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I have always rated the work of George A. Romero.He pretty much invented the zombie movie in the late 60's with 'Night Of The Living Dead' and went on to make some great films in this genre.His 1978 classic 'Dawn Of The Dead' is still regarded by many as the ultimate zombie flick.
His latest film 'Diary Of The Dead' is made in the vein of being shot on a hand held camcorder (as in 'The Blair Witch Project' and more recently 'Cloverfield').I was really looking forward to seeing what the great Mr.Romero was going to do with this format.The answer was sadly though,not a great deal.'Diary Of The Dead' starts well enough with a 'live' t.v. broadcast going horribly wrong as corpses being loaded into the back of an ambulance begin to come back to life.The scene then switches to a group of film students making their own horror movie about a mummy.
This again starts quite promisingly with the director calling the scene to an abrupt halt as the mummy is simply moving too fast!.This is surely Romero's swipe at the current craze of 'turbo zombies' that have become more popular since movies like '28 Days Later' and the 2004 remake of his own 'Dawn Of The Dead'.Other memorable scenes such a guy who has clearly hung himself off a bridge only to become reanimated again are funny and the kind of material we have come to expect in Romero's movies.
Sadly these moments are few and far between and the film has some quite serious flaws which for me pretty much spoiled the ride.Firstly some of the acting is truly appalling in it,Seriously,most of the zombies can act better!.Then there is the blood and gore,I am not a 'gore bore' by any means but in a zombie movie you expect a fair amount,yet in this there is hardly any.The characters have no personalities at all and you really couldn't care less if they all get eaten!.On top of this there is pretty much no plot and key scenes would have benefited greatly from at least some atmosphere or tension.
For these type of films to work well they need to recreate footage which looks believable.'Cloverfield' certainly managed that and for this reason it was fast moving,fun and enjoyable.This does not look anything like believable in any part other than perhaps the opening scene.Also the acting needs to be realistic as to make the footage look as authentic as possible.Sadly,this really doesn't happen here.Romero does offer us an explanation as to why these events are being captured on camera though,which was refreshing.In how many of these films have you thought why are they filming this stuff instead of getting the hell out of there ?.
Don't get me wrong 'Diary Of The Dead' is not an awful film.For sure the timing of it coming out so soon after 'Cloverfield' was not great,as that film did everything so much better than it is done here.I don't want to upset any fans of George A. Romero (as I'm one myself) but I expected his return to low budget film making to be a far more enjoyable experience than this.
Sadly not Romero's finest hour 5/10.
His latest film 'Diary Of The Dead' is made in the vein of being shot on a hand held camcorder (as in 'The Blair Witch Project' and more recently 'Cloverfield').I was really looking forward to seeing what the great Mr.Romero was going to do with this format.The answer was sadly though,not a great deal.'Diary Of The Dead' starts well enough with a 'live' t.v. broadcast going horribly wrong as corpses being loaded into the back of an ambulance begin to come back to life.The scene then switches to a group of film students making their own horror movie about a mummy.
This again starts quite promisingly with the director calling the scene to an abrupt halt as the mummy is simply moving too fast!.This is surely Romero's swipe at the current craze of 'turbo zombies' that have become more popular since movies like '28 Days Later' and the 2004 remake of his own 'Dawn Of The Dead'.Other memorable scenes such a guy who has clearly hung himself off a bridge only to become reanimated again are funny and the kind of material we have come to expect in Romero's movies.
Sadly these moments are few and far between and the film has some quite serious flaws which for me pretty much spoiled the ride.Firstly some of the acting is truly appalling in it,Seriously,most of the zombies can act better!.Then there is the blood and gore,I am not a 'gore bore' by any means but in a zombie movie you expect a fair amount,yet in this there is hardly any.The characters have no personalities at all and you really couldn't care less if they all get eaten!.On top of this there is pretty much no plot and key scenes would have benefited greatly from at least some atmosphere or tension.
For these type of films to work well they need to recreate footage which looks believable.'Cloverfield' certainly managed that and for this reason it was fast moving,fun and enjoyable.This does not look anything like believable in any part other than perhaps the opening scene.Also the acting needs to be realistic as to make the footage look as authentic as possible.Sadly,this really doesn't happen here.Romero does offer us an explanation as to why these events are being captured on camera though,which was refreshing.In how many of these films have you thought why are they filming this stuff instead of getting the hell out of there ?.
Don't get me wrong 'Diary Of The Dead' is not an awful film.For sure the timing of it coming out so soon after 'Cloverfield' was not great,as that film did everything so much better than it is done here.I don't want to upset any fans of George A. Romero (as I'm one myself) but I expected his return to low budget film making to be a far more enjoyable experience than this.
Sadly not Romero's finest hour 5/10.
