Is Diary of The Dead good or not? [Archive]

Flyboy

07-25-2009, 02:42 PM

Awful film, and made worse by sitting in a cinema with the missus and a close friend when you're the flag-waving, 'Dawn' shirt wearing Romero freak that I, and all of you, are.

Made me feel sorry for the man, knowing that the majority of that audience sitting in the dark with myself were flavour-of-week 'movie on a Friday night' crowd who haven't seen the greatness ol' George is capable of.

Embarassing.

oatcake

07-25-2009, 03:14 PM

i thought it was ok i've seen worse by far. But it didn't match up to GAR's night of the living dead or dawn hopefully his new movie will be much better.

Airborne

07-25-2009, 04:06 PM

I thought it was ok (I voted Good). I bought it (out of support) and have watched it more than once. Clearly, not his best but I like it better than Land.

UNDEAD FRED

07-25-2009, 04:40 PM

I voted good. I liked it better after seeing it a few times. A lot better then the other zombie movies that have came out recently.

Victor Clark

07-25-2009, 06:55 PM

Am I the only one who really liked this movie? I admit that it's hard to compare to NOTLD or DOTD, but not many films can match up to that! I loved Diary of the Dead, I own the DVD, and I thought it was a great addition to Romero's filmmaking.

DarthJoe8

07-25-2009, 09:45 PM

@Paul99...What does this have to do with whether this is a good movie or not???? :loon: This belongs in zombie talk or sumtin yo!! :drinking:

Creeping Death

07-26-2009, 01:00 PM

Obviously its not as good as the other 4 in his series, but that doesn't mean its no good.

It was a boring movie.
But it was a pretty cool zombie movie.

I voted good, because I own it, and don't consider it a waste. :)

KillKaylaDead

07-26-2009, 09:29 PM

I enjoyed it a lot. Didn't take it too seriously. It gave me a good giggle here and there. This was FAR from Romero's best work, though! I have my fingers crossed that he will redeem himself =].

Zombie_215

07-27-2009, 10:26 AM

I voted good because ok wasn't an option. I bought the movie for my collection. There are zed movies out there that were alot worse than Diary was!

DeAdLY SiNZz

07-27-2009, 11:42 AM

it's decent but there where some things that were really dumb about the movie

Frallon

07-31-2009, 06:43 PM

There are zed movies out there that were alot worse than Diary was!

I have my fingers crossed that he will redeem himself =].

Yeah, a lot worse, like Day of the Dead 2 worse. lol, n I'm pretty sure we all have our fingers crossed, Romero's one halfway decent zombie movie away from retirement. Hopefully he'll want to go out on a good note

zombie surfer

07-31-2009, 06:49 PM

I thought it was ok (I voted Good). I bought it (out of support) and have watched it more than once. Clearly, not his best but I like it better than Land.

I also prefer it over Land sure it's not awesome but it's still a good zombie film & way better than some of the shit i own.

Dogg Thang

08-01-2009, 05:07 AM

I've already voted on this but may as well chime in on the discussion. Personally, I found there to be some enjoyable elements to Diary. Some of the setups were good, the deaf Amish guy in particular.

But those positive elements were overwhelmed by the embarrassment I felt while watching the movie. It's one thing having some poor actors. It's a whole other thing having actors turn and talk to the screen and spout clumsy exposition right into my face. I felt like I was watching pretty much what I would have thought it was had Romero not been involved - a bunch of kids making their first movie. Talking to the screen is really difficult to pull off at the best of times. Blair Witch managed to get away with it. An episode of MASH mostly got away with it and even that has some awkward moments.

But Diary wasn't even close. That main girl just couldn't pull it off.

I felt really bad for Romero. I'm such a fan. But I hope I never have to watch Diary of the Dead again.

Frallon

08-01-2009, 05:28 PM

I've already voted on this but may as well chime in on the discussion. Personally, I found there to be some enjoyable elements to Diary. Some of the setups were good, the deaf Amish guy in particular.

Good Call, what about the teacher who appeared out of nowhere into the back of their RV, and for some reason has no problem with taking human life (also apparently a trained marksman)...

