?
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Nothing in this review really surprises me. LAND OF THE DEAD kinda felt like a cable movie.
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...and, likely, for many of you, that's fine. And good on ya. You get more flicks that you enjoy and resonate with you that way.Unfortunately for the rest of us, this spells a bad time at the movies. So in response, we simply don't go. That ultimately means a lower box office for Romero than he would have otherwise. And all hail the almighty box office, sole indicator of all things quality [/sarcasm]. Personally, I'd rather have the bold commentary that I don't personally agree with than paint-by-numbers crap, but business is business at the end of the day. I can't focus on my own political beliefs where decent film is concerned. Which brings me back to Romero going overboard...Sir Loin, I think you're on the left (and that's perfectly okay if you are), but at least you GET IT. I'm not saying Romero is ON the left. I'm saying he's on the FAR left. Big diff and one I hope at least you appreciate, despite myself being on the moderate right."He's just looking for a place to go," was the most horrid tripe I've heard in a wide released movie in years, before or since the release of LotD. He doesn't want peace... He wants to EAT YOU!! Remember, George? You invented this shit!! This, to me, is a clear indication that Romero has become way too consumed by the far, far political left that he's lost all touch of the potential power behind his own subtle, social commentary. And despite my own leaning toward the right, I miss that. I miss that.I'll never forget Childe Roland's apt take on the LotD film, comparing and contrasting it as a bad remake of Road Warrior 3. And where the hell is that guy these days anyhow?Back to DotD, this whole 'gotta remove myself from what's happening and simply REPORT' smacks of the Stone Phillips interview with David Bremer from years past... Bremer: "where were are these people you know are planning attacks against our soldiers so I can arrest them?" Phillips: "We don't disclose such information. We... report" (paraphrased). Disgusting. Stone Phillips is thus responsible for the loss of a few American lives, despite himself. Evidently, Romero carries that torch here. Reporters are forgiven for all trespasses.And, yes, Stone Phillips is nowhere near responsible for anywhere near as many lives lost as is Dubya, as many of you will claim in protest to this post, doubtless. I do not dispute that and I am no Bush cheerleader. However, I write this with the conviction of knowing that Bush didn't lob a single missile at Iraq without consent of Congress and a decent try at getting the UN and NATO to hold themselves accountable to the strength of their own convictions. Few presidents in recent history have done this prior to going to war. Bush did, unlike the rest.
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I didnt like Land at all. I was gutted. I'm not expecting this to be good - i hope im wrong.
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. . . it's kind of hard to take this review seriously. Although I have to admit, I loathed the last "Living Dead" entry. Perhaps Romero can redeem himself?
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In other news, water is still wet and the sky is still blue. Film at 11.
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Honestly I thought the "Blair Witch meets NOTD" was a good idea when I heard it pitched, in so much that the tone of the film might give you the "this is how it might really happen". But I dunno, the Romero zombie just isn't that scary. I thought the Dawn remake was much scarier in so much that you could UNDERSTAND how civilization fell. Zombies fucking sprinting after you, overrunning military lines rather then just shambling into machinegun fire? I just could never grasp how a bunch of slow moving corpses would destroy the entire world unless you LET them get to that point. Fast zombies are scary in much the sameway a deadly airborne virus is scary: It can spread fast, and it's very hard to contain unless you're right there at the start. Anyways, I might pick this up when it comes to OnDemand or Netflix...or if there truly is nothing in the theaters and I have a craving for movie popcorn.
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Seriously, what the hell has he done that he deserves to dismiss a director's work with lines like, "It feels like someone's trying to make a Romero movie", or "It didn't feel like a Argento movie...".
Jesus...way to peg people into small little holes, man. It's not about whether or not the movie is any good, but if it meets your criteria based on their old films. You walk into these things with notions of what they 'should' be doing...
How about YOU taking up a camera, and writing a script, and going through the motions to film something? All you provide is free advertising for films by touring sets and writing these little reviews... that's it. Your job wouldn't exist without the work these people do, but theirs certainly would. -
Grow some balls, you goddamn cry-babies. I can't respect you.
