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Thread: American zombie films seem to have de-evolved

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    Zombie Flesh Eater EvilNed's Avatar
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    American zombie films seem to have de-evolved

    Ok, I know I was always a bit defensive on Day of the Deads part. I reasoned that any zombiefilm is something to at least look forward too, and to await judgement until I saw it.

    Well, I saw it.

    And it sucks.

    Beware, there might be spoilers ahead. But believe me, this is not a film you'd want to see anyway.

    The film is so bad on so many levels. Everything. The dialoge, the zombies, the plot, the acting, the characters, the action etc. etc.

    The dialouge is so horrid. In one scene, Mena Suvari declares that she does not like loaded guns. The guy she is riding the humvee with answers with "I am a vegetarian, by the way". End of scene. What the ****? First off, the vegetarian part is a hugely ineffective planting of what is to come. You all know what I speak. The second part is, Mena Suvaris answer to why she doesn't like loaded guns is "It's complicated." Aha, I think. This will surely be explained later.

    Nope. The subject is dropped there. She never explains it further. Why the **** even keep it in the movie?

    Ving Rhames dialouge seems to be written for Ving Rhames by a lousy scriptwriter. And it shows. He's tough, Ving Rhames-style, 100% of the time, instead of acting like the officer he portrays.

    The character "Salazar" is a private in the army, though he acts more like an immature gangster-wannabe. He's a 1-dimensional "token black guy", with lines such as "Hell yeah, that's what I'm talking about!" and other things we've seen in thousands of films before. Hugely annoying. His constant chatter about black people vs. white people just makes me want to slam my head in the wall.

    Then Steve from Dawn makes a comeback. You know that insanely poorly written character whose only purpose was to sit in the background in scenes and deliver lines that would prove to the audience that this guy is a 100% egomaniac. This time, it's "Dr. Logan". He never lifts a finger to do anything good, instead he berates the main characters for their mistakes, faults and weaknesses rather than doing anything himself. Why, god, why? Another completly 1-d character who's just annyoing and detracts from the film! Give it a rest! These characters are just as stereotypical as the token black guys.

    Oh and Bud. Vegetarian zombie. Whatever.

    The zombies. By now you've all heard the tales. The zombies run, leap, climb on ceilings, in airducts, blow upp when set on fire and are hugely effective at tearing people to pieces, unless it happens to be the main characters. It also takes about 1 second for a person to go from still breathing into a zombie who has most of his skin burned/rotted off and with the capabilities way beyond that of the average human being. Good thing that every main character in this film is a top-ace gunslinger. Nobody ever misses a shot to the brain.

    The plot keeps moving all the time. But it's never interesting. Most of the time the characters move between places, stay there for five minutes until it gets overrun by zombies, have a long copy-paste shootout and then flee to the next place. Boring. Snore.

    Basicly, this film is all the things that George A. Romero never wanted with his own films. Remember Night 90, and how Tom Savini says on the documentary that he wanted his zombies to be more like real people? Recently deceased. Your neighbour walking in through the door, a bit pale? Well. This film is the exact opposite of how it would have been had Romero or Savini directed it. It's no more a zombie-horror film than Blade is a vampire-horror film. Both films are actionfilms. In Blade, it works. In Day of the Dead, you can only stand so much repetetive zombiegutting.

    Add to that, it's inefficently paced and cut. There's a scene towards the end where a character suggests a plan to kill all the zombies in the bunker. A second later, the plan is rigged and ready. The zombies come running down the corridor and the good guys kill them all.

    Other ludicrous plot elements include meeting a superzombie near the end, who is much faster and smarter than the rest. Having Bud sacrifice himself to save the humans. Making Bud a vegetarian, actually, is just stupid. Everything with this film sucks, as a matter of fact. There's no redeeming factor. At best it's just boring.

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    has the velocity Mike70's Avatar
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    yes ned it is a total and complete turdfest for sure. one wonders why even stick the name day of the dead onto it? it is a case of name-rape. simple as that.

    crappy dialogue. horrid casting. cliche ridden. half the cast looks embarrassed and the other half just looks stoked to have a job no matter how ****ty the final product is.

    i have been as hard on steve miner as anyone but the plain fact is - the man should've known better and should've been able to deliever a better movie, especially with $18 million to work with. i know it isn't much by mega-hollywood standards but is still plenty of cash to work with.
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    Team Rick MinionZombie's Avatar
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    18 fricken million?!

    That's how much Ghey08 cost?!

    Damn...

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    has the velocity Mike70's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by MinionZombie View Post
    18 fricken million?!