ZombiesAteMyDog

08-01-2009, 06:01 PM

there should be a middle ground option like it was ok with some problems but ive seen worse kinda option.

but lacking that ill pick its good as i stand by my belief that romero at his worst is better then 90% of the zombie genre at its best.

:drinking:

kiltedninja

08-03-2009, 10:15 PM

Good Call, what about the teacher who appeared out of nowhere into the back of their RV, and for some reason has no problem with taking human life (also apparently a trained marksman)...

He explains it if you listen, he was in the military.

I liked it, but it's definitely not my favorite of GAR's movies.

git67

08-05-2009, 07:16 PM

I dont think it was a masterpiece, but there were some good moments...eg nurse zombie eyeballs exploding from defib to head, and the part with the armish (espcially how he dies)http://allthingszombie.com/forums/images/smilies/icon_dead.gif
Dead was pretty cool

*gotta work on the emotes though*

Frallon

08-05-2009, 09:18 PM

He explains it if you listen, he was in the military.

I've seen it twice...does he explain it in the R.V? lol, bc I'll have to watch it again

Victor Clark

08-05-2009, 10:58 PM

I've seen it twice...does he explain it in the R.V? lol, bc I'll have to watch it again

I think it was either right before or right after they encountered the military jeep that stole their goods.

Subgenius

08-26-2009, 11:56 AM

I voted that it was good. It's not my favorite GAR film for sure. But, it's still better than most other zombie movies. I say that, if GAR had filmed Diary of the Dead in a traditional style rather than that unsteady-cam (cameraman as character) style, then the film would have been a lot better and far more interesting. Also, dump the exposition and the voice over. THAT would have went a long way towards making the film better.

zombie2x4

08-26-2009, 02:44 PM

Sadly I feel it fails I don't think GAR should be fed to the Zeds but he should be ashamed (i voted that it was crap). It's no Dawn thats for sure

joanna

08-26-2009, 03:03 PM

i made my boyfriend take me to see this and he is not a zombie fan and it made him even less of a zombie fan so i then had to show him GAR's real genius by showing him dawn and now e has warmed to zombies...

th acting let down diary..no emotion, even when the girl kills her self and the hidden room part behind the bookshelf wasnt that good...

Nathinial

08-29-2009, 12:31 AM

It's one thing having some poor actors. It's a whole other thing having actors turn and talk to the screen and spout clumsy exposition right into my face. I felt like I was watching pretty much what I would have thought it was had Romero not been involved - a bunch of kids making their first movie. Talking to the screen is really difficult to pull off at the best of times. Blair Witch managed to get away with it.

ZomCom

08-30-2009, 07:13 PM

Sure, it's good, but not great. That makes it a well above average zed flick. Consider, Romero has made five good-to-great zombie movies. No one else comes close to that, and it would be hard to name two directors that have 5 good zombie films between them.

ZombiesAteMyDog

08-31-2009, 01:52 PM

the more I think about diary the more I keep coming up with the same thought, im going to change my stance a bit from my first post ....

the more and more I watch land of the dead, the longer its been since first seeing it and having my high expectations dashed the more and more I like it,

infact at this point in time I would say for me personally land of the dead is closing the gap with the original 3 movies by romero, this oddly enough is the same thing that happend with day of the dead, everyone hated it comapred to the first 2 then over the next 10 - 15 years it became a favorite and well loved movie, now imagine land 5 years from now.

now back on point, diary is what, 1 - 2 years old at the very most? I am willlng to bet people will view diary alot more favorably in the coming 5 - 10 years, romeros movies seem to get better with age, it seems like as they move out of the era the social commentary is poking fun at they drastically improve.

I strongly suspect this will be the case, at least to some degree with diary of the dead as well.

also zomcom great point about finding even 2 directors that combined have 5 movies anywhere near as good as romeros.

:drinking:

Dr GonZo

09-11-2009, 07:02 PM

Its pure :poo:

Godzilla_Rules

09-11-2009, 11:26 PM

you know, diary was a disapointment. so was land. i so loved dawn and day of the dead but after that it became too overly Hollywood and less Georges very own uniqueness.

