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Dual Review. Well, kinda. “Diary Of The Dead”, and “Vantage Point”

Posted on March 9, 2008 in the Film, Rants category

One of these movies is really good. The other is not.

Ill bet you can guess which one. Ill start with George “One trick pony” Romero’s “Diary Of The Dead.” In an attempt to milk his once wondrous nihilistic horror cash cow, Romero has chosen to take a new approach to filming, in that the whole film is recorded using the POV of the characters involved as the dead begin to rise from death and subsequently attack the living. This style seems to be the new Hollywood rage and when it works, it really works. “Cloverfield” is a perfect example of this. This is because said film actually had likeable characters and an interesting take on re-creating the monster movie attacking the city formula with a fresh and modern post September 11th anxiety. “Diary of the Dead” is just shit. The characters are all boring, the set pieces are not scary in the slightest and the acting is so bad the zombies are more likely to win awards. It really is that bad. Awfully bad. And it really is such a shame to tarnish Romero’s Dead saga with this film, but it just goes to show what Hollywood will do in the aim of making a few dollars. The only relatively decent characters are a scythe wielding deaf amish farmer and an alcoholic British professor. This is how flat and 2 dimensional the film is. If there is an underlying message of mankind’s need to view horrible things instead of intervening I stopped caring about it and wanted everyone to die about 15 minutes into this celluloid abortion. Listen to “Vicarious” by Tool. Its infinitely better and you don’t have to damage your brain by partaking. Do NOT, I repeat do NOT pay good money to see this, that money could go on something ultimately more interesting. I have actually made a list of things I would rather do than watch this film again. These involve wanking off an angry lion and getting my scrotum shaved with a cheese grater.

“Vantage Point” is a much better film. Centering around an assassination attempt on the US president in Spain, the film replays the incident from a number of people’s perspectives as Dennis Quade, Matthew Fox and Forest Whitaker try and unravel the mystery of who is responsible. The film works really well, aside from the often annoying time reversal segues, good solid performances from everyone and some huge plot twists. It plays out like a really good episode of 24, not one of the shitty ones. Im sorry, im really sorry. “Diary Of The Dead” has ruined movies for me. I cant go on anymore……

Go see “Vantage Point”, give “Diary” a wide birth.

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