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Sep 20, 2007 10:21:42 PM CDT
Alientoast., re: "unless you LET them get to that point
by immortal_fish
"I just could never grasp how a bunch of slow moving corpses would destroy the entire world unless you LET them get to that point."Indeed. Barbara asked that very question in NotlD.But imagine a throng of faceless, nameless peoples. Slowly, surely, making their way toward you. They know what they want and so do you. You know what they want and will do to you individually. You do you best to distance yourself, yet still, they are coming. You're beating on the cellar window, in hope of breaking free from the inevitable. Still they come, shambling forward. Soon, their breath is upon you and you know that you can't escape being consumed. You are quickly surrounded and suddenly, you're flesh is torn. All surround you as they take little bites out of you, each in time. You are surrounded and eventually overwhelmed...Tell me how this is not true horror realized!
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A Romero Zombie movie that isnt a masterpiece is better then a carbon copy by michael bay.
So what it isnt Dawn of the Dead,does it really need to be?
He's doing something different.
Most film makers like George have 1-2 master pieces in them and thats it.Lucas had THX 1138 and the 1st star wars {remember he didnt direct empire}.Raimi had evil dead 2 and spiderman 2,wes craven had last house and nightmare on elm street.
Point being when you expect soemthing great,most times your not gonna get it. -
the trailer is up, wheres the discussion. Man. I guess kelly was crying wolf too much.
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Face if fanboyz. Romero got lucky in Night. It was subtle and hit the right points at the right time in the culture. Most everything he has done since is about as subtle as Marxist studies in a Soviet grade school. They have nothing to say about our real problems--only a testament to Romero's arrogant condescension toward the society that pays his bills. Shuck off the pablum symbolism and what you've got is a boring zombie movie--no innovation, no scares, no fear of contagion or absorption, no nothing. Planet Terror and 28 Weeks Later both schooled your zombie-raising ass on this but I'm sure you'll be quite happy with a "stinging" indictment of our media soaked culture ("Network" got here decades ago), and the "crypto-facists" that run things via the corporate fat cats... sorry my hippie lingo generator jammed up there. Romero, you're 30 years out of date and your skill sack is empty. Enjoy the money. Join the Peace Corps. We just don't care--but please stop courting the easily-impressed boomer spawn.
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I wanted to like Land OTD, and I want to like this.
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Good man! The last one sucked and I have no hope for this one!
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You have had a hard on for this fucking film for MONTHS NOW! Thank you for playing into typical geek bullshit with this review. Luckily for you; everyone here has saw this bullshit coming. You are not fooling anyone.
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It's too bad you didn't like it, Quint. I didn't mind Land of the Dead like most here. Sure, it wasn't near the greatness of the first two movies (Day is okay), but I found it solid. Maybe the crappy Resident Evil films make LotD great in comparison, but I liked it.
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Not with Quint on this one. I think Diary is his strongest work in many years.
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What the fuck are you talking about? "everyone here saw this bullshit coming"? I'll reserve final judgement when I see DotD, but after LotD I expect another steaming pile.
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With all the living dead movies out there today, Dawn of the dead wasgreat but was enough. Nowwith 28 weeks later; Land of the dead; ect, ect... It seems that Romero is doing this for the money, and if he is, then good for him, but don't put the name on top of that banner so people will think "hey Romero! That'll be great!!!"... Take a break Hollywood from the living dead movies, one every 5 to10 years should be enough, let the indie films make these in between, they have better lines anyways...
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That's one of my favorite Romero movies: equal parts vampire movie, character study, and delusion.
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Hitchcock withstanding, directors talents do not age like fine wine. They expire like cheese.
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why does no one else like that movie? It's got the best gags, the darkest jokes and the most interesting angle on it all. Also, I dig the feminist angle.
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give quint a break. he gives you his honest opinion and because it's different than what you want you shit on him. romero, from this person's honest opinion, is way fucking overrated. but what do i know? i think purple rain is better than anything romero has ever done.
has romero ever ONCE used appolonia???
fuck?!? -
same friggin monster.
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Why must this worthless shit cover most horror entries. Regardless what I think of this film it will be a bit better knowing Quint was upset by it.