DarthJoe8

09-12-2009, 09:17 AM

I just watched Diary last night and it's still a shit fest!! The hospital scene is so F-ing retarded it hurts!!:x

Partymanjoe

09-12-2009, 10:05 AM

Yeah, a lot worse, like Day of the Dead 2 worse. lol, n I'm pretty sure we all have our fingers crossed, Romero's one halfway decent zombie movie away from retirement. Hopefully he'll want to go out on a good note

i agree Frallon. as GAR was way cooler in the late 60's and early 70's, he has grown old and is starting to make movies worse than the prunes he craps out. hopefully he will get in gear and start making cool movies. (i think this is why he is going out of style-Because todays zombies run as fast as hell and his zombies are all slow and "im gunna get ya rawh just give me 15 minutes to get there" and today in the 21st century its all like "RAWHHHH BLOEOEUEURURRUUURRR BLEEEHHHH RAWH IM GUNNA EAT YA!!!!" and your like OMG! :x :cry: hes breaking throughhhh!!!!!!!!!! IM SO DEAD WAAAAAAAAA WAAAAAAAAAAA only its a massive horde breaking down that wall. that is why i think GAR is getting crappier than his prunes)

DarthJoe8

09-12-2009, 10:15 AM

GARs slide from the top isn't because of shamblers vs runners, its because his stories are sorely lacking...:roll:

Shaun of the Dead had shamblers in it and is a GREAT flick because it tells a great story...and GARs earlier stuff is the best that there is period, because of great story telling!! :drinking:

Odd Rob

09-12-2009, 10:28 AM

Romero is also responsible for Martin, a 1977 "vampire" movie about a man who believes he is a vampire (John Amplas) and decides to go to the country to gain control over his blood lust. I liked Diary of the Dead oodles more than Martin. I'd also like to point out that Romero's work output is far better than some of his contemporaries from the 60s whose imaginations and vision have remained stagnant in their retirement.

ZombiesAteMyDog

09-12-2009, 10:45 AM

i think this is why he is going out of style-Because todays zombies run as fast as hell and his zombies are all slow and "im gunna get ya rawh just give me 15 minutes to get there"

this makes me a sad sad man indeed, just, wow, I mean, ugh my brain hurts - cant comprehend the lameness of this statement.

:x :puke: :loon: :x :puke:

Subgenius

09-12-2009, 11:58 AM

i agree Frallon. as GAR was way cooler in the late 60's and early 70's, he has grown old and is starting to make movies worse than the prunes he craps out. hopefully he will get in gear and start making cool movies. (i think this is why he is going out of style-Because todays zombies run as fast as hell and his zombies are all slow and "im gunna get ya rawh just give me 15 minutes to get there" and today in the 21st century its all like "RAWHHHH BLOEOEUEURURRUUURRR BLEEEHHHH RAWH IM GUNNA EAT YA!!!!" and your like OMG! :x :cry: hes breaking throughhhh!!!!!!!!!! IM SO DEAD WAAAAAAAAA WAAAAAAAAAAA only its a massive horde breaking down that wall. that is why i think GAR is getting crappier than his prunes)

Running zombies have NOTHING to do with why Romero's films have had problems. It's more about the Indy film market versus the big Hollywood film market. Also, name ONE FILM from the Romero series of zombie films where ANY zombie talks the way that you described, except for "Bub" in Day of the Dead (1985). Just one. That alone completely destroyed your point. And, attacking Romero because he's old is just really, REALLY stupid.

Syphous

09-18-2009, 02:42 PM

No sir, I don't like it.

It was cheap with terrible actors and just generally lame as hell. I wasn't much of a fan. Land of the Dead was also fairly bad imo. I'm worried GAR has lost his touch.

zombiekilling101

09-18-2009, 03:02 PM

Its bad. His worst zombie film. Not on par and didnt seem like it was him. Nothing worked in the film EXCEPT the boob gag. Oh and I like that actor that played Brewbaker in LAND... and was a soldier again in DIARY.

neoanderson9318

09-22-2009, 09:09 AM

I, sad to say, could not stand it. I watched the first 10 minutes of it, and stopped it. A couple of days later, I watched the rest of it just for the zombies and gore. I definitely think he needs to bring back Tom Savini for the gore effects. And I also think he needs to go back to more traditional gore effects. Some of the gore was just too CG for me... I don't know though, I'm hoping for a good last film from GAR. Then I'll be complete.

