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Day of the Dead
- Genre: Zombie
- Release Year: 2008
- Director: Steve Miner
- Writer: Jeffrey Reddick
- Running Time: 87 Minutes
- Rating: R (Perverse horror, violence and gore and language)
- Reviewed by: Fixxxer on Sun 13 Apr 08
Official Blurb:
When a small Colorado town is overrun by the flesh hungry dead a small group of survivors try to escape in a last ditch effort to stay alive.
Review:
Right off the bat, despite the fact that George Romero is given a writing credit for this film, abandon all notion that this is a remake of the 1985 film Day of the Dead. The only similarity between the two is that there’s a zombie named Bud that shows basic signs of life.
I had such high hopes for this movie. The trailer I saw all those months ago made it look worth watching. But I guess that’s what trailers do best…they make movies look more interesting than they generally are. Things were doomed from the start, and I should have known it, even then. Ving Rhames was included in this movie, almost certainly so people would associate it with Zack Snyder’s 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead. That this was required speaks volumes about what sort of movie the producers expected they were making.
So, we begin with a small rural town that’s been quarantined by the military. Oh, and one of the soldiers just happens to be from this town. And there’s only one way out of this town, which is a single road. Or I suppose you could leave the road and go through the woods, but the military apparently doesn’t feel they need to cover this angle. Figures.
Within a few hours, specifically “like, twelve hours,” all hell breaks loose and the hospital is filled with people exhibiting flu-like symptoms. Suddenly, each of them, all at once, at the exact same time, goes catatonic. Then instantly (and I wish I was making that instant part up), their skin goes rotten, puss-dripping sores appear on their bodies and they begin eating everyone that doesn’t look like them. They also run faster than any living human, leap almost two stories and even run on the ceiling. Several survivors, including our heroine, escape from the hospital while simultaneously becoming A number 1 baddasses. Not a single bullet misses and zombies are beheaded left and right as bonesaws and fire extinguishers are wielded with kung-fu-like skills. Predictably, one of the survivors is bitten on the way out.
Despite seeing dozens and dozens of zombies on the road through town, there are no zombies or living humans in sight when the survivors make it to the local gun store, which, despite having bars on the windows, is unlocked. Here they stock up on fully automatic AK-47s, uzis and other weapons that have no business being sold outside of Mogadishu, only to return to their truck to discover that their bitten comrade has died and turned. Oh, but gee…he keeps gawking at the heroine’s luscious body, so he must still be in there somewhere. This seems reason enough to decide not to kill him and instead to drive deeper into town with him to save the heroine’s brother. It doesn’t seem reason enough, however, to keep the heroine from running down her own zombified mother and then delivering a typical zombie-movie speech to her brother about how “it wasn’t really her…not anymore.”
Once the brother is gathered, it’s time to get out of Dodge. With the pervert zombie. Right. Every zombie movie staple follows. The truck dies. Some of the survivors die. Someone dies while sacrificing himself to save others. Explosions. The government must be to blame. Blah.
I’m guessing that whatever money the producers had must have been spent on hookers and blow. It wasn’t spent on someone to monitor continuity…not when zombies were fast enough o literally dodge bullets, but took all day to get across the street for dramatic effect. It wasn’t spent on research. Not when a military HMMMV seats four people and one zombie with space to spare and starts with a key. And it certainly wasn’t spent on writing. Not when a small fire instantly vaporizes any zombie in the area and the military’s idea of quarantine is to set up one roadblock.
What I liked:
- Mena Suvari looks nice with short hair and BDU trousers. Really nice.
- The makeup, when not completely overdone, was done well.
What I didn't like:
- Atrocious writing.
- “Instant zombies”
- Complete lack of continuity.
- Seriously, the writing was really, really bad.
Rating:
- Genre Feel: While not any worse than some other zombie movies, I think the majority of viewers that enjoy the genre are going to be extremely disappointed here.
- Acting: Average. The character did stupid things in stupid ways, but that’s a consequence of bad writing.
- Effects: Not horrible, but at times, pretty horribly overdone. Digital film was sped up to make it appear that zombies were moving faster. How bad is that?!?
- Production Quality: On par with a movie made for the Sci-Fi channel, but certainly not what I’d expect from a film originally intended to be released to theaters
Final Scoring:
2.0 Zombie Heads of a possible
5 Zombie Heads
Personal Recommendation: Unless you’re into watching films that are sub-par just to support the genre, I’d skip this one. At best, it’s a “renter,” perhaps if classy films such as 'Snakes on a Plane' have all been rented . Whatever you do, don’t go out and spend $30 on the DVD.
Availablity:
Amazon
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