Day Of The Dead (2008) Review
Written by: Jsin
Contains spoilers and a general disdain for this film. Ok, I've had this on disc for a while now and finally decided to watch it after putting the kids to bed. As it were I should have gone to bed. We start out with what looks like a military shut down of a small city in Colorado. Basically no one leaves and no one gets in. We are introduced to Mena Suvari's character Sarah Bowman who we are to believe is a bad ass soldier. Personally I kept waiting for Kevin Spacey to jump out throwing rose pedals at her ala American Beauty. We also meet Captain Rhodes played by Ving Rhames... wait. Ving Rhames?? Wasn't he killed off in Dawn of the Dead? What the hell is he doing in this one? At least that's what I was thinking.
It seems that "Dawn" must never happened because there is no explanation as to why he is in a film that is supposed to be a continuation of the last one, even though his character dies. I should also mention that even though this is the third remake in the zombie series they still don't know that if you are bitten by a zombie you will return as one. Basically they don't know shit, and we have to sit through the entire discovery process... again. The reason for the military intervention? A flu like outbreak that leads to a nose bleed then a coma like state where you stare blindly at nothing as you supposedly die then jump up really fast and scare the shit out of anyone that is nearby. To sum the movie up is easy, town gets shut down by the military and no one knows that the flu like virus floating around is causing people to die then come back to life. People start to run around all ape shit crazy and kill anything in sight. A handful of people run, find a secret military base, realize the government did it and kick zombie ass, while surviving. Now lets take this apart shall we? Most of the splatter in this film is CGI, so if your a fan you'll love it. Personally, I'm more old school, I look the organic look of head mold being blown apart. It's just more satisfying to me.
There are a lot of decapitations, which is cool, but I think the reason there are so many is because it's cheaper to do it via CGI than to actually make that many molds. The zombies in this film seem to be a cross between "rage" victims in 28 Days Later and your generic zombies. Oh by the way they seem to have been bitten by a radioactive spider too because they can jump and crawl across the ceiling like friggin' Spider-Man. Not only that but when they run it looks like the ending on the Benny Hill show, you know, when everyone is moving fast but running slow. The infected move like that but when they run or chase people, especially in the hospital, they seem to skip frames or something. One second theyre at the other end of the hall, the next they're right in front of you, like in The Grudge. The directing and cinematography was very Mtv'ish. I wasn't sure if I was watching a horror film or Fergie's new video. Swooshing camera (Sam Raimi style) jerky fast motion movement, in all it just wasn't needed.
Remember Bud from the Romero classic? Well he's here too, but we get to see him as a normal human before he changes into a zombie. We find out he's a vegetarian, has the hots for Mena's character and gets punked by everyone throughout the movie, so basically he's a pussy. Once he is bitten and turns, we are told that the reason he doesn't seem interested in eating anyone is because he didn't eat meat as a human. Hmmm, I kinda thought that turning to a zombie was also like being very primal and having only minimal instincts left, a concept introduced by various other movies. It seems thats not the case here so we have a zombie who does not eat meat and sits there drooling and looking rather stupid with his painted on veins and what seems to be a worsening case of acne. All in all if your bored on a Sunday afternoon then this film would be fine to watch, but honestly this film should be ashamed to call itself a remake. Jsin