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I have always rated the work of George A. Romero.He pretty much invented the zombie movie in the late 60's with 'Night Of The Living Dead' and went on to make some great films in this genre.His 1978 classic 'Dawn Of The Dead' is still regarded by many as the ultimate zombie flick.
His latest film 'Diary Of The Dead' is made in the vein of being shot on a hand held camcorder (as in 'The Blair Witch Project' and more recently 'Cloverfield').I was really looking forward to seeing what the great Mr.Romero was going to do with this format.The answer was sadly though,not a great deal.'Diary Of The Dead' starts well enough with a 'live' t.v. broadcast going horribly wrong as corpses being loaded into the back of an ambulance begin to come back to life.The scene then switches to a group of film students making their own horror movie about a mummy.
This again starts quite promisingly with the director calling the scene to an abrupt halt as the mummy is simply moving too fast!.This is surely Romero's swipe at the current craze of 'turbo zombies' that have become more popular since movies like '28 Days Later' and the 2004 remake of his own 'Dawn Of The Dead'.Other memorable scenes such a guy who has clearly hung himself off a bridge only to become reanimated again are funny and the kind of material we have come to expect in Romero's movies.
Sadly these moments are few and far between and the film has some quite serious flaws which for me pretty much spoiled the ride.Firstly some of the acting is truly appalling in it,Seriously,most of the zombies can act better!.Then there is the blood and gore,I am not a 'gore bore' by any means but in a zombie movie you expect a fair amount,yet in this there is hardly any.The characters have no personalities at all and you really couldn't care less if they all get eaten!.On top of this there is pretty much no plot and key scenes would have benefited greatly from at least some atmosphere or tension.
For these type of films to work well they need to recreate footage which looks believable.'Cloverfield' certainly managed that and for this reason it was fast moving,fun and enjoyable.This does not look anything like believable in any part other than perhaps the opening scene.Also the acting needs to be realistic as to make the footage look as authentic as possible.Sadly,this really doesn't happen here.Romero does offer us an explanation as to why these events are being captured on camera though,which was refreshing.In how many of these films have you thought why are they filming this stuff instead of getting the hell out of there ?.
Don't get me wrong 'Diary Of The Dead' is not an awful film.For sure the timing of it coming out so soon after 'Cloverfield' was not great,as that film did everything so much better than it is done here.I don't want to upset any fans of George A. Romero (as I'm one myself) but I expected his return to low budget film making to be a far more enjoyable experience than this.
Sadly not Romero's finest hour 5/10.
His latest film 'Diary Of The Dead' is made in the vein of being shot on a hand held camcorder (as in 'The Blair Witch Project' and more recently 'Cloverfield').I was really looking forward to seeing what the great Mr.Romero was going to do with this format.The answer was sadly though,not a great deal.'Diary Of The Dead' starts well enough with a 'live' t.v. broadcast going horribly wrong as corpses being loaded into the back of an ambulance begin to come back to life.The scene then switches to a group of film students making their own horror movie about a mummy.
This again starts quite promisingly with the director calling the scene to an abrupt halt as the mummy is simply moving too fast!.This is surely Romero's swipe at the current craze of 'turbo zombies' that have become more popular since movies like '28 Days Later' and the 2004 remake of his own 'Dawn Of The Dead'.Other memorable scenes such a guy who has clearly hung himself off a bridge only to become reanimated again are funny and the kind of material we have come to expect in Romero's movies.
Sadly these moments are few and far between and the film has some quite serious flaws which for me pretty much spoiled the ride.Firstly some of the acting is truly appalling in it,Seriously,most of the zombies can act better!.Then there is the blood and gore,I am not a 'gore bore' by any means but in a zombie movie you expect a fair amount,yet in this there is hardly any.The characters have no personalities at all and you really couldn't care less if they all get eaten!.On top of this there is pretty much no plot and key scenes would have benefited greatly from at least some atmosphere or tension.
For these type of films to work well they need to recreate footage which looks believable.'Cloverfield' certainly managed that and for this reason it was fast moving,fun and enjoyable.This does not look anything like believable in any part other than perhaps the opening scene.Also the acting needs to be realistic as to make the footage look as authentic as possible.Sadly,this really doesn't happen here.Romero does offer us an explanation as to why these events are being captured on camera though,which was refreshing.In how many of these films have you thought why are they filming this stuff instead of getting the hell out of there ?.
Don't get me wrong 'Diary Of The Dead' is not an awful film.For sure the timing of it coming out so soon after 'Cloverfield' was not great,as that film did everything so much better than it is done here.I don't want to upset any fans of George A. Romero (as I'm one myself) but I expected his return to low budget film making to be a far more enjoyable experience than this.
Sadly not Romero's finest hour 5/10.