Review of Diary of the Dead (2007) by Lee B — 03 Nov 2010

I wanted to see this again because I saw this movie first with another person on TV and, as is the case, you talk a bit through movies. And I guess I missed a bit from this movie. And I can say this about watching this a second time, it is not that great of a movie, but I loved listening to Romero's Director's Commentary.

This movie lost a lot of appeal when you dwell on where the story is going. This was the movie where I realized Romero was really siding with shock and awe of the modern zombie movie and not being completely faithful to what I felt he was doing in his earlier movies. However, even his early stuff has some fun, like the helicopter, but that seemed to just be scenes of the moment. This one just looked like it was staged too much. And that was part of the purpose for this movie, people played to the camera. And that is its downfall. I think this is the one that will not stand the test of time of his movies. Even the social points weren't as good as his others.

However, the Director's Commentary is worth people finding this movie again, as Romero is very insightful about how he is making movies these days and what can be done with technology. It is definitely what you would expect from an early pioneer of low budget execution that has been about to survive. He talks about how he was able to save money and speed up the process by sacrificing certain things to advanced technology and always talks with reverence about how things get done these days. He never comes off as a crotchety old man and seems to have a youthful exuberance about what can be done these days. For that, I want him to make more and more movies.