I'm seeing Diary today... SPOILERS!!!!

[SoCalLoco]

Stay tuned for THE definitive review; Mine. Check back later for my thoughts.

[DubiousComforts]

I can't wait. Now my life has meaning!

[SoCalLoco]

To be perfectly blunt, this movie doesn't deserve a review. It was a stinker. Easily Romero's worst. Let's see, where to begin.   OK. First scene kicked off with a robotic voice-over from Deb, with a pseudo-channel 10 news montage. It showed EMTs and cops pulling three bodies from a house where a murder/suicide had just taken place. Well, the bodies get up and attack the woman news reporter that wasn't smart enough to freaking run away. And this is just the first five minutes. It gets worse - Much worse. Then, we cut to a film shoot somewhere in the rural PA woods. The Director (Jason Creed) scolds the dude playing the mummy for catching the damsel in distress far to quickly and that corpses shouldn't move that fast, yada yada yada. Damsel takes off whig and becomes your a-typical dumb blonde. Flash to english professor (why he's teaching film in BFE Pennsylvania is anyone's guess) assuring the disgruntled film students that each will be awarded five credits or something to that effect. Then the scene is interrupted by a youtube video of the same murder/suicide zombie attack we witnessed in the first scene. The mummy (who's like Richy Rich, but probably more wealthy) splits with one of the girls in a fancy car, leaving the rest to drive back to the college campus in a beat up RV. It just gets worse - MUCH worse. When the quintet arrives at the university campus, they find it abandoned, save for a cliche looter. He says something pithy (or atleast Romero thought it was pithy) and he exits stage right with a computer tower. The college students decide to hop in the RV and drive to Deb's house. On the way, Mary (the girl behind the wheel of the RV) runs over a trio of ghouls, pulls the Winnabago over to the side of the road, kisses St. Christopher & blows her brains out. The rest of the group decide to take her to a hospital, which is deserted too. One would figure, a hospital would be the LAST place to be abandoned during a zombie outbreak. But whatever. By this point, I stopped trying to rationalize this movie. I could go on, but I won't. This was without a doubt Romero's worst zombie offering. This fecking thing makes Land look like Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Two thumbs down, way down. Edit - spoiler tags added by Moderator. Neil's banning finger gets itchy when spoilers are not properly tagged.

[DubiousComforts]

To be perfectly blunt, this movie doesn't deserve a review. And you didn't give it a review inasmuch as a summary of the first few scenes.   Why exactly would the on-scene reporter be smart enough to freaking run away in the very first scene? There were no indications of the dead rising at that point, and it's not like they were wearing signs saying "Warning: Flesh-Eating Living Dead". My life will cease to have meaning without the definitive review as promised.

[bassman]

Once again someone fails to view Romero's films objectively because they only want to see the original trilogy over again. I just saw Diary this evening and while it's not perfect, it's not nearly as bad as this guy's "definitive review".

[DrSiN]

More like someone who can't get over the fact that the characters in the movie haven't studied and picked apart EVERY possible zombie movie ever released. My god give me a break.   Why did the news reporter stay there.. (A) because he had no idea what it was and (B) deer in the headlights.   Why did they go to the hospital. Because that's what normal people would do if their friend was hurt. At least say "why did they stay if it was deserted

[clanglee]

Yeah, but you don't like anything SoCal.

[Moon Knight]

George is the only director to have balls when it comes to the genre. He tried something different. Some will like it. Some wont. I liked it. I did have some problems with a few things but no movie is perfect. If the original Dawn had come out today, I bet everyone would hate the Pie fight scene and dismiss the entire flick cause of it. BTW, Clanglee, cool avatar, I just started reading Watchmen for the first time.

[Yojimbo]

If the original Dawn had come out today, I bet everyone would hate the Pie fight scene and dismiss the entire flick cause of it. Well said!

[blind2d]

Agreed. This is no review, gentlemen, it is a slam-fest.

[Mr.E]

I did have some problems with a few things but no movie is perfect. If the original Dawn had come out today, I bet everyone would hate the Pie fight scene and dismiss the entire flick cause of it. Yeah... but Dawn was a very "dark" movie. The whole "projects" scene, everything was alot more realistic than Diary. The pie scene (if done today) would work in a sense, to kinda let the audience loosen up a bit. I mean... Wow! Dawn is completely on it's own as far as capturing the ambience. Diary is just... I dunno. It was cool, but it wasn't the big reboot of the series everyone was hoping for... Granted some scenes were cool and some of the kills were original, but overall it feels like it's missing something. My 2 cents... BTW, wassup everybody! It's been awhile.

[Moon Knight]

I don't think Dawn was a dark movie. Now DAY was a dark movie. However, I do see your point. Diary might not have the Ambiance that Dawn has, but nothing does. I'm just happy it's just not another typical zombie flick.

[Yojimbo]

Diary brings to the table the first real "Road" movie of the series. I had always wanted to see the zombie apocalypse from the "out in the $hit" point of view, (previously we were afforded only short glimpses of this) and Diary brought this to us on a scale that is pretty incredible when you consider the limited budget Romero was working with.

[mcurio]

Just saw Diary today and I liked it. It IS different, but good. The underlying themes by GAR are "alive" and well (no pun). I enjoyed the characters as I usually do with GAR's Dead series. However, its not GAR's mo to do sequels, nor do sequels on characters he leaves us hanging with (as with the past Dead movies, the characters are left in the end with little or fading hope). So it would be awkward to see GAR revisit these characters (whats left of them) in a Diary sequel. Just a slight matter I had trouble with----just a mere 24 hours after arriving at the mansion/fortress, a whole swarm of dead are surrounding the mansion/fortress when there was virtually no dead walking around when they drove up to the house with the door open and no dead inside the house. Just an observation I noticed.......

[Yojimbo]

Just saw Diary today and I liked it. It IS different, but good. The underlying themes by GAR are "alive" and well (no pun). I enjoyed the characters as I usually do with GAR's Dead series. However, its not GAR's mo to do sequels, nor do sequels on characters he leaves us hanging with (as with the past Dead movies, the characters are left in the end with little or fading hope). So it would be awkward to see GAR revisit these characters (whats left of them) in a Diary sequel. Just a slight matter I had trouble with----just a mere 24 hours after arriving at the mansion/fortress, a whole swarm of dead are surrounding the mansion/fortress when there was virtually no dead walking around when they drove up to the house with the door open and no dead inside the house. Just an observation I noticed....... Cool avatar, BTW. I agree that it would be a deviation from GAR's M.O. to revisit the same characters, and I for one am hoping for a sequel that touches on a new character set. With regard to the dead suddenly showing up at the house, I guess it is possible that the dead were slowly making their approach, either from the country club that had been mentioned, or maybe just nearby. Some of ghouls nearby might have heard the screaming of the Texas chick and that attracted a few, then others shambling past might have seen the other zombies and wondered "hey, whats going on over there?" and made their way over. Eventually you have a bunch of zombies lumbering around the property. Bear in mind, also, that the security cameras showed the zombies in daylight at the end of the film, but previously we only saw night shots of the outside. So I think that is possible that there may have been one or two lurking around the property and no one noticed them in the cover of the dark. What I find more strange is why didn't the last of the survivors go around the house and secure it rather than leaving doors open like they did. Maybe they could have dispatched the geek in the bathtub in the meantime, gathered additional supplies, I don't know, anything but what they did which seemed to me to be just sitting around talking with the old dude.