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Sep 21, 2007 1:32:06 AM CDT
I love Romero and I'm still looking forward to this.
by ye olde gravy leg
Look. I love zombie movies like no other type of horror film out there. I was raised on them. But I'm sure Quint's review is pretty valid. The reason Night and Dawn were so amazingly rich with subtext was because Romero wasn't really trying so hard to put it in there, no matter how much people like to say he was. The character of Ben in Night was never meant to be black, they just cast Duane Jones because he was the best actor who auditioned for the role. Which in a way is pretty fucking cool in itself, if you think about it. You don't see that type of thing in most movies nowadays, let alone back then. And that doesn't make the racial subtext of Night any less powerful or valid or rich. In the case of Dawn parodying consumerism, you have to realize that they only set it in a mall because that was the cheapest place they could find to shoot it. Again, that doesn't mean it's any less meaningful. Just that they weren't trying so hard to make a film with a socio-political subtext. It just came out that way and was all the better for it. The problem I had with Land was that it was way too aware of itself as a Romero zombie movie, something which has to have layers upon layers of meaning to it. Combined with the studio interference and the suits wanting it to be a big damn action movie, there wasn't much room for it to breathe and find it's own meaning. Personally, I'm sure I'll like Diary of the Dead. But my expectations aren't all that high. Because part of the reason Land didn't work was Romero's own writing. He was trying to make a sequel to his best films, but forgot what it was that made them so great in the first place. It's hard to fault a filmmaker for trying something new, but it seems like his talent doesn't really shine through like it used to when he's trying so hard.
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I disagree with harry often but still enjoy and value what he has to say. But Quint is worthless as a reviewer. I never crack a smile or anything just so boring. I swear I can't even read his reviews anymore just have to skim them over the period of 24 hours.
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Are you fucking retarded?
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Oh yeah, Martin is easily one of the best Romero movies. I wish that one got more attention.
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If you use this, call me Harry's Sweaty Yellow Rimmed Anus. http://tinyurl.com/ytg8t7
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I think you're a cool dude, actually.
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For $20,000, those guys did a damn, good job.
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this one is shite after the abomination that was land, his movies have been as subtle as a fucking car bomb in a Sunday market with his take on political/social issues of the day, and your review has just confirmed by worst fears, that this fecker is probably gonna single handedly wreck the zombie genre...
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Well, he created the zombie genre. So he can do whatever the fuck he wants with it. Tool.
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My point is that everything I love about Romero (and not just his zombie movies, I include his work in Martin and The Crazies) is absent or a cartoon version of itself in this movie. Sure, there are a lot of nice zombie splatter moments in Diary, but the acting is so horrible, the characters so one-note and unrealistic that I have trouble understanding why people give this movie a pass.I've been on the other side of the argument, too. I've loved movies others have hated with a passion. I don't discount any other opinions, I'm just saying it didn't work for me. Yes, I think Halloween ('07) is horrible, too, but I don't take offense when someone uses my opinion on that film against me. Yeah, I didn't like Zombie's movie. So what? What's that prove? You might not agree with my opinion, but you don't have to read my reviews if you don't want to. Kind of the beauty of freedom of choice, no?I also have to laugh a bit at the suggestion that I wrote a bad review because I needed to save face from my original reaction to the idea of the movie. That I saw it and said, "Wow... that movie really was amazing and I was totally wrong... but I can't ever admit that! Fuck... I gotta write it a bad review!"If the movie worked, if the characters worked, I would have completely admitted I was wrong, but all my fears upon first hearing about the project showed up in the finished film.I respect Romero a great deal. He's a super sweet guy and he's a very talented filmmaker, but I'm not going to give him a pass when he makes a crappy movie. His SEASON OF THE WITCH was horrible... almost unwatchable, but that doesn't mean NIGHT, DAWN, DAY, MARTIN, THE CRAZIES or CREEPSHOW are bad. If this is the kind of movie he wants to make, good for him. I'm happy he's able to live his passion, truly I am as a fan of his. That doesn't mean I have to like his choices, though.
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I hate to say it, but this film was inexcusably bad, and equally dull. On almost every front the movie is flawed to the core. Uninspired and cliched in concept, content, and characterization. But the execution is even worse (performances, scare sequences, everything. And ON TOP OF ALL THAT add a steeming pile of pretension that is drilled into you're forehead with all the subtly of a Freshman art installation. I was really excited about this one, but I just left feeling both sad and angry. (also, I find it infuriating to see a formerly great filmmaker like Romero making smarmy belittling comment about a movie like 28 DAYS LATER, whilst simultaneously he so blatantly clinging to that very film's coat tails with his little digital Zombie. I'll take fast-moving zombies all day long, in so far as it keeps me away from another film as uninspired and ineptly executed like this) This movie felt like the death of the Zombie film.
