George A. Romero’s Diary of the Dead
From: Madman Entertainment
Rated R16
95 minutes

Starring: Michelle Morgan, Josh Close, Shawn Roberts, Amy Lalonde, Joe Dinicol, Scott Wentworth, Philip Riccio, Chris Violette, Tatiana Maslany

Whether it be in film or in games, zombies have been given a fair bit of publicity in the last few years with the likes of 28 Days/Weeks Later, Shaun of the Dead, Dead Rising and Left4Dead.

Traditionally, zombies have been mindless, slow moving bodies who, although terrifying, seemed flawed due to the fact that if you kept away from them, didn’t get cornered and had enough weaponry, you could live to tell the tale. But that ideology was challenged in recent times by the notion that because zombies feel no pain then they should be able to push their bodies beyond what they could when they were living and feeling. Enter the fast running, super strength, single minded and semi intelligent zombies from films such as 28 Days Later. Enter a whole new era of undead terror. Romero, however, sticks to the old-school waddling zombies intent on feasting n your brains even if it takes them half an hour to walk up the driveway to do so.

George A. Romero is widely considered the father of zombie movies (well to be fair, none of his non-horror flicks have been anything to write home about), having made Night of the Living Dead (1968), Dawn of the Dead (1978), Day of the Dead (1985) and Land of the Dead (2005) – all epic films within their genre, the original being the standard that all others strive to attain. It would seem that about every decade or so, Romero makes another addition to the “of the Dead” family and perhaps, with the recent release of Diary of The Dead, only a matter of 3-4 years after the successful Land of the Dead, he should have stuck to that tradition.

Diary of the Dead tries too hard to deliver cutting social commentary while dishing out gore mixed with typical moments of black humour. It definitely achieves the humour – but probably not where it was intended. It’s easier to laugh at Diary of the Dead than with it.

The movie follows a group of film students making, ironically enough, a zombie movie of sorts out in the middle of nowhere. When news reports start coming in about the dead mysteriously coming back to life and attacking the living, the group decide to abandon the film shoot and travel back across the country to be with their families. Jason Creed (Joshua Close) whose film project it was, decides to document the groups’ reactions to what is happening as they go from cautious disbelief to an all-out panic for their own survival as they start to experience the phenomenon first hand.

Much of the film uses the handheld camera technique and has a first-person viewpoint – think Blair Witch and Cloverfield, but nowhere near as annoying as the former and nowhere near as stylish as the latter. As another camera gets found, and later on a third we are subjected to different viewpoints, but every now and then Romero cuts to a more traditional camera view to take in a third person perspective and expects the viewer to accept it as being authentic. No doubt Romero is always aiming for “edgy”, but Diary of the Dead comes across about as amateur as the film students it portrays.

Speaking of the characters themselves, I had a difficult time relating to any of them. There’s barely a likeable character amongst them, ranging from moody, ditzy, hedonistic and naïve to dispassionate and completely insensitive. The only character whom I thought might give the cast some substance is the students’ film tutor whom I kept expecting to step-up and take some kind of leadership role. Alas he’s a hopeless alcoholic whose only purpose is some light comic relief. This is emphasised when he chooses a longbow as his weapon of choice due to its “poetic” nature over a variety of ballistic weapons.

This, along with some cringe-worthy plot holes. Firstly that a group of film students making a zombie movie, obviously fans of the genre, never even mention the word “zombie” as the dead start rising around them. But the biggest “OH COME ON!!” moment, which ruins any kind of credibility to the film’s ending, hints that Romero’s heart just wasn’t in Diary of the Dead as much as his previous efforts. In fact I can picture him halfway through production giving a classic face-palm pose and thinking “Shit, I’ve started this, now I’m going to have to finish it”.

Ultimately, George A. Romero’s Diary of the Dead only half achieves what it sets out to. Supposedly a commentary on the YouTube generation, it doesn’t display the technical knowledge to earn the respect of the YouTube generation. Supposedly an edge of your seat survival horror, but too slow-paced to create anything more than a general uneasiness.

Diehard zombie fans should check out Diary of the Dead if just to chalk up another title, but diehard George A. Romero fans will probably get more out of the Special Features than the film itself. Had it been made by an understudy or as a kind of homage to Romero from someone else then Diary of the Dead would hold some spiritual meaning to dedicated fans. But instead, it’s an also-ran and not worthy of the great man’s zombie portfolio.

Special Features:
• Master of the Dead – Interview with George A. Romero
• Speak of the Dead – George A. Romero’s career and his influences
• Into the Camera – Meet the cast in the film
• You Look Dead – A documentary on the make-up effects
• A New Spin on Death – A look into the visual effects of the film
• A World Gone Mad – Cinematography and design of the film
• Character Confessionals – Never before seen character footage
• Familiar Voices – Famous voices used in the background
• The Roots – Another interview with Romero
• The First Week – A filmmakers look through the 1st week of production
• Original Trailer
• Stills Gallery

Watch the trailer:

Barack Obama: His Story
Distributed by: Madman Entertainment

The race to decide the democratic nominee for the 2008 US Presidential Election was by anyone’s standards a stirring moment in history. Although almost unimaginable only a few short years ago, it seemed likely that for the first time ever the nominee would be a woman – and a woman with impeccable political credentials. But that dream ride to the White House was not to be, because her opposing candidate for the Democratic nomination was another one for the history books, the young national Senator for the state of Illinois, Barack Obama.

It soon became apparent to observers across the globe that, while in any other year Hilary Clinton would have had the nomination sewn up, she had the misfortune to face a politician who is truly one out of the box!

