THE END BEGINS AGAIN

Diary of the Dead
Muvico Egyptian 24
Hanover, MD
35mm
2/23/08

So maybe we shouldn't have gone to see a Romero movie at a mall. Ever been to a mall in, say, December and been completely unable to find a parking space? Ever had that experience in February?

Welcome to Arundel Mills.

So, the new Romero flick, Diary of the Dead, is only playing in about 40 theaters in the country and four of them are in the DC area, and all of them are at least an hour drive away. So of course we go to the theater with the big statue of Anubis out front. Yeah, you read that right. I though I worked at a ridiculously overdesigned theater at the Hampton 24, but words cannot describe how silly this place is when you get right down to it and realize that it is in essence a big box that's made to show movies.

So, other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the show?

Diary of the Dead isn't bad. It's a bit heavy-handed with it's message, and it's nowhere near as good as Night or Dawn, but honestly, at this point nobody's expecting it to be. And we do have some people doing and saying some pretty stupid things from time to time, like the girl who says that her friend who's just died might not come back as a zombie when every single person on the planet who has died has done exactly that.

And I could have lived without the narration. It kills the tension and it a lot of cases tells us things that we already know. I would have been fine with the bit at the beginning that establishes that at least one person makes it and one most definitely does not, but would have been happy if what's-her-name had just shut up from then on out.

There are some great bits though. Some really great bits. Such as how the rich kid disposes of his zombie problem (It's a great image and I won't ruin it). In fact, Phillip Riccio, the guy who plays the rich kid does a great job, especially in the last half of the film.

But even he's not as cool as Samuel the Amish zombie-killin' badass. I would pay to see a whole movie just about that guy. It's actually kind of amazing that Romero's done five zombie movies, four of which take place in Pennsylvania, and this is the first time we've seen an Amish. (Irony points awarded for the fact that this one was filmed in Canada.)

I liked the cameos, too. I didn't catch all the radio voice cameos, though I did catch Guillermo Del Toro as the guy talking about immigration. And Greg Nicotero making an appearance as a zombie doctor was cool. I think he may be the only guy to play two different zombies in more than one Romero flick. And I still can't figure out if he's the guy who gets eaten by the bird-monster in The Mist.

Oh yeah, zombie stuff. There's some very inventive zombie stuff in this one. And I won't spoil any of it. You'll have to see it for yourself. I'm sure it'll be on video soon. Especially since it doesn't look like it'll get a wider release anytime soon.

Still, as long as Romero keeps making zombie pics, I'll keep seeing them. I like how it's been forty years since Night of the Living Dead and he really hasn't repeated himself. Even the remake of Night takes on a different social issue that the original, even if it's basically the same movie. I also like how within the context of the movies themselves, only a few years have passed between Night and Land and somehow it's actually believable that Night and Diary take place at the same time, even though there's forty years between them.

Thank you, George.