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....or anything. I'm not sure what anyones problem is with this review other than they INSIST on liking it simply because it's George Romero, who, I hate to break it to you, has completely lost it. Land of the Dead was horrible, be thankful Quint gave that garbage a pass. In fact Zack Snyders Dawn remake is INFINITELY better than land of the dead (though not quite as good as the original Dawn). He tells you with examples EXACTLY why he didn't like the film. If you disagree fine, but don't go saying it was predetermined just because he didn't like that simpleton Halloween remake, which no one has yet thought of a proper defense for by the by.
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heavy handed, and in your face is automatically bullshit. Subtext should be hinted at and alluded to but never explicit. Hence the SUB before the text. There is nothing that shows a films insecurities like overt subtext. Although simpletons seem to eat it like candy. (See also Crash)
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I know Romero himself has expressed disappointment in it, and a desire to remake it, but that film works. It's low budget, and the 16 print on the DVD looks like Shit, but it's a nifty little story about feminism invading suburbia in the form of occult witchcraft - which I think is kinda clever. It is not literal gothic horror, but it plays with horror conventions to unmask men's fears of women's primal sexual power - made during all the sexual tumult of the 1970s.
The scene where Joan's neighbor is coaxed out of her safe suburban comfort zone by "dangerous" Greg, and tricked into thinking she has smoked a joint, and then has a nervous breakdown feels like something out of Cassavetes.
Sometimes you guys give praise to non-genre filmmakers here, and make some intelligent points. So I was surprised to see you bash on SeasonOTW, Quint, and I had to step up in its defense.
That is all. -
"Not with Quint on this one. I think Diary is his strongest work in many years."
well next to fucking knightriders and monkey shite that wouldn't be fucking hard would it...... -
DAWN's "satire of consumerism" = zombies in a shopping mall. For almost two frickin hours, zombies in a shopping mall. Subtle as a baseball bat whacked against your head for 2 hours. OK, George, we get it, we get it! Amazing how he's been in this business, breaking his ass to get these movies made, and he simply doesn't have very much to say. NIGHT is looking dated these days but it was (almost) Blair Witch before there was a Blair Witch--the cheapness worked for it. According to this review, the "actors" are way too self-aware and attempting to be "actorly." Too bad Romero didn't remember where the Blair Witch folks copped some of their vibe from, a director named George Romero. Does anyone really need another lame zombie movie from someone who, let's face it, hasn't advanced as a director much in about thirty years?
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Thanks for the review quint. I notice the almost complete absence of LAND OF THE DEAD, which was utter shite as well. I respect Harry defending the film but I can't help but feel he's seeing the ROMERO world through rose coloured glasses. He will defend anything and everything Romero does, arguing he sees subtlety where there is cliche, subtext where there is SCARY MOVIE bad writing, and brilliance where there is the sad harsh reality that Romero has lost it. If Romero had not made LAND or Diary I dare suspect that the world would be almost completely willing to let him be the classic ground breaking director for zombie horror that he was, but as he continues to make trite and crappy zombie films now, those who respected him once are faced more and more frequently with the sad realization that maybe LUCK was more on his side than anything else in the past. He is not profound, his subtext has less nuance than a child's GOOSEBUMPS novel, and his films are laughably bad.
Quint I applaud you for acknowledging it albeit reluctantly considering how you wrote your review, but I highly suspect that Romero could release "CRAP OF THE DEAD" and Harry would rave about it.
No offence Harry if you read this. -
After that painfully obvious and unsubtle Land of the Dead movie it is not surprising. That thing had the tact of a shotgun blast to the face. I pretty much knew this would suck because of how painful Land of the Dead was.
