Well my streak of being lucky enough to watch good movie has unfortunately came to a horrible halt.
Day of the Dead (2008)
Directed By: Steve Miner (Friday the 13th Part 2 &3, House, Halloween H20)
The Prologue
You know it’s not easy watching people always taking a piss all over the names of George A. Romero’s classic movies. I’m not sure what legal doings go on, or didn’t go on, but we live in a world where each year we get remakes of Romero’s work, along with unofficial sequels. There are soo many Zombie films latching on to this man’s work that unless your really informed you can find yourself rather confused.
Take the 2008 remake of George A. Romero’s “Day of the Dead”. Just think about how it is to walk into a DVD store and find the original 1986 “Day of the Dead” setting next to it’s unofficial sequel “Day of the Dead 2: Contagium” which came out in 2005, and then see this setting there, that not ONLY is a remake, but tried ever soo hard to make you think that it was actually a sequel to the remake of “Dawn of the Dead”..They even went as far as casting Ving Rhames. Hell of a mess isn’t it?
The Movie
So you know the basis of the plot right? It’s a Zombie outbreak, and we have the military involved..but unlike in the original, they try and fail add social commentary or any real meaning to it…Oh and the Zombies run….and it isn’t even a comedy!!
First thing that stands out to me about this movie is it’s directed by Steve Miner who has a history of being hit and miss with his work. While “Friday the 13th pt.2″ was good, pt.3 was..ahh..then he made “House” which I liked but then came H20 sooo..like I said he’s hit and miss. And Mr.Miner sir, this was without question a giant miss.
So in between the Zombie’s running around we got bad acting all around, we got Nick Cannon playing the role of “Salazar” who is supposed to be our guy dropping us witty one liners but unfortunately for Mr.Mariah Carey, it doesn’t work and it isn’t funny. Mena Suvari pops up as our leading lady playing the role of soldier “Sarah Bowman”, she’s probably the best part of the film, but it just has me asking how she goes from memorable roles like “American Pie” and “American Beauty” to THIS??..Perhaps she was a Zombie movie fan to? Cause I hate to think her career has come down to bad horror flicks.
Now one thing here that really just got on my nerves was the way this movie tries to bring “Bud” (the coolest Zombie ever from the original movie) “up to date”..They ruin the character. Bud is suppose to be an ex soldier who still has some of human characteristics NOT some love sick loser who seems to not go all the way Zombie because he has a crush on the leading lady. Some of the best remakes are remakes that are just basically films that trace over the old films but just use new “pencils”..so to speak (see, “Hills Have Eyes”). Some of the worst are the ones that take the original movies and just turn them inside out with new stuff..stuff that don’t work (see, “Black Christmas). Bud here doesn’t work..”Dr. Frankenstein” doesn’t work..the horrible CGI doesn’t work….nothing here really works…at all.
The Conclusion
There’s a reason they pulled this from the theatrical release list ladies and gentlemen..it sucks. I can say without question this thing would have tanked big time. I really wish people would leave George’s stuff alone. Sure he doesn’t have quite the directing and writing skill he use to have but he’s still way ahead of 90% of the people out there doing Zombie films these days. So please can we stop making five different versions of every film the man has out per year???…Please??
So avoid folks unless you have nothing at all better to do..and even then just find something else to watch..like, the news.
The Rating (4/10)
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