    That's how much Ghey08 cost?!

    Damn...
    yes supposedly. sorry i didn't post the source for this info. not only have a few folks around here (like DJ among others) mentioned this factoid but the info on imdb backs it up.

    crazy isn't it? if i hadn't know this i would've guessed that ghey 08 was in the $5-8 million range (maybe less).

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0489018/business
    Last edited by Mike70; 29-Feb-2008 at 05:53 PM.
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    it just makes me so sad...

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    Land of the Dead is a proper film and it cost less than Ghey08.

    If they really spent 18 million on that crap fest, you seriously don't see it on screen whatsoever. I'm absolutely flabbergasted by that, honestly.

    How can that amount of sh*t cost 18 million dollery-doo's?!

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    What can I add to this? I pretty much agree with all of it.

    I am not sure if american zombie films have devolved as much as its easier for nearly anyone to make a movie. As such you get alot of small indie film folks getting in on it, because its fairly cheap to make zombie movies, aside from gore, and usually they just get some half rate actors to deliver corny lines.

    There are some good indie zombie movies, but there are alot of worse ones but I think thats just because many of the movies being made are not really being made by people who like the genre as much as people trying to use it as a stepping stone, trying to make it to artsy or whatever. You get alot more hacks the more chances you give someone.

    Land of the Dead is a proper film and it cost less than Ghey08.

    If they really spent 18 million on that crap fest, you seriously don't see it on screen whatsoever. I'm absolutely flabbergasted by that, honestly.

    How can that amount of sh*t cost 18 million dollery-doo's
    Yup, you wonder how movies like this get funding and guys like Romero, or other guys with sort of the big ideas struggle to get small amounts of money. I mean land was what, like 8 million or so? I just don't see why, if it was the actors, they are overpaid. Someone got screwed over hard during this and I would say it was us overall, but seeing as how many of us did not pay to see the disaster maybe its good that we let it fail and die on its own.
    Last edited by bd2999; 01-Mar-2008 at 01:59 AM.

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    has the velocity Mike70's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by bd2999 View Post
    I mean land was what, like 8 million or so?
    nah man the budget for land was $15 million.

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0418819/business
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    Quote Originally Posted by scipio70 View Post
    nah man the budget for land was $15 million.

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0418819/business
    But still less than the apparent budget of Ghey08, which is just incredible.

    18 million did not end up on screen, and if it did, they were wasting cash left, right & centre.

    You can buy a hunk of sh*t for 18 million dollars, but it's still a hunk of sh*t.

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    Then Steve from Dawn makes a comeback. You know that insanely poorly written character whose only purpose was to sit in the background in scenes and deliver lines that would prove to the audience that this guy is a 100% egomaniac.
    Steve was one of the best characters in D08. Don't moan just to moan.

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    Zombie Flesh Eater EvilNed's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mutineer View Post
    Steve was one of the best characters in D08. Don't moan just to moan.
    I love the sarcasm.

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    Quote Originally Posted by EvilNed View Post



    The zombies run, leap, climb on ceilings, in airducts, blow upp when set on fire and are hugely effective at tearing people to pieces, unless it happens to be the main characters. It also takes about 1 second for a person to go from still breathing into a zombie who has most of his skin burned/rotted off and with the capabilities way beyond that of the average human being. Good thing that every main character in this film is a top-ace gunslinger. Nobody ever misses a shot to the brain.
    WTF!

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    Just been bitten bd2999's Avatar
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    nah man the budget for land was $15 million.
    My mistake. Still, Land was epic compared to the new Day. I liked Land by the way.

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    has the velocity Mike70's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by bd2999 View Post
    My mistake. Still, Land was epic compared to the new Day. I liked Land by the way.
    yep indeed it was. the $15 million dropped on land was all on the screen despite what folks might feel about it. it was, to quote MZ, "a proper movie."

    ghey 08 looked like about $5 to $8 million dollars worth of trash.

    maybe the rest of the budget got spent on strippers/beer/heroin, etc. - name your vice.
    "The bumps you feel are asteroids smashing into the hull."

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    Don't forget that DAY08 was shot in Bulgaria so they got alot more value for their money. LAND, however, only gained an extra million for shooting in Toronto, because the Canadian dollar swiftly rose just prior to production.

    De-evolved is certainly right. When they took DAWN, a clever reworking on its predecessor, and remade it following NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD's structure, they were definitely taking a few steps back.

    This whole horror-action thing has gotten out of control. I just want the horror.
    "28 Days Later came out after we started (Dawn 04). Our zombies were running before we knew what their zombies were." - Zack Snyder, LIAR.

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