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Day of the Dead (Divimax Special Edition)

Day of the Dead (Divimax Special Edition)

List Price: $29.98
Your Price: $26.98
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A great film
Review: I remember seeing this film as a kid and remembering how gory it was. For that reason, I put off watching it for more than a decade. Come up to the present and I'm in my 20s, have survived Irreversible, Salo, Men Behind The Sun, and Come & See (to name a few), not what you'd call "family viewing" nor "lite-fare". I decided to give DOTD another try and damn, it's a great film. I had no idea of how nihilistic, how critical of the military (and science), of humanity it is. Wow, no wonder it wasn't popular when it came out. There's some pretty great ideas in this film, one of the best being that mankind made this mess and it's too late...best to just start again and scrap the old. Of course that's a bleak way to look at life, but if you can appreciate it, wow, this film is something wonderful! Also, the film has a great protagonist, a female, one forced to navigate between her hope for a scientific sollution and her need to keep the tensions level among the men.
And what of the gore? Well, it's still incredible. Yes, there's lots of it. But watching DOTD, you really appreciate the craft and artistry of f/x wizards. Before CGI, as it is here, the effects are legendary. I'm pretty sure DOTD didn't win an Oscar that year for effects but I'm also pretty sure whatever did was no where near as spectacular as DOTD.
One of my biggest complaints was the score. It's nice but a product of it's time: it's 80's, synthesized, and pleasant. I wanted something more industrial, more experimental. Upon reflection I realized that the music actually helps make this nihilistic film watchable, counteracting all of the unpleasantness of the movie. So the score's actually just as it should be.
Yes this film is claustrophobic, almost unbearably so, But that's a strength really. Given how much this DVD is and what's on it and what a great film it is, I'd say hands down purchase this asap. You can be sure you won't get a better print of DOTD!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: FAV
Review: This is my fav of the "dead" trilogy, it has EVERYTHING good actors, good effects and a good story. I think this one showcases true emotion in the film with the characters and situations involved. This one is the end technically (whether #4 gets made makes no difference this is the end for the fans) and when you view it you need to look at the deeper message behind the film as you were supposed to with the others. I also love this film because it showcases a memorable line said by one man stating that God isn't to blame for the mess but man because man has gotten to big for his britches trying to figure God's stuff out. This also has the best effects out of all to films Romero did. The final edition to the Dead trilogy delivers in EVERY way.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: This truly is a Dead series.
Review: I have to admit, I only saw this movie because I heard it was the goriest out of the 3. I wasn't expecting that to actually be true. This movie features some of the most disturbing death scenes ever put on film. Too bad the talking and theories became a serious bore after you realize nothing has happened for an hour. It is somewhat of an interesting movie compared to the other two, but it's not in the same class as Night of the Living Dead or Dawn of the Dead. I guess they had to learn the hard way that releasing a horror movie the same year as it's parody (Return of the Living Dead).

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: THE ZOMBIES ARE ATTACKING!!!!!
Review: I LOVE THIS MOVIE. THIS IS THE 3RD SEQUAL IN GORGE'S LIVING DEAD TRIOLGY. THIS MOVIE IS THE GORYIEST OF THE THREE. I LOVE IT SOOOO MUCH THAT I WENT AND BOUGHT THIS NEW DVD EVEN THOUGH I BOUGHT THE VHS TAPE A LONG TIME AGO. I LOVE THIS MOVIE. THIS MOVIE IS GOOD BUT THE DAWN OF THR DEAD IS STILL BETTER. SOOOO THE MOVIE IS ABOUT A UNDER GROUND ZOMBIE RESITANCE GROUP WHO ARE TRYING TO FIND A WAY TO END THE ZOMBIE ATTACK AND THE NEW LEADER WANTS TO CHANGE EVERYTHING AND THE ZOMBIES BREAK IN AND THEY HAVE TO KILL THEM. A GOOD MOVIE.......BUY IT!!

PS. LETS KILL SOME ZOMBIES!!!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: 'Day' disappoints.....
Review: George Romero, himself, would tell you that this is his favorite of the three film trilogy, 'Night,' 'Dawn,' and now 'Day.' It was also the least successful commercially of the three. I mainly purchased it to complete my trilogy. Romero actually intended a different film than the one presented here, but budget constraints made him hone the script down. As in the former films, a lone group of survivors try to survive in a world gone 'dead!' This time the story surrounds a group of scientists convinced that they can somehow pacify the dead, so we can live amongst them, yeah right. Unfortunately they are not alone to work on this theory, a series of misfit soldiers are encamped with them in an underground shelter, and they don't buy the pacifying angle. Of course, things come to a head and mayhem breaks loose. Personally, I felt they spent far too much time on theories and analysis, and far too few minutes showing the actually ghouls. For the best gore scenes, skip the first 3/4's of the film and get to the last 20 minutes of the film. In my opinion, Romero should return to what made his films great, the ghouls, more gore, less dialogue. The dvd itself has plenty of extras, and if you're a fan of the series, you could sit through this boring film to get to the end. If not, you might want to pass, and get 'Dawn of the Dead,' instead.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: We all know the movie is great, But how is this edition?
Review: We all know that "Day of the Dead" is an awesome movie, even if you are one of those people who choose to remain steadfast in the more Campy comic book fantasy land of "Dawn of the Dead".
So with the obvious already stated, lets get down to the real question. How does "Anchor Bay's Special Edition" stack up?