I don't understand why people refuse to admit when artists lose their edge. It happens all the time, and there's nothing wrong with admitting it. You can celebrate what they did at their peak while also being perfectly honest that their latest stuff sucks. -
on the other hand was a complete load of shite, fuck me you can tell that harry cant review anything with an impartial eye anymore
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And it's my favourite zombie movie of all time.It just Dawned on me too that the good thing about Romeros output is they are all completely different even though some folks can't see it and lump him with the label Zombie director.Night is dark, unrelenting and fucking creepy. Dawn is lighter and slapstick but very creepy. Day is balls to the wall Grimy Gore and very raw, Land was more comic book or graphic novel to me, more apocalypticI hope this is as a distinct unique experience and although I wasn't struck by Land the way the others tickled me (Some folks loved it though) maybee if I go in with lesser expectations it might just work! If I get a theatrical release near me that is because the sons a bitches never rleased LOTDead at my cinema and I feel the experience was further dampened by watchung it on DVDAnyhoo! I guess if you got a guy like Romero who's a genuine indie film maker, making the kind of stuff he does you aint gonna please everyone all the time and I guess what I'm saying is at least the guys not making chud like Transformers or fucking Ghost Rider so I will show my support til Im a fucking zombie or he's a zombie or we're all fucking zombies! BBBRRAIINNZZZZ!!!
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Which may not be saying much since the movie adaptations were critically panned by critics and fanboys alike.Personally I enjoyed the films for what they were,although not a faithful adaptation of the games,It's surpasses both Day and especially LOTD.
As much as I respect Romero forreinventing the Zombie genre,I'm kinda glad he didn't direct the RE movie. (Have any of you read his script/treatment? very,very lame.) -
why dont you stop reviewing horror flicks cos you clearly dont like them.
back to hairspray with you. -
That would really help me have a better understanding of how I should take this review.
It seems like some of the criticisms you make here could in some ways have been made about Land of the Dead, but I really loved Land of the Dead, so if you also did not like "Land" I will still be excited about "Diary." -
I honestly have to say u piss me off. Really. I think u r the worst thing about this once great site. You are a little f**kin bitch and need to be slapped until you head caves in.
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It has everything to do with your reactions to this movie from the go get. Much like with Halloween; your mind was made up about this movie last year, and this review was the end result. I will not fault you for being a geek, but do not insult my intelligence as if I did not know how the game is played. It's all about expectations and assumptions with geeks and yours have been out front about Diary long enough to explain this review... away. That's the point Vegas: This review is simply a means to an end in terms of Quint's feelings about this flick. Oh yeah... the Land hate and the Day hate is total and utter bullshit. I even goofed on Day the first time I saw it. Yet, upn further review, it's a hell of a film.
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Sure, a mass of slow moving cadavers shambling towards you, unrelenting, is scary...if you're surrounded, unprotected, and have 0 options. The problem I always had with the slow ones is they GAVE you the time to consider options. You actually have time to think. You can actually develop hope. With a fast moving killing machine, you don't have time for that. You have to get to safety. You are in a panic, hoping you don't collapse from exhaustion before it overtakes you. You aren't given the luxury of considering the situation...you have to make a flight or fight response then and there, and only those whom can think very quickly on their feet will have any hope of surviving. That was part of why "The Mist" was terrifying. Not only could you not see what was out in the fog, but you also knew that the stuff concealed within it was fast as fuck and brutal as fuck.
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It seems Harry's as pissed off at Quint as we are. Ha ha. You really dug a big hole for yourself, dip-shit! Guess Harry won't be inviting you round for BBQ at the weekend!
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is that it was all based on Matheson's "I am Legend". In the book, there are living vampires who are basically just like us and dead vampires. Romero just turned them into zombies and through the series of movies worked toward the point where the zombies take over and we "the living" are the outcast "monsters". Unfortunately, dead bodies moving around are conceptionally not the same as a conscious thinking vampire and that is where Land of the Dead misstepped. I just didn't buy that "They were going home". They are just mindless killers, they aren't "us" anymore. And Land of the Dead had such a suckass lefty "live and let live" spin that I will never enjoy anything Romero does again. He blew it big time.
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Good review Quint,now i'm dreading to see the film!
I like most of Romero's films (even BRUISER) but LAND OF THE DEAD was bad,i think...bad acting,uninteresting characters,no pace,obvious (sub)text...it was Romero's most boring and laziest film,i think.
I really fear that DIARY OF THE DEAD is a kind of LAND OF THE DEAD part 2...sad news. -
Well,it's not Argento's best film but it has a tight pace,a fun main idea,some very good acting from Stefania Rocca and Liam Cunningham and it has also a nice looking cinematography from the genius Benoit Debie.
It's much better than THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA and SLEEPLESS,i think.
Underrated. -
with Land, so I can't say I didn't see this coming. Night and Dawn are classic cinema, not just classic horror films. I was really hoping he would get his mojo back.
