Diary of the Dead on DVD (2008)

SO SO SO SO BAD!!!!!

emzash from Newcastle upon Tyne [Highly rated reviewer] , 10/03/2008

PLEASE DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME AND MONEY ON THIS GARBAGE! ! !

WORST FILM I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE........

ITS CRAZY HOW FILMS THIS BAD CAN BE MADE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Read all reviews

the worst dead

Russell22 [Highly rated reviewer] , 09/03/2008

Diary of the dead is george romero's 5th zombie film and the 2nd one he's done in the last 3 yrs. This installment takes us back to the day it all started and is told from the perspective of a group of college students who are filming as the zombie outbreak occurs..think cloverfield with zombies and you'd be on the right track.

Things start promisingly enough with some tension and good make up fx..but about 30 mins in the whole things goes seadily downhill. The film is told at a sanils pace..long lingering dialogue scenes occur without anything really happeneing. When the zombies are on screen the whole thing livens up but the rest is so boring. There was long exposition in both dawn and day of the dead but in those films we cared about the characters and their relationships with one a nother. In this you dont give a damn who dies next and everyone is just bland..apart from the only good character,the kids cocky,alcaholic college professor who prefers to kill zombies with a bow and arrow coz its more dignified!

Some other reviewer said this was better than Land of the dead....it isnt....land was far superior to this even though that was the worse installement till this one. Land had some great moments and great zombie kills/fx and even a couple of cool characters but this has litle to offer.

It isnt all bad..romero is incapable of making a completley bad film. The first 30 mins or so is quite well handled and some of the zombie kills are fun and the last scene is very romero and really cool.

If you are new to these films..below is how i'd rate these in order

1. Dawn of the dead (1979) ( the best installement..the citizen kane of zombie films!)

2. Day of the dead (1985) ( the most goriest and over the top and a cool bad guy too)

3 Night of the living dead (1968) ( grounbreaking when released but quite basic now,save for the very powerful end scene)

4. Land of the dead (2005) ( the most high budget and has the most recognisable cast..a decent entry but nowhere near the best)

5. Diary of the dead (2008) ( well the worse enrty to date im afraid,see review above)

Read all reviews

Disappointing

Mark from Wimbledon, London [Highly rated reviewer] , 13/03/2008

I'm a massive zombie/Romero fan, but I'm beginning to think that perhaps he isn't quite as great as I originally thought, and that he just got lucky with his first 2 films. I think this had potential to be good, and I think that it's so easy to make a decent zombie film, yet he screwed it up. The main bugbear is people simply not behaving in a realistic fashion in this situation.

e.g. 'Zombies are attacking everyone and we know that you have to get them in the head to kill them. Ooh, a lovely cache of weapons - what do we have here? Machinegun, ok...pistol...good...Oh I know, I'll take this bow and arrow. And maybe I'll get drunk while I'm at it'

Nuff said.

The myspace-esque social commentary stuff is also a bit last year and comes across quite overdone and contrived.

Read all reviews

This old Zombie still has some life in it

Vivacia from London [Highly rated reviewer] , 17/03/2008

Zombies? Check. College Kids? Check. Romero? Check. Running headlong into danger with no apparant regard for your own safety? Double Check.

If the above sounds familiar than you know what to expect from Romero's 'Diary Of The Dead'. Not a lot of new ground is covered though it is told in a different way, with every shot being made by the protaganists themselves as they document the sudden rise of the dead and the chaos it causes. Through their filming and internet posts we see the 'dawn of the dead' in the era of camera phones and downloads. Romera has a point to make in this film and it isn't subtle. He at once shows the strengths and weaknesses of the internet/youtube age, as the official media lie about the recent phenomena and the internet confuses everyone with the mass of information available.

If you're not into 'messages' in films than 'Diary Of The Dead' will likely annoy you, as it is very heavy handed. But if you take this film as it seems to have been intended (tongue firmly in cheek) then it is an enjoyable ride with a number of dark humour jokes along the way. The graphics are excellent and the zombie death scenes more imaginative then they've been in other Romero works. Not to mention the coolest Amish man in movies ever.

Sadly though'Diary Of The Dead' is not without it's problems. The cast of characters we are following are largely bland, uncharismatic and at times make crazy decisions that no sane person would surely make in this situation. It's largely acceptable that they manage to get their hands on so many weapons so quickly (this is America after all) but it makes you long for the inventiveness of Shaun with nothing but garden implements and a cricket bat to fight the undead. The biggest problem by far though can be summed up in one word - 'Cloverfield'. This film will unfairly be compared to that other 'first person perspective' horror movie and it does suffer when held up against it. The shock value is gone and there's a distinct feeling of 'i've seen this before'. Romero likely kicked himself for not getting this film out first.

'Diary Of The Dead' is a fun, relatively short ride that is a welcome, though by far not the best, addition to the Romero/Zombie catalogue. If you've never 'got' Romero's humour in his other films give this one a miss, as this is the major saving grace of the film. Here's hoping Romero will give up the Zombies for a bit and try his hand at something else. Mummies anyone?

Read all reviews

Poor!!

rorylee from Nottingham , 25/09/2008

I rented this purely on the strength of Romeros earlier work - I was wrong to do this!!

The film just never really did it for me - cr*p acting, cr*p story line and cr*p script. Quite frankly I wanted all the characters dead within the first 15 minutes!

If you're expecting someting similar to 'Land of The Dead' or his earlier work then you will be mighty pi**ed off when you watch this. I'm not sure he's now not just releasing stuff with his name on when other high budget Zombie flicks come out (eg Dawn Of The Dead remake and Land of the dead and now this and Day Of The Dead remake).

George do yourself a favour - accept that your earlier work was spot on and retire the master film maker of this genre. Don't put out waffle like this and retire a two bit money grabbing film maker.

Avoid this film!

Read all highest rated reviews

can't decide versus in denial.

superba from London, UK [Highly rated reviewer] , 13/03/2008

If I didn't know it was Romero, I'm not sure I would have identified it as such - his cameo aside, of course.

There were moments of absolute brilliance (effing random Amish guy = so going to have a cult following, the creative kills of zombs were pretty amazing too), but the acting was a bit poor, and the dialogue moreso.

I don't know. I knew Romero was going to go back to low-key film making, but this almost seemed like it was so far back he went past when he used to be good?!

I think it's a grower. It is by no means as great as the original trilogy, but it's kinda pointless even saying that, even though everyone does, because those three films are the man's legacy. He is never going to recapture that.

Read all highest rated reviews