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the harsh reality of it all is that if you like this movie...you don't know anything about zombies movies. I don't care who directed it.
I waited months for this to come out and within the first 20 minutes I was ready to walk out. Of course I stayed so I was able to legitimately bash this piece of shit movie. The CGI was awful and unwanted, the underlining message of the media was weak, the characters were annoying, and it seemed as if the characters ran into the Lancaster PA chapter of the Black Panthers(what the fuck?).
There was extremely poor humor that was ridiculous (i.e. the mummy zombie and the deaf amish dude...c'mon really?) and just a complete sense of disregard to the other classics.
Romero is a fallen icon and this crap fest is the nail in the coffin.
George A Romero's career
R.I.P.
He hasn't made a decent film in many years and probably won't ever make one again.
On the plus side: gore effects, several interesting zombie scenarios.
Minuses: Weak script, shallow characters, slow-moving, just not believable.
Overall: As a longtime fan of the zombie genre, and of George Romero, I am sorry to say that this movie was disappointing- we expect better from Mr. Romero.
So, I really dig the original three movies, but Land I didn't think was that good, so I was pretty excited when read a early positive review of this.
Imagine my surprise then, when the movie turned out to suck.
The acting is horrible. The characters are cliche. The narration is both cliche and pretentious. The dialogue is, at times, all of the above. Hell, one of the major points of human vs human conflict happens when the film students run into a group of wannabe black panthers.
It wants to be an examination of how the media controls what we know or how we view things, and that's all well and good, but the media presented in the film doesn't warrant the characters criticism of it. There are all these news clips of zombies ruining society and then the characters yell about how mis-representational the media is. I guess we're just supposed to take their word for it, cause it looked to me (based on the "news" clips) like the friggen world was ending. It's an interesting idea, but the movie makes no real attempt to tackle it. All this makes the message that it tries to clumsily pound into the audience that much more frustrating.
The entire movie had me wondering how he (or anyone else) could have thought that this was good.
I honestly cannot see how this movie could get more than an average rating at best. The CGI effects were shitty, the acting was shitty, the ending was especially shitty and I also enjoyed how all forms of communication went down world wide... except the internet. I mean seriously, the zombie apocalypse is upon us and people are more worried about BLOGGING? Actually, that's not so far fetched these days... which makes me hate the idea even more. Independent or not, I don't think any part of this movie should be forgiven for being an indie film. Romero has decades of experience and it's just inexcusable how truly crappy it is. Just an all around bad, bad movie.
This movie was much better than I thought it would be. Once again, Romero has hit his mark with infusing satire into his zombie films. I was expecting a bad movie being that it went direct to video (I think, did it get a theatre release?) but this was the opposite. The story line was good, and I appreciate the main characters journey. Her evolution was good, and Romero shot the film very well. It made you feel for her - hard to find now-a-days. The effects were cheesy at times, but hey...it's a gory horror movie...We've all come to expect it. Overall, definitely worth renting...
This one was dreadful and clearly is a sign that Romero has lost any talent he once had. It's like it was written by a film school reject who had never seen a zombie movie. Not scary, just painful and pointless to watch. Stuntgirlstef summed it up really well.
Just finished watching this a little while ago and I thought it was amazing! Before posting this, I went through and read every other of the user reviews and am intrigued as to why this movie is so polarizing. Seems as if it was a love it or hate it type of thing, no one really in the middle. The message was great, the zombie deaths were great as well...pretty hard to have a melting head from acid without CGI, so get over it for those that didn't appreciate it. I'm looking forward to George continuing this story however he goes about it...but please stick to the low budget indie way, Land of the Dead was utter garbage, especially compared to this newest outing! Kudos Mr. Romero...oh and if anyone else even tried to do this, it would have failed miserably, only George could have done such a fantastic job with it, and he did so quite well!!!
Loved it! Nice to see someone still doing the zombie thing decently.