First off, I can tell you that I have viewed this movie on VHS many many many many many times. And just let me say that the transfer quality on this DVD is nothing less than a miracle. You cannot stress this enough in a movie filmed mostly in a cave. I'm noticing new things in the movie I didn't even know existed before. The first disc has everything else you would excpect, pretty good commentary, etc.

THE SECOND DISC IS WHAT ROMERO FANS HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR. An awesome documentary on the making of the film, witch includes an insight from Goerge A Romero on all three of the films. Also, over 30 minutes of raw footage provided by Tom Savini of the making of day of the dead's legendary gore effects. Stills, radio spots, trailors, AND EVEN THE ORIGINAL SCRIPT FOR "DAY OF THE DEAD"! TRUST ME, IT'S NOT EVEN THE SAME MOVIE!

All We can do is pray that Anchor bay will put the same kind of devotion into their upcoming release of "Dawn of the Dead" that they did in "Day". Until then, THIS IS THE ULTIMATE EDITON OF ANY OF THE MOVIES IN THE TRILOGY!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Awsome Version
Review: I just bought this and i must say that Anchor Bay has pulled through again! The dvd looks and sounds amazing and the special features are AMAZING. I'm beginning to really like the DiViMaX series. I'm not gonna include a review because everything that can be said has been. But I will commet onthe special Features.There are two commentaries which are insightful and they are up to date because they were JUST made. Same with all the features. The making of is great and so is the picture gallaries. The dvd is amazing and probably the best one for the dead series so far. There is a 3 disc version of dawn of the dead expected soon also so it will be a close match. I recommend this dvd to anyone who likes: Day of the dead, the other dead films, or just a great zombie movie. cheers!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great Buy!
Review: What else can be said about this package ? The movie is a masterpiece and for those of you who don't like or understand the constant bickering and fighting between the scientists and the soldiers (or the soldiers among themselves for that matter) go look up the term 'cabin fever' and it psychological effects on groups.
The two documentaries are great and an interesting look into the group of people that created this great film.
A very strong point, I think, about the storyline is that none of the characters are really explained and you just have to look at them as they come and try to figure out why they react the way they react. No needless boring explanations, let your own imagination built the picture. It's not the bite-size chunks people are used to in films nowadays, but it works for me!
Who was Bub before ? Why is Logan so obsessed with child-parent relations ? Why does Sarah stay with Miguel while he is a pain in the A ? etc. Think it up yourself as you watch the story rollercoaster by.
Furthermore the gory FX are the best ever seen in a horror movie. All wet, dripping real FX not the lame computer fill-in jobs of today, but latex masks, buckets of blood and intestines, fake arms, legs, torsos and heads being shot up, hacked off or bitten chunks out of. All looking stunningly real.
A must have for every zombie fan!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A Classic given the DVD presentation it deserves.
Review: I really enjoyed this film. The first time I watched it was when I was in high school, and the sheer realism of the FX made me physically ill. But I was also enthralled. How did they DO that?!? This was back when they couldn't just farm out a scene to a group of CGI techies and have them punch up an intrusively obvious digital effect (almost every obnoxious frame of "Spawn" comes to mind). The ingenuity and hard work it took to produce so many high-impact visual effects that were so convincing is just mind boggling.

I've heard various complaints about the story's dearth of likeable characters. A character does not have to be likeable to be interesting. Characters are also vital in their ability to move the story along. The personal conflicts within the group of survivors is the dynamic that keeps the story moving. I also think most everyone's reaction to the movie would have been far more negative if the various soldiers that had been ripped apart in such graphic detail were sympathetic characters. Imagine if instead of professional soldiers they had been young cadet volunteers from a military school, and it was good-natured but inexperienced teenagers being violently torn limb from blood-spattered limb. Not cool. But luckily they weren't, they were insufferable psychotic a**holes and we relished every gory moment of their grisly demise.