So how did a man named Barack Hussein Obama, born to an American mother and Kenyan father get to this exalted position?
Phrases like ‘meteoric rise’ trip off the tongue when you begin to consider this 47 year old, who only became a national senator in 2005. In three short years he has made an indelible impression on the world political landscape.

Barack Obama: His Story is a 60 minute documentary that gives a sweeping insight into the upbringing and background of the man who would eventually become US President. It centres around the democratic nominee race up until the point where Clinton conceded and pledged her support for Obama. If you followed the election to any degree then you might have seen much of the footage used or heard the facts before, but it’s nice to have them presented in a relatively short and succinct one hour package.

The presentation and commentary is matter of fact and to the point with no hearsay, controversy or patriotism. Obama is obviously a great orator and the DVD highlights some of his best speeches, in particular his acceptance speech upon winning the nomination race. Whether he’s the genuine article, or just infinitely more convincing than his predecessor remains to be seen, but it’s easy to walk away from His Story feeling overwhelmingly positive about the future.

The DVD includes a brief 30 minutes of special features broken down into 8 short, factual mini-docos.
They are:
1. Hilary and Bill Clinton – an overview that not so much covers his Presidency, rather than Hilary’s role in it.
2. 2. Black Civil Rights in the USA – a very brief history covering from the days of slavery through to the sixties and seventies.
3. Hazards of becoming President – documents all the assassinations and attempted assassinations of US Presidents. Quite interesting.
4. Kennedy vs Nixon – a rundown of the 1960 election campaign.
5. Black Power – an interesting doco that highlights previous African Americans who have attained positions of power in the Senate and US Government.
6. Know Your Candidates – A newsreel piece on the 1964 election between Lyndon Johnson and Barry Goldwater.
7. Famous Campaigns – documents famous campaigns such as Hoover/Roosavelt, Stevenson/Eisenhower, Carter/Reagan
8. First Ladies – this would make a decent full length documentary in itself if it went through all the First Ladies. But this short piece only focuses on Eleanor Roosavelt, Jacqueline Kennedy, Pat Nixon, Rosalynn Carter and Nancy Reagan.

What I found most interesting is the fact that neither George Bush or George W Bush barely got a mention in the whole DVD apart from when George W Bush had a hand grenade thrown at him. It gives the impression that they’re a piece of American Presidential history that the Producers and perhaps all Americans would rather forget.

Robot Chicken Star Wars

It would seem we are spoilt for choice when it comes to Star Wars parodies in recent times what with the excellent Family Guy Blue Harvest and now Robot Chicken Star Wars. But the two are very different, with Blue Harvest being almost a remake of the whole film and Robot Chicken with its satirical, analytical and anarchic “what if?” view of the Star Wars series.

Featured on the US network Adult Swim, the award winning Robot Chicken series comes in 10 minute shows and is made using various models and action figures and stop-motion animation. Being stop-motion the shows must take an eternity to make and hence it’s understandable they are presented in short sketch style tidbits. Robot Chicken Star Wars itself is only 23 minutes long, essentially a double episode of the show and the skits range between a few seconds and a couple of minutes each.

Written by Matthew Senreich and Seth Green (who also Directs), the feature contains some hit and miss sketches along with a couple of running jokes. It has the blessing of George Lucas himself who also has a cameo in a humorous take on Fan Conventions. Many big names make voice cameos including Star Wars originals such as Mark Hamill and Ahmed Best (Jar Jar Binks). Temuera Morrison doesn’t personally appear but his character does in a somewhat homo-erotic scene with a carbonized Han Solo. The voice actor who plays Jango Fett does a pretty decent job of mimicking our Tem too. Other voice cameos include Malcolm McDowell, Joey Fatone, Hulk Hogan, Seth MacFarlane, Conan O’Brien and James van der Beek.

Highlights include a commercial for Admiral Akbar Cereal, in which 2 children are sitting at the breakfast table about to tuck into their boring breakfast when Admiral Akbar jumps forward and shouts “It’s a TRAP”.

Perhaps the best sketch is a take on the cantina scene where Luke gets accosted by the two bar patrons, one of which exclaims “He said he doesn’t like you – I don’t like you either”. This follows the non-English speaking alien from when he gets out of bed in the morning convincing himself that today is going to be a great day. His piggy-faced buddy then bowls in and convinces him to go to the cantina after work for a few drinks. As the first alien sees Luke at the bar he turns to him and asks in his alien tongue (subtitled for the viewer) where Luke got his hair done. His drunk buddy then steps in and as a joke mistranslates it into those famous lines from the film. Of course this escalates into Obi Wan stepping in to do some limb detachment. It’s a work of genius that needs to be seen to be appreciated.

Then there’s the skits that don’t work. One is an extended scene involving George W Bush which seems completely out of place and is unfunny anyway, and then towards the end there’s a Star Wars on Ice scene that, while cleverly and painstakingly made, goes on too long and brings the show to an anticlimax when it was clearly meant to do exactly the opposite.

The first watch of Robot Chicken Star Wars held a few laugh out loud moments, but then watching it a second time the humour was completely lost on me, not because of a differing mood, but I think it just got old very quickly.

Obviously a 22 minute DVD wouldn’t be worth parting with cash for, so it’s in the Special Features where the value for money lies.

EXTRAS:

About 1.5 hours worth including no less than seven commentaries!
An introduction to Adult Swim cartoons/animations.
Some commentary and video relating to other Robot Chicken episodes
Behind the scenes featurette.
Animation Meeting
Deleted Scenes & Trailers
Photo Gallery & Easter Eggs
Panel Presentation
A Light Speed Time Lapse of the whole production

Score 65%