Due to coursework and Christmas I ain't gonna be on here too much for a while
Due to coursework and Christmas I ain't gonna be on here too much for a while
Member since:07.04.2007
Reviews:152
Members who trust:92
George A. Romero is the creator of Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead two of the greatest zombie films of all time. Diary of the Dead is his fifth installment in the 'Dead' series and some 40 years on from that first great movie I think it is about time Romero packed it in.
Diary of the Dead starts off reasonably enough. A news team are covering a brutal murder in some American city. The bodies are being wheeled into the ambulance when suddenly they start to move. Rejoice, rejoice they're not dead, you'd think. But they are. They start to bite the ambulance crew and walk slowly around towards the news team and police. Well the American police aren't going to take any of this crap, after quickly referring to standard police protocol they find out that when people who shouldn't be dead turn out not to be dead the first thing they should do is shoot, as they do. (They didn't even know they were zombies, it made no sense.)
Then the film moves on and we're in a forest at night and the film is seen through the camera of Jason an aspiring documentarian who has decided
to make a horror movie for his final piece for college. All his friends are helping him, but upon hearing that the dead are coming back to life on the radio they get a little razzled (first time I've ever typed razzled). So two of them decided to leave whilst the rest get into a camper van and drive off to the dorms to see what's going on. All of what I just described lasted about 15 minutes. It had really crappy dialogue, was really annoying to watch because of how it was filmed and was really too long for all the plot relevance.
They then pick up Jason's girlfriend in her dorm where everyone else has fled. So they all decide to get home together in the camper. All being a hot texan woman and her boyfriend who are rather bland; Jason who videos everything and is really annoying in the film; his selfish, annoying girlfriend played by someone who really can't act; some guy from Brooklyn who doesn't seem to like any of them and is constantly angry for no apparent reason; a very stressed girl who owns the camper van; a geeky guy and their professor who is all very English and an alcoholic with a hip flask that never runs out.
They then go on a small series of adventures as they make their way home together. They have a pistol with an apparently endless supply of bullets (as well as a massive lack of acting talent). They visit a hospital which I personally would avoid during a zombie apocalypse. Hospitals and graveyards are definately on the No-Go list. They come across some sort of black panther group who are suddenly empowered and loving it and they meet a deaf-mute amish farmer called Samuel. (He was the best character)
Throughout the film is filmed by Jason and some of the others through their two cameras. They are ridiculously determined to document the entire thing and it is really annoying. He sticks to the camera to such an extent that he won't help anyone. The Texan is being chased by a zombie and almost caught by him and he just watches and that's just one example. It happens throughout. Don't get me wrong I really enjoyed The Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield which were both filmed in a similar style but Diary of the Dead just doesn't do it well. There was also apart of the film were for about 10 minutes Jason discussed editing the footage. This was not in the least interesting or plot relevant. We'd already seen the footage he was editing and it was just really boring. "Move on" I was screaming at the TV. People taking casual strolls past my house quickened their pace. This was a large problem with the film. There really weren't enough zombies. Far too many scenes of uninteresting, badly written dialogue inside the van, too many scenes discussing the documenting and not enough zombies, not enough gore and not enough entertainment.
The acting was pretty bad and the characters themselves uninteresting. I've had a look at the filmographies of some of the actors and they were pretty dire. The only other major part for one guy was a role as a Power Ranger and if anyone has watched Power Rangers they'll know that you don't need to know how to act to get the job.
I was highly disappointed with this film, I'm somthing of a fan of Romero and was expecting and hoping for something at least watchable but I don't plan on ever seeing Diary... ever again. It's only up side were a few humourous quips throughout. The Zombie genre has been highly satirised and parodied and I think Romero didn't want to be seen to be taking it seriously either. A complete let down. Hang your head in shame George Romero
Certificate
18 in the UK for gore and violence and alot of bad language. It wasn't as gorey or as violent as his earlier films and I think the 18 certificate abit excessive.
Trailer
http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi283443481/
' ''DVD'''
I had a rental copy that had no DVD extras other than a trailer. It cost me £3 to rent and having seen it I wouldn't spend £3 to buy it.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Production Year: 2000 - Horror - Director: Keenen Ivory Wayans - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring: Carmen Electra, Anna Faris, Kurt Fuller, James Van Der Beek, Keenen Ivory Wayans
good review! another person who liked cloverfield though?
whats to like about it.
jeaniecz 11.07.2008 20:21
great review! I dont like zombies films
greenierexyboy 07.07.2008 09:54
Ah, but Romero is renowned for the amount of social commentary in his films...maybe he was pointing out that 99.9% of the stuff posted on YouTube is rubbish?
![Diary Of The Dead [Amaray]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/100709887.jpg "Diary Of The Dead [Amaray]")
Jul 6th, 2008
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