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Diary Of The Dead - Limited Edition 2 Disc Steelbook Metal Packaging [2007]


RRP: £22.99
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Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review

George A Romero continues his revival of his iconic zombie franchise with Diary Of The Dead, the fifth film in a series that kicked off back in 1968 with Night Of The Living Dead. And while his latest doesn’t manage to match the heights of the earlier films, there’s still something refreshing about watching a genuine master of the genre at work.

This time around then, Diary Of The Dead heads a little back to basics, with a film that follows a group of amateur filmmakers who find themselves under siege from zombies, allowing the legendary director to take some less-than-subtle swipes at the YouTube generation. Sadly, his cast don’t help him very much, ringing in primarily forgettable performances, and this certainly nullifies some of the points that Romero tries to make.

Yet when it comes to the zombie action, there’s no number you’d call faster than Romero’s, and here’s where the great man delivers. Diary Of The Dead does work along the law of diminishing returns, and is the weakest of the series, but it’s not without a general collection of skilful moments that fans of the genre won't want to miss.

Diary Of The Dead isn’t a film that you need to have seen the others before it to appreciate, but it is a primarily quite ordinary film from an often-extraordinary director. That said, it still easily eclipses the army of imitators of recent times (the splendid zombie romantic comedy Shaun Of The Dead excepted, of course), and has more than enough horror to fill an empty night. --Jon Foster


Romero, the Godfather of the Zombie Movie, Does it again...
Review date: 2008-09-03 Rating: 10 out of 10

After hearing that this was crap compared to Cloverfield (2007) I had originally thought to leave this and wait till it was on terrestrial Television. It was not until i bought Cloverfield and watched it for the first time that the Hype for the Film was over a film that dealt very little about the creatures plot in the film (which you would think would have as much as the characters who get picked off during the course of the film).
However after being slightly dissapointed with the much hyped Cloverfield my interest grew in this Romero Insert into the "New Media" Film technique.
Obviously i had heard from one of my friends that it wasn't as good as cloverfield, so that made me wonder would me and my family (My Mum & Brother) find this was better than Cloverfield?

AFter the Credits at the end started to roll my questions were answered.
this film went back to Romero's roots and dealt with the horrors facing our world today (Such as YouTube, MySpace, Bebo, etc.) as well as injecting his own brand of Horror (The Living Dead) and his Pitch Black Humour.

DIARY OF THE DEAD Proves that no matter who makes them or what they become, George A. Romero Proves that he is a Master of the Zombie Film.
Well done George, Keep them coming...

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Reviews


diary of the
Review date: 2008-07-21 Rating: 6 out of 10

Iam a big Romero fan and looked forward to this since news first broke of Georges intention to make it..........It started well , drawing me in in true Romero fashion but just as it threatened to really get going...ie when the group meet the others holed up in the units where they load up with supplies.......it sort of stuttered its way to a dissappointing and flat conclusion..almost as if someone else had taken over the writing......i hate to say it , but i didnt like it and would put it at the bottom of his movies........If he goes again ....and i hope he does.... it needs more punch...pace ..and panache....!

Romero gives zombies the "Blair Witch" treatment but unfortunately the gamble fails
Review date: 2008-07-19 Rating: 4 out of 10

With "Diary Of The Dead" Romero uses a different approach to the zombie concept. Instead of showing a zombie outbreak as a traditional horror, he goes for the fly-on-the wall documentary style. A group of kids are filming a low budget horror film when suddenly news comes through of the dead coming back to life and causing absolute chaos. Almost straight away they are confronted with a zombie and this is the beginning of a whole chain of horrifying events, all of which the film crew catch on camera.