My only complaint with Romero is he tends to beat his message (what ever social issue or slant he's placing in the film) a bit too much for me. I get it. We all get it. Maybe back in the day, folks missed the message due to the shock of this new type of horror film. Hell, people freaked when the Frankenstein monster tossed the girl in to the lake. In todays world, that wouldn't even rate a ripple. I think the horror viewers now a day watch closer and listen more to the story line. We see pass the gore (of course stopping to admire it...lol)and want something, for a lack of a better word, more.
I still wish to this day that George would write one movie tying ALL of his zombie movies together. I don't know what you could do that with the first three (although the folks who flew to that island in "Day" have me thinking a few ideas...)because of the time issues and age of the actors in them but, Land and this one, you could. Figure out some way they hook up and continue the story from there. Obviously, from the way Land and Diary ended, the story isn't finished. Give us a zombie movie that takes this thing to an whole new level of story telling.With as bad as things are getting in the real world, the audience is there.
In the end, was glad to see this and add it to my collection. Worth the rental at least.
i just rented and watched it today it was a really entertaining movie i was very suprised i thought it wanst going to be as good as the others it turned out to be a good movie from my favorite director it did have some flaws one i felt was that the movie in the very beginning moved way to fast and it didnt have the same atmosphere his other movies had other than that it was pertty good
Didn't have the same autmosphere as the other dead movies. Also, too many computer generated gore scenes. I hate CGI shit. Thought Romero was better than that.
I wouldn't call this a masterpiece, but it's halfway decent. I was letdown by the lack of zombie action and the main character is an incredible bitch who I would have dropped off on the side of the highway, but otherwise it's a kinda cool film.
Romero is desperatley trying to recapture the spark and allure to his efforts sophomoric such as Dawn or Day, but falls flat on his face. Why? well rather than scribe the myriad of reasons why this movie is garbage and why the romero sycophants should remove their thinking structures from thier anal orafice's I will just say that he has lost it, and since there isnt a major production company involed he only has himself to blame
Romero does it again!! Diary of the Dead is a horror masterpiece. If you’re a fan of zombie movies you’re in for a real treat…. Who knows you may have a new favourite. At first I thought I wouldn’t be able to get into it because of the way they shot the film but I absolutely loved it.
George A. Romero is truly the master of the dead. diary of the dead is a masterpiece that should not be by-passed. its cloverfield with zombies!! this movie is full of random scares and even humor.
the only problem i had with diary of the dead is that the acting was cheezy in certain parts and some scenes can drag on for alittle too long. other that pick this one up as soon as possible!!
I just watched Diary of the Dead and I'm completely disappointed.
It was basically a snooze fest.
Instead of writing a huge paragraph about all the many faults I'll just use point form.
-not scary whatsoever
-bad acting
-very obvious cgi
-zero character development
-boring characters
-very robotic (it didn't seem real at all)
-predictable
-pretentious narrations
-no tension or build up (I never once felt nervous, it was like watching a movie on valium, no care at all)
I felt like this movie was trying way too hard to be intelligent and meaningful and I'm a little insulted. It's definitely time for Romero to hang it up. I don't understand how he can dish out this garbage and make people believe it's actually good. I watched intently with an open mind and tried really hard to enjoy it, but I refuse to like something just because it has Romero's name on it. This movie sucks.
Fantastic movie. I may go as far to say that it could be Romero's best. As an film student and documentary aficionado the message behind this film struck me deep. I highly recommend this movie to anybody documentary makers or zombie fans in general.
I felt real insulted by ths film, all i kept doing was shouting at the characters reactions. George must understand that as fans watch this, they know a thing or two about evading zombies and survival. Like the part where they go into the mansion, WHY DIDN'T THEY SHUT THE GATE OR DOOR? and why the hell did the camera man not help that women when she was being attacked. And why didn't they stay with those looters...you know those black guys with the big guns. The directing was weak, I didn't feel suspense or tension. Dawn of the dead is my all time favorite movie, because it explores how an average person would survive in a zombie epidemic situation, like day of the dead and night of the living dead.