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It's because there is no way to make an original zombie movie any more, and Romero has done it so many times already that the "magic" is gone, never to return.
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it is, you LOTD and Romero fanboys need to wake up and realize that the guy was great in the 80's but times have moved on and so should you.
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Like seriously? How can it be some huge shock when "Land of the Dead" featured horrible acting, a stupid plot, and dumb ass scares and gore. The gore effects in "Day" still look better than the effects in "Land" and "Day" came out in 84. I really wanted to hate the "Dawn" remake, but I just couldn't. It was an entertaining movie in it's own right and it was better than "Land" but people can't seem to admit that. After the "Dawn" remake I was apart of the "Let Romero Make Another Dead Movie" bandwagon. But after seeing "Land" it was apparent that the old dude lost it completely.I also love it when some idiots post on here defending "Land" and try to make it out to be some great film. Saying stupid over the top shit about the film, like how the images of the money burning were "Powerful" and a "Strong Message". It's like, stop fucking reaching people...www.youarenotthefather.net
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Seriously, Rob Zombie is not some fucking visionary. He is a lame hack with a huge boner for "A Clock Work Orange" who did a lazy job at remaking a movie. Period. He's like Eli Roth, he talks shit about other movies, but when it comes to making a movie on his own, he sucks. Zombie peaked with "Rejects" which to me was a good movie. If he wanted to do something different with "Halloween", then go 100% at it. Don't do 45 minutes of white trash Michael, then the second half of the film be the remake of the original "Halloween" crammed into 35 minutes of running time. He got it all wrong.He is a lazy writer, and while people give MASSIVE amount of shit to Tarantino's female dialogue in "Death Proof", it was a hell of a lot fucking better than the "SUP BITCHES! YOU'RE A CUNT! (Cue laughing and pseudo lesbo pinching of each other's asses and squeel!) bullshit and dialogue that Zombie used in Halloween. He seemed to fucking copy and paste the bulletin board comments of stupid girls off Myspace to write is weak ass movie.And for the "At least Busta Rhymes wasn't in it" bullshit, sure he wasn't there, but Zombie wasn't remaking "Resurrection" he was remaking the original, and the original is damn near flawless. His talents are better suited for a "F13" remake.
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Sep 21, 2007 7:51:48 AM CDT
Mr. Profit, shut up and quit pimping your retarded site
by daddylonghead
Hostel was one of the best American horror movies of the past five years, and nobody gives a shit whether or not you think Romero should be "allowed" to make another Dead movie.
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Fuck I'm not happy...I wanted this to be a great film after the shitpile that was Land of the Dead. Sounds like I'm going to be disappointed once again. Hang it up, GR.
Ah, I agree completely that the Dawn remake was better than anything Romero has come up with lately. Sure, the Dawn remake had its weak moments -- and some shitty dialog -- and the zombie baby thing...well...
But that said, the opening 10 minutes to the Dawn remake was about as good as it fucking gets. Credits, opening music included...it was near perfect. Romero hasn't put 10 minutes of film that good together in quite a while. -
"Romero is way, way, unabashedly leftist...
by Immortal_Fish Sep 20th, 2007
09:34:15 PM
...and, likely, for many of you, that's fine. And good on ya. You get more flicks that you enjoy and resonate with you that way.
Unfortunately for the rest of us, this spells a bad time at the movies. So in response, we simply don't go. "
I find it hard to believe that somebody as blatantly right-wing as "Immortal_Fish" above, would even have the intelligence or imagination to want to watch movies in this genre.
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It occurs to me now that perhaps the apparently huge and disproportionate Romero-bashing on this forum is actually due to an underground campaign by creepy Republicans who have been targetting him for years due to his outspoken politics.
You Americans are completely fucked. You allowed your country to be taken over by a group of very sinister characters fronted by an arrogant grinning monkey.
I honestly hope some of your younger citizens grow up to turn this all around in a few years, and sort the USA out. The rest of us can only sit by and watch with disbelief and concern. -
Go Fulci!
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were almost on par with each other. Both had a couple of good scenes in seriously flawed films. My enthusiasm is dampened after this review because of the lackluster Land. I was really hoping Romero would turn things around.
