Day of the Dead - Will's Review.

It's a funny thing with Zombie movies... AMCs "The Walking Dead" takes a bit of flack for being mostly people arguing in a confined location, with only the occasional Zombie attack; but that's the exact format of most of the good zombie movies too, and never moreso than in Romero's "Dead" series. 

Which leave me with very little to say; the plot here is quite thin and really is mostly people arguing, in particular Army knuckleheads arguing with scientists in an underground bunker which has been converted into a zombie reasurch facility. 

It's the third of the 'Dead' movies (following 'Night of the living...' and 'Dawn of the...') so the Zombie apocalypse is now in full swing (the movies don't follow on as such; they're unconnected save for being set in the same universe) and survivors are working on a cure, or failing that a way to domesticate them. Much of the tension is born of the disagreement between the 'destroy them', 'cure them' and 'tame them' camps, with the army guys predictably in the first camp, and as I've said, the tension between these groups has far more to do with the plot that the actual zombies. 

The general in charge of the bunker in particular is a real piece of work, willing to have the main protagonist for refusing to sit down during one of his meetings! I have a little bit of an issue with the carecter because he's almost cartoonishly nasty, but by the skin of his teeth he stays just the right side of the line. 

Speaking of the main protagonist, it's nice to see a femail lead who's a lead charecter first, and a woman second. By that I mean that she isn't there for t&a, nor is she there just to be a 'strong female charecter'... She's just a strong female charecter who happens not to have a penis - take note filmmakers; this is a strong female lead done right!

The real star of the show is 'Bub', the main zombie in the domestication project; by the simple act of showing him do some 'human' things (he tries to shave, uses a personall cassette player, and so fourth) Remero almost instantly turns him into a sympathetic carecter, and the asshole general is made all the more deplorable when he threatens the zombie. 

Props also go to Savini's special effects; though the gore is occasional, when it does come it is awesome!

So, as I say, the plot is thin, but the movie still manages to have that certain something that makes it very watchable. 

Day of the Dead - Lisa's Review

Back to some familiar territory for this weeks movie, Mr Romeros zombies!  As I have said previously, I have a terrible memory for movies I have watched.  Having a husband who is a biiiiiiig zombie fan, I have probably watched all Romeros zombie movies at least.  So what did I think?

This is (as with most Romeros offerings) definately one of the better zombie movies out there.  Having been made in 1985, the special effects are remarkable and pretty convincing.  It has a definate 80's feel to it, which does obviously date the movie, but I'm a sucker for that nostalgic 80's feel having grown up watching these kind of movies.  One thing which is a major plus for me is that the movie has a strong female lead.  Yup, seriously.  No need for boobs out or that mandatory shower scene.  No screaming and shouting leading to her and inevitably everyone in a close vicinity to hers demise.  That has to be a plus, right?

As for the premise, not particularly challenging nor thought provoking, but effective.

We pick up after the conclusion of Dawn of the Dead, although having watched this movie, or indeed its predecessor Night of the Living Dead is not important as the story does not follow on.   We follow Dr Sarah Bowman, 2 helicopter pilots (Bill & John) and Private Miguel Salazar as they join an underground army base full of survivors.  The base is also full of scientists who are trying to work on a way to either stop or reverse the zombification.  Amongst them is Dr Logan, known as Frankenstein who is working on a study where he is trying to 'train' zombies to do what he wants them to do, including being completely docile.  His prize student is 'Bub', a zombie who he has taught to perform several tasks, like pressing play on a tape recorder (it's the 80's) to continue listening to a favourite piece of music (Yup this zombie has a preference).  We also learn that Frankenstein has been feeding parts of dead humans to the zombies and has been performing various experiments on the dead soldiers.  This brings some serious ick factor and some great effects.

Another lead is Captain Henry Rhodes, a massive arsehole who is rather annoyed that everyone is not bowing down to him and killing everything in sight.  The movie follows relationships between the scientists, the soldiers and these main characters.  Intermingled is some decent attack, death and gore scenes which would satisfy any horror movie gore fan.  The storyline while not complicated or deep, works.  Who doesn't want to see a decapitation by way of sheer force, a man torn in half, an animated severed head, someone spilling their guts (literally).

I won't go into any more detail as not much more needs to be said, you'll either want to watch it, or you'll have already seen it.  I'm sticking a 'Recommended' on this one.  If you want to watch some zombie movies, go with Romero.  There's not much better.

Week 141 - Day of the Dead (1985)

Reviews / Author Comments due: 01/02/2014

Position on TimeOut list: 81

More Info: Wikipedia, IMDB

DVD: Link

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