The trouble is the film is very slow, there's a lot of long and meaningless dialogue amongst the film crew, punctuated by moments of action and gore when they run into another zombie. But the film has no flow to it, it jumps from one zombie encounter to another as the film crew endeavour to catch everything they can on film, but not much else, there's no sense of purpose to it all. Because of this the film becomes very dull as it plods from one zombie to the next, leaving you wondering when something substantive is going to happen. The whole fly-on-the-wall thing is also very unrealistically portrayed, the main cameraman films absolutely everything, even the most trivial conversations, it's as if the camera is glued to him. In fact at one point a member of the crew gets attacked by a zombie and instead of trying to help his colleague from this life-threatening situation, he decides catching it all on film is more important and just carries on filming his colleague's desperate fight. This is just a ridiculous scene and in one swoop destroys all sense of realism that Romero is trying to create.

Romero also uses the film as a platform to tackle the social issues that the dead coming back to life create, showing that the living can be just as mindless as the living dead. But Romero has already tackled these issues in 'Dawn Of The Dead' and even more in 'Land Of The Dead', so why go over old ground again, it's completely unnecessary.

On the positive side the zombies are shown vividly in their full horror and are as chilling and terrifying as you'd expect from a Romero film, nobody does zombies better than him. The zombies are killed in some very novel and imaginative ways and the gore factor is as brutal ever. But, ultimately, this documentary style just doesn't work, it's too slow, lacks any sense of believability, and re-treads old ground that has already been covered, and much better, in Romero's previous two films.

Pretty Box.... Devastatingly Crap Movie!!!!
Review date: 2008-07-11 Rating: 2 out of 10

This Has to be one of the worst movies Ive ever seen this side of the century Im sorry but someone had 2 say it. The acting is so unbelieveably fake!!!! Michelle Morgan is as irritating a leading actress as they get! What was Romero thinking casting these bums, and if shooting in the same style as Blair witch and Cloverfield wasnt bad enough. Romero should know its been done 2 death. Honestly!!!! I gave up all respect for the man when Zombies wandered right past the guy holding the camera who was meant 2 be involved in this thing and chased after the other students clearly further away!!!
The only thing done right in this film was the special effects which was the only convincing part of it. I really cant stress how bad the acting was. Ive seen high school drama classes pull off more believeable material than this!!!! Romero should hang his head in shame for this utter sham of a movie.... If u could even call it that! Its more like a couple of cheesy kids with a camera.
The only way this movie could have saved some of its very small supply of dignity chips is if it killed Michelles character off somewhere near the start. Then at least I wouldnt be ashamed telling people that I actually watched this film through 2 the end.

Seriously.... anyone expecting a good Friday or Saturday night in best avoid this as you will only curse ur blockbuster membership when u finally realize why the clerk was laughing as he packed ur rental. If I could rate this thing with a negative five star I would. U couldnt give this crap away!!!!

Again, to the hardcore romero fans out there..... I had to say it cause most of u would just run with the rest of them and u wouldnt be doing anyone let alone urselfs justice by rating this crap five stars in hope of Romeros next piece redeeming him.

Ive never felt so violated by a movie as much as I feel after watching this. If the intent of a movie was to see how many p*ssed off viewers it can create by the end credits then this should get the award.

died of death
Review date: 2008-06-29 Rating: 2 out of 10

what a shame it didn't work. However loyal you are to Romero, either as a gore fan or because the political or social topics encountered in all his zombie series intrigue you, they were sorely executed.
I was led to believe after watching the film that this was more of a rant at the new wave zombie movies and ethics even modern horror with the disposable actors, this is partly the case (zombies don't run) (the camcorder style films) but the rest is down to being simply a bad film.
rationality has gone completely out the window, watching your friends being attacked and rather film it that drop it, not looking at the bigger picture and just abandoning filming and focus on our basic survival, zombie piggy backs, hoping someone has a play-station, negligence. Romero is having another go with a bigger budget so don't disband-on all hope...yet

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Michelle Morgan
Joshua Close
Simon Pegg
Shawn Roberts

Creators:
Joshua Close (Primary Contributor)
Michelle Morgan (Primary Contributor)

Director(s):

Recording label: Optimum Home Entertainment
Manufacturer: Optimum Home Entertainment
EAN: 5055201801609
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 2
Format: Limited Edition, PAL,
Release date: 2008-06-30
Audience rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 91 minutes

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