| Author | Message | ||
     John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.152.74.159 |
Never ones to pass up a free film, this morning Lady P and I were treated to complimentary tickets to see Joe Dante's latest - yet another to leap on the bandwagon of Kids' Pictures in Unnecessary 3D. For Dante fans here are the good points: 1 Dick Miller as a pizza delivery man 2 Bruce Dern as a nutter 3 A glove factory called "Orlac's" 4 The lead female character reading Dante's Inferno in bed (ho ho) There, now you don't need to see the film, which otherwise is a poorly developed, badly paced, disappointing affair that at times feels like an Americanised version of ITV Children's drama serials from the 1970s. There's a hole in the basement and if you look into it you get faced with your worst fear. That's a great concept but it gets really fumbled and no-one one here who loved The Howling, Gremlins 2 et all will be missing anything by not bothering with this one. In fact, to see the true mischievous spirit of Dante at his best paid homage to you're much better off seeing Alexandre Aja's remake of Piranha (which alos has far better reasons to be in 3D)  | ||
| Jonathan (Jonathan) Username: Jonathan Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.109.145.132 |
What happened to Dante. Why can't he do great things like Gremlins and Eerie Indiana anymore? And bloody bloody 3D!!! Does absolutely everything have to be shot this way now? | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.152.74.159 |
Well I wonder if 3D is merely a scam to get more money. Here in Bristol it costs an extra £2-30 (I think) to watch a 3D film. I suspect the cost of the 3D process is more than compensated for by the increased ticket prices, which as far as I am aware was never charged with 'old 3D' movies. Oh, and we've just filled in a questionnaire about The Hole so I guess we were a proper preview audience. Somehow I don't think they'll include more Dick Millar or Maurice Renard jokes to make us happy ;-> | ||
| John Forth (John) Username: John Registered: 05-2008 Posted From: 82.24.1.217 |
*Sigh* There goes another one... Craven, Romero, Hooper, etc. All spent. Bracing myself to be disappointed by John Landis' BURKE & HARE now. Funnily enough, I'm sitting watching MONSTER HOUSE on TV just now. Never seen it before, and it's brilliant - what a fun script. The sort of thing Joe Dante should/could have been doing these days. | ||
| Kate (Kathleen) Username: Kathleen Registered: 09-2009 Posted From: 81.152.74.159 |
I did have fun watching the little boy (10? 11?) sitting next to me. He was properly scared and kept his eyes covered quite a lot of the time. Any time the music would telegraph something scary coming up he'd get his hands in position and then peek through his fingers for as long as he could before he had to cover his eyes completely. Nothing in The Hole would have scared ME at that age, so I wonder how it's going to fare with its target (12A) age group? | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.253.77 |
I'd say Romero's far from spent, John... | ||
| John Forth (John) Username: John Registered: 05-2008 Posted From: 82.24.1.217 |
Did you see SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD? Actually, I'm being a bit harsh there. I hated LAND..., but had a lot of time for DIARY OF THE DEAD. But that felt like an upwards blip on a career that's been flatlining for some time now. I guess we'll have to wait and see what he does next. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 147.252.230.148 |
I loved DIARY, but found it difficult to keep awake during SURVIVAL. Joe Dante's work has never really been as much fun as it should have been, I feel. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.253.77 |
I loved LAND and DIARY, and actually really liked SURVIVAL - Romero tried something different, and produced a flawed gem, IMHO. It often seems to me that people just want him to make a carbon copy of NIGHT or DAWN, when his best film is actually DAY. Romero's zombie films have evolved into something unique. | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.55 |
I want to see Dairy of the Dead. the one with the zombie cows... | ||
| John Forth (John) Username: John Registered: 05-2008 Posted From: 217.20.16.180 |
I liked the concept of SURVIVAL..., Zed, but thought the execution was slack and hamstrung by some dreadful actors, not to mention some fundamentally stupid scenes (the zombie on the horse is one that springs to mind). But hey, horses for (zombie) courses! While you're probably right that there are a lot of old fans wishing he'd go back to the style of NIGHT, DAWN and DAY (my personal favourite changes depending on what kind of mood I'm in), I'd much rather that he gave the zombies a rest altogether. I don't think there's much more to be said in the genre, and I'd love to see him use his not inconsiderable talents on something new. Unfortunately, I think the money men have him pegged as 'the zombie guy' now, and he's unlikely to get funding for any other kind of project, which is a shame. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.253.77 |
