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George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead (2007)

Director: George A Romero

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3 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out New York

Rebooting his Dead series right back to moment zero, George Romero delivers the first chapter of a new era: When Zombies Attack 2.0. It’s the present day, and corpses have only just started rising. A group of students shooting “a horror movie with an underlying sense of social satire” (wink, wink) jump into their Winnebago and head for safety. Debra (Morgan) is the sensible one, Eliot (Dinicol) is a nerdy hors d’oeuvre–to-be, and their professor (Wentworth) supplies the alcoholic bons mots and archery skills. As for Jason (Close), he’s the guy who’s been documenting everything we’ve been watching, more concerned with keeping a chowing cadaver in his camcorder’s frame than preventing catastrophe.

If you sense that a metacritique about new media’s stranglehold is being mounted, you’re dead right. Diary knows its currency resides in creative kills (when one character picks up a scythe, you can hear Fangoria subscribers holding their breath), but the movie doesn’t bother hiding its subtext. Romero lays out his disgust of the compulsion to record atrocities rather than directly engage, and like Brian De Palma—another angry graybeard who’s recently discovered YouTube—he’s unafraid to use the medium of consumer video to attack the mind-set. Regrettably, the director hasn’t figured out that substituting undigested chunks of On Photography for real dialogue simply equals didacticism. There’s so much food for thought to feast on, however, that Diary’s crude jabs don’t lessen the sting. “Are we even worth saving?” asks one cynic at the film’s climax. According to Romero, the jury is still out.

Author: David Fear 2008-02-13 23:38:20

Time Out New York Issue 646: February 14–20, 2008

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User reviews of this film

Chris said...

Posted on Mar 20 2008 20:27 An appalling film, both irritating and dull from the first frame to the last!
I'd like to say Romero seems to be showing his audience contempt for wanting to watch films of this genre, but feel I can't even give him credit for that. Instead, he's trying to sell the YouTube generation a film that is nowhere near as clever as it thinks it is. The plot is devoid of logic, the characters are completely unlikeable, and the acting and direction are lifeless.
All in all, a brain-numbing, unwatchable Bore-fest!

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Marc said...

Posted on Mar 14 2008 18:10 What a waste of time watching this film and a waste of money! the acting is terrible and nothing really happens, and the end is even worse. Dont bother watching it!

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mike pocock said...

Posted on Mar 12 2008 22:59 This Film is a total load of rubbish from the start and can not belive it was rated an 18 acting is very bad and film was made using a cam corder i could only handle 30 minutes and had to walk out with my coke and pop corn save your money and watch something worth watching...

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