Diary of the Dead, dir. George A. Romero (2007)

NIKKI says: How good was this? I don't know what I expected -- I've enjoyed most of George's films, and I still find his zombies the most believable and scary. I was happy with how this one played out, even if the subtext wasn't too sub this time around. It bordered slightly on hitting me over the head, but there was a point to be made and George made it. He just does death like nobody else.

I don't think this one was near as complex and intelligent as Land of the Dead. It had a very precise theme, and so it was less subtle as Land and therefore, for me, less effective. I think it suffered from the hand-held style. I would have preferred to see it happened in glorious widescreen than through Jason's claustrophobic lens.

Still, it was an enjoyable view into George's ever-interesting be-zombied brain.

3.5/5

The Tell-Tale Heart, dir. Jules Dassin (1941)

STEVE says:
This was a disappointing but well-made adaptation of Poe's story that fails only in its departure from the original work.

I lay the blame here, not on Jules Dassin, but on screenwriter Doane R. Hoag, who decided to leave out the narration which made Poe's story so interesting: Here's this guy, clearly insane, trying to justify the murder of an old man for no other reason than the old man's blind eye freaked him out, by calmly and sanely relating the tale. It's given a miss here, and instead we have a guy who's unjustly abused by his boss and decides to kill him. It's just not as interesting, now matter who shoots it.

The murder scene isn't anywhere near as interesting as Poe's, either. Poe had the narrator hide behind the old man's bedroom door and fix a beam of light on his eye ("I kept quite still and said nothing. For a whole hour I did not move a muscle…") until the old man died of fright. Here, the young man does bring the lantern into the old man's room, then casts it aside and strangles the old man to death! What the hell is this?

The rest of it pans out pretty much the same as in the story, with the police arriving, the young man hearing the beating of the heart, etc., and that's all done brilliantly - but the narrator's cocky nature in the story is undone here by just making the young man crazy, apparently driven over the edge by guilt.

In all, I guess if I hadn't read Poe, I wouldn't have minded this one so much. If Dassin had had a proper screenplay to work with, this would have been a minor classic. As it is, it's kind of forgettable.

2.5/5

Nikki did not view.

Pump Up the Volume, dir. Allan Moyle (1990)

STEVE says:
I'd call this Talk Radio Lite, but there's nothing lite about Pump Up the Volume. I'd say it's Talk Radio for the teen crowd, but I saw Talk Radio when I was in my teens, so that seems slightly redundant. What I can say is that Pump Up the Volume probably had more of an effect on me as far as my personality goes than any other factor I can think of because it introduced me to Lenny Bruce.

In the movie, Slater's character returns a copy of Lenny's How to Talk Dirty and Influence People to the school library. It's ridiculous to think that this book would be stocked in a school library, much less this particular school's library, but we'll let that go in as much as it doesn't affect the plot.

I didn't really know who Lenny Bruce was when I saw Pump Up the Volume. I'd heard the name, mostly in association with George Carlin and Richard Pryor, but had never heard any of his material. Out of curiosity, I ordered the book. I came away from it wanting to be Lenny Bruce, unromantic heroin-induced death not withstanding.

Nikki did not view.

Talk Radio, dir. Oliver Stone (1988)