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Hostel was an improvement over Cabin Fever. A big one. I'm not really into the "torture porn" (Stupid term BTW) subgenre of Horror. But I thought the film was interesting and a vast improvement. I should have prefaced what I originally said by mentioning the conversation I was apart of where Roth dissed the shit out of Wrong Turn and the TCM Remake, right when Cabin Fever debuted and it wasn't so hot. I don't like when directors take swipes at other films in favor of their own films that wind up not living to their hype. And as for no one caring what I have to say, hey yt's cool with me. I don't really log online to expect people to care about the random shit I say. It's not that serious. I just come on here and enjoy other people's posts because believe it or not, there are many smart movie fans here.Romero is still the king of the genre for starting the shit off way back in the late 60's, but now in 2007 he has lost it. But I still respect him the same way I still respect Carpenter, even though his output lately is not as great as it once was.One thing I can say, is at least they didn't become studio hacks like Craven did.
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Hilarious attempt at sounding elitist, dude. And what a conspiracy theory! You're a "truther," aren't ya? 9/11 was an inside job and all that. bahaha! Now go back to your tofu.
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If so, I'll be seeing it in barf-a- rama.
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According to most of the reviews I've read, there isn't much shaky-cam action. Thankfully.
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there was 84 Charlie MoPic. Damn good Vietnam flick, entirely from the viewpoint of an embedded cameraman. Seek it out.
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I think people have got it wrong about Quint and not liking the idea of a movie. For me at least, not expecting much going in is a sure fire way to actually quite like a film. Expectations are lowered enough so as to inflate the positives of what you witness and more easily ignore the weaknesses. Just because the guy doesn't like a movie doesn't give you license to rip him a new arse, it's fucking OPINION people. If you like a film, bully for fucking you, but you can't tell someone their opinion is wrong.
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...so let me get this right. Because Quint didn't like what he was hearing about DotD and RZ's Halloween before he saw them, he was going to review them badly no matter what? That's a pretty fucking silly accusation. RZH was TERRIBLE. Again, I have yet to see DioD, but I expect it to suck. I'd love to be wrong and enjoy the film, but I'm not holding my breath.
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C'mon Romero is famous for one thing, singlehandedly re-starting the American zombie franchise. Don'tcha think the guy is tired of trying to remake his own legacy? Give him a break. I'd much rather see the guy give a more personal project a try.
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Don't get me wrong, Dawn of the Dead is one of my favorite movies of all time.
But this is still the man who gave us Land of the Dead, the movie where the surviviors live on the streets instead of in any of the hundreds of empty buldings they can fortify and the plot revolves around John Leguzamo and Dennis Hopper both trying to escape with millions of dollars. WTF were they going to do with the money when they got away? Bribe the zombies? Thank you Mr. Romero for creating an amazing genre of survival horror and two of the greatest films of that genre ever made. But please hire a f'ing writer with a grasp of logic and some real actors from now on. -
what a shower of cunts
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Sep 23, 2007 9:36:12 PM CDT
Hey Brendan3, sorry you didn't get the point of Land
by romero4president
First off spanky, Your point makes no sense!!! They live in the abandoned buildings, just work on the streets,(thats why you saw the lesbians get ripped apart in the building from a zombie on the street through the window).As to your point about what they are going to do with the money once they get away...Remember when Cholo's friend tells you how much the bottle of whiskey is worth on the streets? Money matters in the zombie world, just like it does in the real world. If you don't understand the logic of the film, you shouldn't be a blogger on the subject at hand. Penis head.
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so honestly i'm not shocked. even the best of the best only have so many good films in them. look at fucking scorsese for god's sake. i love me some romero but he needs to step away from making films--especially about zombies--and rest on his laurels. i'll watch this on dvd and that'll be it.
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Its a frickin' zombie movie people. Its not like that had lasers on their heads or something. If I want to go see something with intellectually stimulating social commentary, I put ZOMBIE MOVIES at the bottom of that list, Romero or not. Although it's nice that George attempts to integrate that into the story line, I quite frankly go for the imaginative gore etc. I mean really, wasn't the sight of the people stumbling around in the pool kind of chilling? Or the zombie hanging from the overpass like a pinata disturbingly amusing? Have you seen that in any other zombie movie? No. We get cloned babes with garters and stockings (not such a bad thing either actually) or olympic level running zombies that have no personalities. Just sit back and be grateful that ole George is still kicking and putting out cool flicks that take you to another world for a little while.
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