I'm not too sure about that, John - both DIARY and SURVIVAL were independant affairs, where Romero drummed up the finances himself. I think he's constantly drawn back to his zombies - and as long as he keeps making them, these films will find an audience. And if there's anything new to be said in the zombie subgenre (and I believe there is), Romero is the one who'd going to say it. Btw, what was so stupid about the zombie on a horse? I thought that was an interesting moment. Also, the final scene of the film was a belter (ditto the final scene of DIARY). I know I'm in the minority liking this one, but I did like it quite a bit. Maybe that says more about me than it does the film?  | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
As I've said on here many times before I consider Romero to have made a trilogy of "Dead" films that work perfectly but were unnecessarily tainted by a series of increasingly lacklustre add-ons years after the fact. I choose to ignore everything in the series from 'Land Of The Dead' on and wouldn't have them in my collection... I've watched LAND and DIARY and was really saddened at how poor they were, so God knows what SURVIVAL must be like! In my opinion the last truly great zombie movie was 'Shaun Of The Dead', and now that the perfect spoof has been made there really isn't much more can be said. Same goes for vampires and werewolves. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.253.77 |
That's your opinion, Steve. But I think you're wrong. Shaun of the Dead was excellent, but give me Survival of the Dead any day of the week. | ||
| John Forth (John) Username: John Registered: 05-2008 Posted From: 82.24.1.217 |
I think it was the incongruity between the cliched visual straight out of a Catherine Cookson family drama - the lone daughter galloping across the fields on her mare - and the dozy look in the zombie's face that made that scene laughable for me. I appreciate that was the joke to a degree, but I found myself laughing at it, rather than with it. It may just be that the humour in SURVIVAL... didn't work for me. But then, I didn't get much out of SHAUN OF THE DEAD either, a confession which - amongst my friends - is tantamount to admitting you've just buggered the family pet while they were in bog. Not sure about the financing situation. I'm still sure that his investors would be far more willing to stump up for a Romero zombie film than they would for, say, KNIGHTRIDERS 2! And with that in mind...  | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 147.252.230.148 |
This might be sacriligious, but I've come to think that NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD is just okay. If you take away that powerful montage at the end, it loses its classic status. I think that the perfect Romero trilogy is to watch DIARY, then DAWN, then DAY. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 109.79.197.125 |
Yes, DAY is the overlooked masterpiece; Dr. Logan, the great unrecognised character; Bub the best zombie performance in film history. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.155.48.119 |
Oh, another film where I loved it second time. We put this on the projector and my middle lad kept having to walk out he was so frightened. And both lads thought it more frightening than Candyman. A terrific 'little' film, and nothing wrong with that at all. Romero is a sucky director I've decided. He has brains and ideas but he can't direct. Diary of the Dead was maybe the best, after Night OLTD. | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.66.23.11 |
Was tere a film in the 80's called The Hole where a group of kids played a heavy metal album backwards and opened a portal to hell? Really creepy scene late on where the central boy ends up with an eye in the palm of his hand and sttabs it out with a piece of broken glass... | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.126.164.88 |
Tony, I kind of agree about Romero. Though from what I remember, his rather static directing style was well-matched for his somewhat neglected drama-horror MARTIN. | ||
| Darren O. Godfrey (Darren_o_godfrey) Username: Darren_o_godfrey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 205.188.117.80 |
Weber, I believe that was called The Gate. | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.66.23.11 |
It was! Thank you Mr G |