But this movie was boring, i found it empty, the plot was simple and the dialog was dry and im sick of him explaining how the living are the monsters and not the dead. This is where it doesn't get scary for me, he doesn't make the zombies scary enough. He didn't explore the epidemic enough, like in Dawn, you can really see the scale of the epidemic.There was great potential to use the camera as a real scary device, like making it intimate and claustrophobic, using it in the dark etc etc. That's the problem these days, people arne't scared of the dark.
In his original trilogy, the zombies are real monsters. The budget was low so he had to really work on the films, nowadays it seems like he's making a quick buck.
And i cared about the characters in the originals, as all they wanted to do was survive and they worked with each other...naturally you'll get some who spoil it, the ones in this film just wanted to be miserable spoilt teenagers. I think Romero should look at something else to do as films like [REC] have torn a new arsehole for zombie films.
It's great to see old georgie boy going back to basics in this his 5th movie in the genre. I loved it, Not sure that there's much of a future for the "hand held cam" perspective in movies though, but, keep e'm comming George. :)
I am waiting for this on DVD because no theatre within 100 miles that had Diary Of The Dead. I was crushed, I got over it though. Hopefully it was as good as his originals(not the sh** remakes).
www.myspace.com/excarnate - MyOwnAutopsy
Among "Diary's" messages is the one, just because you have film footage of something does that make it valuable (e.g. YouTube's billions of videos)? And is something only worth something because it is captured on film? Does that, in itself, make it "real"?
I think the premise of the movie addresses a related issue, that of user reviews on sites like amazon.com and even here on BD. The question I hear being asked is, just because you write something online does it matter? Does it make it real?
I see the majority of blogs, user opinions and such fall in the same arena for criticism. Just because you said something, does it matter? Are you better for saying it? Are you more "democratized" or "real" for being able to say it in this medium?
My point is, who the fuck cares what the general "YOU" thinks. 98% of "YOU" are meaningless...but the promise of the Internet age is that "YOU" matter because now "YOUR" words can get spread globally from your plastic covered coach. Wow, now "YOU" can spend 60 seconds jamming your fat fingers into a keyboard, farting out words like an expiring, bloated body.
So, I say, nice job, George! You continue to bring a fresh message to each of your movies...but in the end I am "YOU" and "I" suck...so what the fuck are "YOU ALL" doing reading this!? Fuck you...
What can be said about Diary of the Dead that hasn’t already been said about Afghanistan?
Zombies haven’t been this uninteresting since Zombie Planet.
I can’t believe Romero would even put his name on this piece of shit, let alone let people watch it. Sure, the man is no stranger to shitty cinema, but if there is one thing the man knows how to do, it’s make a zombie movie. Obviously he’s proven that a few times. I don’t know if he’s just too senile to tell the difference anymore or what. I can’t give him too hard a time, he’s like 90, but whoever his caretakers are shouldn’t be taking him out of his nursing home room and exploiting his name like this. It’s just unethical.
If you’ve heard anything about the premise, you probably thought to yourself, "Gee, that sounds pretty stupid". You would be 100% correct. There are no redeeming qualtities to this movie that I can think of.
I haven’t wanted to walk out on a movie this bad since Boogieman, not to mention 28 Days Later 2: Electric Bugaloo. Yes, I was the idiot that went to Boogieman. Sam Raimi’s laughing all the way to the bank.
And it seems that I was also the idiot that went to see Diary of the Dead. Eager to give an old man a chance after a proven track record despite how lame it sounded. I need to work on trusting my instincts.
Now as any Romero fan knows, his "Dead" movies are usually supposed to parallel society in the period that each film comes out. In this one, he cleverly (and by clever I mean not clever at all) incorporates text messaging, MySpace, YouTube, blogs, and what have you. Wow, he hit the nail on the head this time! Pure genius!
If his goal was to reflect the lameness of the reality television generation, mission accomplished. This turd was lame as fuck.
The acting...shit. The direction...subpar at best. Scariness/atmostphere....shit. The writing...hmmm. Chok full of "clever" nods to Romero’s loathing for the Dawn of the Dead remake and its respective running zombies, yet he didn’t seem to mind lifting other ideas from it like some crane shots of cars colliding, and even one of the actors from it.