retro zombie killer

09-22-2009, 02:52 PM

I liked it alright! I would of liked it better without the Hand Held Camera Thing! Blah!!!! I thought it was ok! I voted good!

neoanderson9318

09-22-2009, 03:46 PM

Yeah, the handheld camera thing was another thing about it that I didn't like... One of the reasons I didn't like Cloverfield as well...

captainjay

09-28-2009, 09:42 PM

It's garbage. I bought it 2 weeks ago at Future Shop for like $6.99 and I thought it might be fun. It was so boring to watch. OMG .. so boring.

Creeping Death

09-28-2009, 09:54 PM

The movie itself wasn't to bad.
A tad boring, but not bad. :drool:

My main problem was that one blonde douche.
The girl from Texas' boyfriend.
WHAT A DOUCHE, horrible actor. :puke:
"Ah, it hurts." he said.
Theres a friggin chunk missing out of his hand, and he says that?
WTF? :doh:

Tennessee Zombie

10-03-2009, 09:32 PM

I found the whole 'shaky cam' thing to be distracting. But there were some cool moments in the film. Loved the zombies in the pool!

SWAT Zombie

10-04-2009, 10:16 PM

for a movie made by THE MAN himself, unfortunately it really bit the big one. :poo:

Rufus_Cane

10-05-2009, 02:13 PM

I started reading this thread with the intention of sticking up for diary and saying it wasn't all that bad. While i'll still have to watch it again before I'm totally willing to condemn it I'm forced to agree that it is down at the shoddy end of the zombie film spectrum. Most of it is forgivable; yes the actings bad, but the budget didn't allow for superstars; yes the choice to include first person footage was misguided, but again that fits in with the budget and the need to shoot quickly. What was most disappointing was the direction. It was just so... flat.. there didn't feel any life or point to the film.

At least the gore was ok.

44hogleg

10-05-2009, 05:45 PM

I don't think it was GAR's worst flick (I at least liked it more than land). Also, I'm not a big fan of the hand held camera work. But, at least it was better than hand held work in other movies (like the hand held stuff in cloverfield for example) and in this case I did kind of like it.

Crombie

10-05-2009, 09:17 PM

My opinion is that it was good, and that I liked it as a movie. Your opinion may or may not differ, and that really does not matter to me one little bit. :D

SWAT Zombie

10-06-2009, 03:04 AM

i actually don't have a problem with the idea for a handycam style of movie. i thought 'blair witch' was good and watching that made me think a zombie version of that might be good. 'zombie diaries' i think its called, a british movie that goes between 3 different groups filming an outbreak was quite good. not the greatest in the world but i liked it. i just didn't like the way 'diary otd' went and thought the movie didn't look natural. it looked rehearsed to me, where as 'zombie diaries' seemed real. much like 'blair witch' which is what i thought made that movie work.

Darius

10-24-2009, 08:45 AM

Its good not awful. It has the B movie standards like bad acting and other stuff. I like the hand held camera idea ofcourse it could be executed better but still it was enjoyable. Had a few nice kills and gore. Not the best Romero film but i like it.

jscott2250

10-24-2009, 12:52 PM

i've seen gar make better flicks. i was actually rather disappointed. when we got it on demand [i never do anything like that, since 12 bucks just to watch an hour long video, is kinda gay] me and my bro were so pumped up "yeah, this is gonna be great" "**** YEAH!!!" When we actually saw it, it was really disappointing and depressing. i was expecting something awesome as ****, but we were really disappointed. but there were some cool aspects to it.(***SPOILER ALERT***)

1) the beginning and the end were completely original. i really like how it turned out. BUT it did seem kinda... lemme explain. in the beginning, they were shooting a horror movie in the woods. what are the odds? in the end, they decide to hide in they're friends shelter that is hidden behind a bookshelf and it is made of solid steel using magnetic locks. again, what are the odds?

2) the deaf Amish dude dude with a scythe? pretty cool, but he does get killed off.:-(

overall, i give it a 6/10. gar, don't disapoint us next time.