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The Return of the Living Dead

The Return of the Living Dead

List Price: $14.95
Your Price: $13.46
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: They don't make them like this anymore
Review: This has got to be the best zombie film outside of the Romero trilogy. It's a wonderful example of what a good director can do with a limited budget. O'Bannon really knew how to properly mix the humor in with the horror, better than most horror/comedies if you ask me. Most horror/comedies seem to get lost lost in the comedy aspect, basically making the movies comedies(Army Of Darkness, Dead Alive, etc. Don't get the wrong idea here, I like those too.). One thing I love about this movie is that the acting of the main characters is superb for this kind of B film. The cast of unknowns is extremely convincing, and the movie benefits so much from this. James Karen is hysterical. I tell ya, there is a scene in this film that has my nearly wetting myself every time. The scene where Clu Gulager is sawing the head off of a restrained zombie while James Karen sobs and whines, and Clu says to him: "Be a man, Frank, be a man!" ROTLD is B movies at their best, I suggest running out and getting it now. Most dvd retailers carry this title, so it's quite easy to find. You'll be back home in time for your ginseng.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: great disk, great movie, lots of quotes
Review: so i love zombie movies. it started when i was 15 and saw dawn of the dead. but i can remember being around 11 and watching return of the living dead pt. II, alone on halloween...completely TERRIFIED! since then it's been sort of an addiction. i've seen...well, most of 'em. fulci's, argento's and the troma stuff. of course, nothing can top romero's, but they're all fun.

that said, ROTLD is a great, GREAT dvd! i picked mine up for about 10 clams at a store. this disc is loaded with great stuff: a nice lil' featurette (which was great to learn about the director and his mission with this 80's black-comedy send-up of Romero's earlier work), a decent commentary, trailers/tv spots, etc. not to mention the movie is hilarious. great gore effects, quality acting (which is strange considering the film and others of it's kind), and TURBO ZOMBIES!

ROTLD is a great addition to anyone's library. and for the cost, you can do a hell of a lot worse with other brain-munching send-ups of this growing genre.

just one more thing: SEND MORE PARAMEDICS!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: "Watch your mouth if you like this job!"
Review: "Over the top" doesn't even begin to describe this film. It's a rare movie that works as a satire of a beloved genre (NIGHT & DAWN OF THE DEAD) and stands more or less alone as a credible horror movie on its own. Unlike something like SCARY MOVIE, which has no pretensions of telling a serious story amidst all the humor, this one is a great zombie movie first, and a gentle parody second.

Set primarily in a medical supply warehouse, a funeral home and a graveyard (how's that for a trifecta of great locations!), we follow the story of what happens when a long hidden government "nerve agent" is released and it turns out it has the power to reanimate the dead. And I don't mean intact corpses. It raises body parts, including, memorably, the remains of a dog that was cut in half (for classroom purposes). The shot of the poor creature, normal on one side and organ's exposed on the other, trying to run, sticks with you. It's disturbing, gross, funny and totally original.

The movie ups the ante with these zombies too. They CAN'T be killed with a shot to the head. In fact, nothing short of totally burning them up in a crematorium does the trick. When warehouse owner Clu Gallagher shows up at the funeral home with a pile of twitching plastic bags, that is a GREAT, grisly moment. Another great touch was having the two characters who breathed in the agent directly (when they were still alive) go straight from being alive to being zombies without all that annoying dieing stuff! The paramedics examine the shivering, but conscious and coherent men, only to discover they have NO heartbeat or blood pressure. Cool idea!

The movie is mostly populated with a bunch of obnoxious teenagers partying at the cemetary. They are the barest caricatures (but funny, because they are caricatures of early '80s teenagers!), and not terribly interesting. The characters we actually care anything about are the older actors. James Karen, as the warehouse manager, is particularly great. His overacting is epic, and yet fits the tone of the film PERFECTLY. It's a comic / horror gem.

The movie features a loud rock score...with some truly terrible songs. And one of the characters, whose name I forget, is a pink haired girl with a death wish, who apparently likes to stip all her clothes off and strut around for hours. So in the midst of all the gore, we also have lengthy full frontal nudity. So if you don't mind your kids seeing crazy zombie violence and brain-eating...you might still shy away from the graphic nudity. I'm not sure the movie could get an "R" anymore these days.