Seriously, this is like no other Romero zombie film. This is like a Dimension Extreme title at best. If you’ve never seen a Dimension Extreme movie, don’t. That includes Diary of the Dead. I’ll be shocked if the Day of the Dead remake starring Nick Cannon isn’t better (which is getting ready to come to dvd). I wish I didn’t really believe that. I’ve got that one on my Netflix list. I really need to reexamine my instincts.
This movie was amazing. It could easily be because I kept reading about how absolutely terrible the acting and dialog was so I was going in with a fairly low expectations as I didn't want to be disappointed. But the acting surprised me. Sure, the acting wasn't anything great, and there were plenty of cheesy lines and acting but overall it wasn't unbearable. It was about the acting I was expecting from a Romero film. He's never really had the greatest actors. And he's always had the occasional cheesy one-liners (although I will admit that this one had more than most of his movies). I also kept reading about people's problems with how blatantly obvious the social commentary was. Yeah, sure, it was obvious, especially in comparison to his other films, but that was pretty much the entire point of the film. I can understand some horror fans who just wanted a gory zombie flick being disappointed but I found the commentary to be pretty interesting and well put in. I was also expecting the narration to be ridiculously constant and annoying but I didn't think it was. It was put in at key moments in the film that I think added to what it was. True, it could have done without it and gotten the same point across, but I didn't think it hurt anything to have it there. Oh, and the ending was incredible. It couldn't have ended any better way.
The movie is different from Romero's other zombie flicks so I can understand some disappointment. But I really enjoyed it because it WAS different. It was a tale of obsession and madness, which I found to be very cool. It also had some new inventive zombie kills we haven't seen before. Maybe if I went in expecting the movie to be as good if not better than one of his original films I would have been disappointed. I dunno. All I know is that I loved what I watched.
What's more is that the movie had some incredibly creepy scenes (notably the scene with the zombies in the pool). It actually had a dark apocalyptic, hopeless feel to it, which Land of the Dead lacked. As different as it was, it really did feel much more like a classic Romero film. It also had some absolutely hilarious moments, all of which were intentional.
A lot of complaints have been about the POV. I thought it worked incredibly well. Sure, there were many moments where you think "that would never happen in real life" but the thing is, is that it's a "realistic" film set in ROMERO'S universe. It has Romero's rules, meaning that the movie can afford to have some ridiculous impossible kills (such as the Amish guy scene with the sickle). But thats just all part of the fun.
In the end, I loved it. Without a doubt one of the best horror movies to come out in a while. I liked it more than Land of the Dead, which I thought was good, but could have been much better. His original trilogy will always be his best work but I believe that Diary is defiantly worthy of being apart of the same family.
Humongous pile of shit. What a monumental letdown. Of course, I wasn't very thrilled by 'Land of the Dead', but this film makes that look like Citizen fucking Kane. George Romero is a dinosaur trying to connect with a generation he can't understand. Yes, we all log on to You-Tube and watch streming internet video daily... but we don't want our zombie movies presented in the same fashion.
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This film fails on so many levels. First, handheld storytelling is limp-dick. It barely worked for 'Cloverfield', and coupled with a zombie apocalypse it just feels completely out of place. I can suspend disbelief for most films, especially ones that revolve around zombies, but I couldn't buy for a second the motivations behind some loser wanting to document everything happening around him with his camcorder. Also, when your characters reference "myspace" and "you-tube", not only does it sound too lame for words, but it dates the movie when it could have avoided it.
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Second, the cast is offensively bad. I understand casting unknowns, but how about some unknowns with some acting chops? All of the players here are annoying, forgettable characatures of people Romero doesn't know how to write. Some of the things these people say is so fucking fake, your eyes will roll back in your head never to be seen again. I couldn't find one person to latch on to... care about... hope makes it through to the end. I wanted them all dead in the first 10 minutes.