I wish that the relationship between Sarah and Miguel could have been more firmly established. The lewd and suggestive comments made by the other soldiers to Sarah about "her boyfriend" did not quite portray their relationship to a satisfactory degree. I feel it might have been further explored through perhaps flashbacks to earlier experiences they had shared. It would have helped us understand how much the two of them had been changed by what they had gone through. Miguel begins the film as a sweaty, neurotic, verbally combative jerk. You wonder a little bit why Sarah cares about him in the first place. It is difficult to have empathy for him as he deteriorates further because we never knew him when he was more likeable. I think that Sarah was a little underdeveloped, (What sort of doctor is she? How did she come to be here? Did she have a family?) but that she still made a very viable heroine that you could root for and care about. Strong women characters in a story are awesome. Unless that is the only thing they are: strong. Michelle Rodriguez's character in "Resident Evil" was this sort of one-dimensional character. Sigourney Weaver's character in "Alien" and "Aliens" on the other hand was also very tough and capable but she was also multi-talented, brave, and had emotions other than just arrogance and anger. Sarah has that same sort of depth of character that endears her to the audience.

"Day" is by no means a perfect film, but it has so much to offer as a fun and scary cinematic experience. Also when you hear about the budget constraints that George Romero, Tom Savini, and the rest of the crew worked under, (by choice no less!), you gain a greater appreciation for just what an accomplishment it was. A lot of other people have used budgets an order of magnitude larger and made films that can only be used to show to disobedient prisoners as punishment in some of our tougher prisons. Apparently Romero was given the chance to more than double his meager budget of $3 million if he made a movie bland enough to be given an R rating. Romero had the guts to turn down the offer of more money, knowing that he would hold truer to his vision with a smaller budget than with the strait-jacket of the MPAA. He might not have been able to make a movie to the scale that he had envisioned in his original script, but he did make a unique horror film with memorable characters, imaginative locations, and stunning hardcore FX that is deserving of every ounce of its cult popularity.

This special edition DVD set from Anchor Bay is definately worth the money. The gorgeous Divimax transfer of the film itself is stunningly crisp and vibrant, and the sound is just fantastic. The commentary tracks included on the feature disc are fun and informative to listen to. It is especially interesting to hear the often surprised reaction from the other commentators when one of them mentions a certain piece of trivia, or a particular tidbit of information. The extra disc containing the making of documentary, interviews with the cast, video taken on the set during filming, etc. is also quite absorbing and very well put together. Even the keep case is carefully designed to be creepy and disturbing. If I had to voice one gripe it would be the lack of Closed Captions. I hope more of my favorite films are given such lavish attention when brought to DVD.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Very entertaining film
Review: Having just viewed this film on DVD and then the director's cut of "Dawn of the Dead" on VHS, I found "Day" to be way more entertaining and stimulating. Many fans and critics paint "Dawn" as the best film of this series, but don't believe the hype. This film boasts:

1. Special effects that are light years beyond "Dawn" in believability and still impressive even against today's standards. This probably owes to the fact that although Savini did not have the advantages of digital effects, he yet found inventive and ingenious ways to circumvent the disadvantages of "real-time" special effects that tend to ruin the illusion of reality. You can tell they really put 110% into it--no half-hearted efforts.

2. Excellent editing. Personally, I found "Dawn" to be way too long and with a number of quite boring/unnecessary scenes that probably could have been excised from the film without diminishing from it. In comparison, "Day" has a nice flow and momentum that is generally more successful in leaving you feeling just right in terms of satisfaction.

3. More captivating story: Whereas "Dawn" focuses soley upon a group of survivors somewhat "trapped" in a mall and what transpires during their "survival," "Day" focuses on a more nuanced situation. The survivors are scientists and soldiers that are remnants of the military industrial complex, and their mission is to find a way to "cure" the zombie problem. Hey, right there you already have a much more interesting premise! Then they mix in political intrigue as these two camps dissolve into conflict. Throw in some comedy, characters with interesting motivations, effects truly deserving of the title "special," and a slam-dunk zombie invasion finale and you have a zombirrific film.

4. DVD extras: Granted, they are releasing a repackaged "Dawn" on DVD in March 2004, but still the DVD for "Day" has a great, informative commentary from the Director and crew and interesting extras to boot (including Romero's script for his original "Xanadu" vision of the film which eventually had to be pared down due to budgetary constraints). Although, the lead actress really hogs the commentary time to little benefit to the viewer/listener.

I have to say, the only real disappoints with this film are the zombie in the title sequence, the ending, and the quantity of profanity (way over board on this one). The ending is uber-conventional and just doesn't seem right. But hey, even Romero concedes these weak spots in the commentary!

So there you have it: if nothing else, you owe to yourself to at least check out the final installment in Romero's mighty "Dead" triology so you can check it off your list and form your own equally worthless opinion to be shared on Amazon.com!


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