If you haven't seen it, you should probably check out at least NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and DAWN OF THE DEAD first, just so the conventions being poked fun at are fully appreciated. But if you are a fan of those movies, this is the movie for you!

The extras on the DVD are really just a fairly detailed but actually not terribly interesting making-of documentary. I'm sorry, but lovingly telling us about the costume design for this film just doesn't do much for me.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Classic 80's Horror Black Comedy.
Review: Two Employees (James Karen & Thom Mathews) at an Army Surplus Store unwittingly releases nevre gas from Secert U.S. Military Canister. That Canister unleashing an unbelievale terror. That nevre gas re-animated the Dead People back to Life with a Revenous urge of Human Brians. A group of Teens (Beverly Hartley, Miguel A. Nunez Jr., John Philbin, Jewel Shepard, Brain Peck, Linnea Quigley & Mark Venturini) and Two Adults (Clu Gulager & Don Calfa) help eachother to fight the Living Dead, which they seem Impossible to Kill.

Directed by Dan O'Bannon (Screenwriter of Alien, Dark Star, Total Recall) made a Clever Horror Comic Spoof to Night of the Living Dead (1968). Story by Rudolph J. Ricci, John A. Russo & Russell Streiner, who worked on the Original-Night of the Living Dead. The Standout of the Cast is Karen, who gives a Wonderful Comic Performance. DVD's has an good anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1) transfer (Also in Pan & Scan) and an Clean Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono Sound. DVD's has good extras, including:An Commentary Track by the Filmmakers, A Featurette, Conceptual Art, Tons of T.V. Spot and Two Original Theatrical Trailers. This is a Cult Punk Classic of the 80's. Grade:A.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The Return of the Living Dead (1985)
Review: Director: Dan O'Bannon
Cast: Clu Gulager, James Karen, Thom Matthews, John Calfa.
Running Time: 91 minutes.
Rated R for violence, gore, nudity, and language.

Poking fun at George A. Romeo's "Night of the Living Dead" series, this campy-style horror romp is undoubtedly some of the most fun you will have watching a scary movie. Director Dan O'Bannon uses just the right balance of sheer terror and humor, combining elements from Romeo's "Dawn of the Dead" and Sam Raimi's "Evil Dead". "Return of the Living Dead" is a zombie flick for hairbangers, with dead people running around searching for human blood and brains while to the soundtrack of rock music.

A small Virginia town is terrorized by zombies when a chemical spill accidentally resurrects those buried in a nearby cemetary. The blood-crazed zombies are in search of human brains, for it feeds the addiction caused by the unknown chemicals. Clu Gulager and James Karen give good, quirky performances, but Thom Matthews steals the show. Although not a revolutionary film, "Return of the Living Dead" has superb makeup effects, a rocking musical score, and a satiral script that will bring out more than a few chuckles. Spawned two unfortunate sequels.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The best ever
Review: The best zombie/gen x movie ever made. Theres zombies an 80s vibe and punk what else would you want out of a movie. Thres gore and boobs and BRAINS! any one thinking about buying the movie will be pleased its a great pick for any collection.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: i'd give it 4 and a half if i could
Review: what can you say about 'return of the living dead'? it's a zombie movie about punkers partying in a cemetery in kentucky. if you haven't seen it, it's not as lame as that description sounds. i won't go into detail and ruin it all, but truly classic. but sadly, this dvd is not what i remember the movie being. i first saw this in '94 on hbo and it was great. now, i was expecting the same movie, but no...the music is some parts has been changed for example after suicide gets killed, there is no music playing in the background like before, as soon as they run out the music starts but there are no lyrics like before. tarman's voice has been changed to a deeper sound and it doesn't work. one of the zombies asking for more paramedics/cops voice has been changed but thats cool cuz you could barely hear him the first time around. it's a petty gripe, but it matters to me. if you want to hear how the movie originally sounded you have to turn the audio to spanish and hear the original music, it also works the same with the commentary but well...its commentary and you don't hear much of it all.

as for the rest...well the text of the back of the case is pretty wrong because freddy doesn't work at an army surplus store. the tv spots are pretty much the same and alter the details of when the movie is going to be released. you can tell this movie wasn't given the respect it deserved. but still...i give it a 4 instead of a 3 because it's 'return of the living dead' and its actually being released again. i can only hope one day someone will release a copy of the original and add all the cool stuff that was in the work print.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: "Watch your mouth if you like this job!"
Review: "Over the top" doesn't even begin to describe this film. It's a rare movie that works as a satire of a beloved genre (NIGHT & DAWN OF THE DEAD) and stands more or less alone as a credible horror movie on its own. Unlike something like SCARY MOVIE, which has no pretensions of telling a serious story amidst all the humor, this one is a great zombie movie first, and a gentle parody second.