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Third, it wasn't scary. I never felt tense about anything going on in this film. Maybe it was the way it was shot (horribly), but I never felt unsafe as a viewer. A LOT of fake scares and CGI blood which never looks effective on the big screen.
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I hated this movie. I miss the Romero of old. The 'Night', 'Dawn', 'Day', Creepshow' Romero. I think it's fine if you want to reboot a story you created, but I do mind when you choose to tell it in a gimmicky way. Stop trying to appear "hip" and just make a fucking zombie film.
Ok, Dawn of the Dead (original) is probably my favorite zombie movie of all time. Heck, it is. There I said it. NOTLD was really moody and I totally dug that. Day was nice and Land was alright but wasnt bad.
I dont know what Im reading but we apparently did not see the same movie. This movie was utter crap. Like, if George Romeros name was not on this, you wouldnt give it the time of day. This is utter shit. I wanted to love this but you cant. This film just wont let you. Ugggh... I just cant believe he had to go and make this and it was THIS BAD... im also upset that its getting a sequel... my gooood, uuuuggggh. Dont take my word for it see it and understand my pain.
Posted By: sandroace at 11:44pm, February 20, 2008
Watched this movie over the weekend and I must say it was well worth the price of admission. After being slightly disappointed in his last attempt(Land of the Dead)I was hoping that this film would renew my faith in Romero, and boy did it ever.
I've always been a fan of the "slow walking" zombies that Romero incorporates in his films, now don't get me wrong as I feel that 28 Days(and weeks) Later, as well as the Dawn remake made good use of the fast running zombies, but for me slow adds more suspense and atmosphere to the zombies themselves.
Anyways this movie is full of atmosphere giving you the real sense that these events are really happening. The acting for the most part was very well done and the gore effects(save maybe two)were of top quality. I surely hope this movie does well in the theaters(even though it was released in limited theaters, especially here in Canada)and more so does well in DVD sales, as to encourage a sequel.
Great movie highly recommended to any Zombie fan and highly recommended to all others who want to see a good depiction on todays society and dependency on the internet.
Well done Romero good to see you going back to your roots.
Once again FULL of satire. " What good is having all this information at our finger tips if its all lies" Romero is timeless and I am always in awe of how he adapts this "nightmare of the living dead" to suit the "you tube generation" I waited patiently to see this film for over a year and even traveled a hour (to the only theatre in the area playing it) George never let me down. Keep up the good work George......
Posted By: kaufmanfan at 2:13am, February 20, 2008
a brilliant little film by the brilliant george a romero
Ever since I first heard that another 'dead' movie was in the works, I was absolutely thrilled. Finally, Mr. George A. Romero was going back to his roots, unchained by corporate finagling, forced re-writes and cuts, etc. Tonight, I went to the theater with great hopes for this sure to be masterpiece of a film. After all, Mr. Romero is the Godfather of the zombie movement itself. Surely, this new take on this much diluted genre, would take my breath away, with old faithful at the helm. I was optimistic, despite some early reviews scathing the film somewhat. What I actually saw was not the film I had built up in my mind.
First and foremost, let me say that in no way, shape, or form am I going to claim that this film was garbage. It had quite a few awe inspiring sequences that had the old Romero feel to it. The kills were amazingly genius and graphically gory. The defibrillator to the head, the Amish scythe double kill, the arrow shots, and the human fish bowl were extremely inventive, awesome scenes. But… the rest of the movie was, to say the least, a bit disappointing.
Firstly, where did George finds these players? Isn’t a George Romero film usually heavily character driven? I was having trouble believing that the scenario was real when the people involved didn’t really even act scared! Let me tell you something… if this kind of shit is going down all around me, I can say with certainty, that I would not be taking it lightly at all. I was painfully aware that I was watching a movie, and not a documentary. Cloverfield, while giving many people headaches and making them nauseous, sucked you in because it looked and felt real. I understand the idea of said people using the camera to avoid having to truly deal with the carnage occurring all around them. But, having the group back up and then re-enter a door to obtain a better shot? Shit, man. There are flesh eating zombies all over the place! Get inside!
The second glaring problem was the piss poor dialogue/ narrative. It sounds to me like Mr. Romero has tried to write dialogue that is alien to him and his particular style. It all just seems way too cookie cutter and just wasn't believable. The entire movie wasn’t like this, but when it was, it was very distracting. I know that in the past ‘dead’ films, Mr. Romero has always integrated social references into his works, and done so quite well, in my opinion. But, what exactly he was trying to say here is really kind of incomprehensible. Okay, so… we, as humans, are our own worst enemy; without our electronic devices and technology as a whole, we are lost; and the media presents nothing but lies and fabricated truths. These are good topics, but, unfortunately, they are nothing new.
I must say, though, that the cinematography was done well. It was a good looking movie for the budget that they had to work with. And even though sometimes a bit distracting in itself, the shots that the film did provide were very pleasing on the eye. As far as the score goes, we had music playing in the background in a few scenes. But, what do you expect when someone is shooting a live documentary type movie?
You can’t tell by this review that I have been a huge Romero fan ever since I watched Night, but I have. I so wanted this movie to be another in a long line of George A. Romero successes. What happened? Maybe Romero just stepped a little too far out of the box on this one. Maybe it’s just the fact that this is once again unfamiliar territory for a once very experienced documentary artist. I honestly don’t know. I even was able to justify and enjoy the much panned Land of the Dead. I hear that a Part II is in the works for Diary… I won’t give up on one of my favorite directors. I have faith that the mistakes that were made in this addition will be corrected in the next. Maybe a second viewing will change my mind. Hopefully, an extended cut on dvd. I must say that I am very glad that this master of film is back at the plate, swinging away. Next time, just aim a little higher, George.
I wanted to be able to log on today and add a very enthusiastic review for this movie and I am extremely sorry to say this..but I can't. After George's break from Universal I thought it would be different as I wanted to blame them entirely for the Land of the Dead, but I saw Diary today and it just wasn't anything phenomenal. There were some great moments as with the arrow killings and the human fish bowl, not to mention the opening "how it began" scene and all of the kill scenes in general. The kill scenes...pure genius some of them and they all looked remarkable, but thats where the good ends and the bad begins. The narrative was horrible....not only did it remove the suspense from the fact that she would live...but she was oh so annoying. She preached and analyzed everything about how we can't trust the media and mankind is its own worst enemy. It is such bland and beaten material that we have heard all before. Next, we have some horrible dialog. It was so stereotypical and over the top. I felt like I was listening to some older people trying to emanate being hip younger people. If he could have just focused on the situation and let it unfold as they would have seen it themselves without all the story by numbers, stupid behavior, and in your face morality lessons, I think it could have been so much better. It almost feels like he was trying too hard to make a message movie of some sociological depth, but instead it came off pretentious and predictable. I love zombie movies...always have and always will, but to see the man that created the very zombie mythos that is ingrained in every zombie movie, book, and our popular culture get lost in the very genre he initiated makes me feel sad. He has continued to do great work in horror, but these last two movies makes me think that he should pass the torch of the zombie movies off to another generation...and this comes from someone from that is first generation.
Wow, are all these good reviews because we all feel bad for old George?
This movie was awful. The acting, the script, everything was just horrendous. I wanted to like this so so much. Even by the end I was trying to justify any part of this mess, but it was just shit. Worn out ideas, preachy narrative, shit.
The documentary style did not work for me like it did in Cloverfield, throughout this whole piece of garbage I was always very aware that I was watching a movie.
It seems to be trying to make some point about humanity, but it never explains what. No truth in the media? Technology controls us? Stick to a point! All we get is a lot of BS from the lead chick about how humans are so awful. But why? Explain yourself bitch!
Anyways, just played out, old ideas that have been done better in any one of George's other 'Dead' films.
And it wasn't even fun. not even 'dumb fun'. Just boring. A few good kills, but that couldn't save this.
Avoid! And I really mean that. Sorry George.
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