Set primarily in a medical supply warehouse, a funeral home and a graveyard (how's that for a trifecta of great locations!), we follow the story of what happens when a long hidden government "nerve agent" is released and it turns out it has the power to reanimate the dead. And I don't mean intact corpses. It raises body parts, including, memorably, the remains of a dog that was cut in half (for classroom purposes). The shot of the poor creature, normal on one side and organ's exposed on the other, trying to run, sticks with you. It's disturbing, gross, funny and totally original.

The movie ups the ante with these zombies too. They CAN'T be killed with a shot to the head. In fact, nothing short of totally burning them up in a crematorium does the trick. When warehouse owner Clu Gallagher shows up at the funeral home with a pile of twitching plastic bags, that is a GREAT, grisly moment. Another great touch was having the two characters who breathed in the agent directly (when they were still alive) go straight from being alive to being zombies without all that annoying dieing stuff! The paramedics examine the shivering, but conscious and coherent men, only to discover they have NO heartbeat or blood pressure. Cool idea!

The movie is mostly populated with a bunch of obnoxious teenagers partying at the cemetary. They are the barest caricatures (but funny, because they are caricatures of early '80s teenagers!), and not terribly interesting. The characters we actually care anything about are the older actors. James Karen, as the warehouse manager, is particularly great. His overacting is epic, and yet fits the tone of the film PERFECTLY. It's a comic / horror gem.

The movie features a loud rock score...with some truly terrible songs. And one of the characters, whose name I forget, is a pink haired girl with a death wish, who apparently likes to stip all her clothes off and strut around for hours. So in the midst of all the gore, we also have lengthy full frontal nudity. So if you don't mind your kids seeing crazy zombie violence and brain-eating...you might still shy away from the graphic nudity. I'm not sure the movie could get an "R" anymore these days.

If you haven't seen it, you should probably check out at least NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and DAWN OF THE DEAD first, just so the conventions being poked fun at are fully appreciated. But if you are a fan of those movies, this is the movie for you!

The extras on the DVD are really just a fairly detailed but actually not terribly interesting making-of documentary. I'm sorry, but lovingly telling us about the costume design for this film just doesn't do much for me.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Album and Film: 70 stars for every 1 star here!!!! RAW!!!!
Review: Too Bad The Damned never made an Entire album Of "Dead Beat Dance" soundalike tracks and then STUCK WITH THAT DIRECTION!!!
That would've proved that there REALLY IS a (black) God!
Oh, Yeah, The Film Was Really released in 1984!! I know, I was there!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: tarman!! BEST LOOKING ZOMBIE EVER
Review: and very well could be one of the best zombie flicks ever made, next to fulci's zombie. everyone talks of romero but lets all be truly honest,day of the dead is his best and the only one of his zombie films that could compare to either fulci's zombie or dan obannon's return of the living dead. that may tic alot of G.R.fans off but the truth hurts dont it.the only reason fulci's zombie is better than return of the living dead is because fulci aint trying to get any laghs,but to someone else laghs might be better. so return may be better to you after all. with that all said lets get to the detail of the movie. first off this is a pretty much perfectly made slapstick scary movie. directing awsome, score was cool, storyline was awsome, the acting was pretty decent and some of it was real good,alot better than the acting in the great(dawn of the dead...bloody and fleshy classic but bad acting and an even worse ending)back to R.O.T.L.D. your going to love the main detailed zombies in this flick,especialy TARMAN he's the one who basicly starts the ball rolling.I am not going to tell you anything about the story, i will only tell you that R.O.T.L.D is funny in all the right places, scary in all the right places, sexy in one really good spot in the movie (you will know what i mean when you get there!!).return of the living dead is by far the best american zombie movie out there,and second best zombie flick ever next to lucio fulci's zombie. get this underated awsome dvd and add it to your horror colection. you can watch it over and over and over and it just gets better,and more funny. this is the first zombie flick that i ever saw i was 6 years old now im 26 and i love the movie more than ever!!!!ps.eat your heart out george romero cause im sticking to the (BRAINS)


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