Customer Reviews
Dull and senseless... - By: John, 04 Sep 2010 
For myself I think zombie films work best when they have a documentary, or at least a naturalistic, feel - which is why, of Romero's last several films, I preferred the more low-key Diary to the gaudier Land of the Dead. On a human level what I find dramatically interesting is watching people cope - or fail to cope - with extreme situations. If this is done realistically then some sort of social commentary is a natural by-product of the storytelling - asin the shopping mall setting of Dawn of the Dead. To me gore is only interesting if it arises out of plausible situations & involves characters who are (at least) tolerably believable.
Survival of the Dead offers none of these pleasures. Instead we have a bunch of below-cliche soldiers & a crack-shot geek (rescued from random rednecksin some wood somewhere) pitching up on Plum Island, 'off Delaware', where a boring feud has been dragging on forever between the two utterly implausible Irish familiesin cowboy hats who live there. Things drag on, people split up, shout loudly when searching for friends who have suddenly disappeared (so as to make sure any enemies or zombies hear them), & spray bullets around as if they'rein unlimited supply. On the one hand people get shot repeatedly but struggle on to the point where I was expecting them to reveal they'd slipped on bullet-proof vests. On the other there's a bad Western movie gunfight at the end where people, despite being about ten feet apart, never seem to hit each other at all. And never, never run out of bullets.
Despite society collapsing people are uploading videos of themselves on the internet, which is still working, as is TV, complete with lame topical chat-shows. Electricity supplies seem to continue uninterrupted even 6 weeks after the crisis has begun. The soldiers go to the island with some notion of finding a liveable environment but the narrative is totally bereft of discussions or perceptions of survival, morality, resources, technology, fuel, medicine etc. Instead we get a thin opposition (one Irish clan keeps the dead chained up, still animate; the other shoots themin the head) passing itself off as a moral discourse, with never a discussion of practical matters. Forget the dead: what do the living have to eat on this modest island? A lesbian character was potentially interestingin the context of a grimly utilitarian debate about 'keeping up the population' but no such notion was essayed. Oddly, this (very attractive) woman is first shown, for no reason but voyeurism, masturbatingin a jeep.
The whole film - which I felt consistently chose the wrong things to focus on at every turn - was like a boring, super-unimaginative inversion of the seeming happy end of Day of the Dead (where the survivors end up on a tropical island, & the film closes on a hopeful note). I actually found myself longing for a P.C. schematic set-up a la the rehash of Terry Nation's Survivors: I'd rather have seen a Muslim, a housewife, someone black, a racist etc thrown together & trying to get through.
I felt George Romero had got bored with his apocalyptic set-up, & allowed that sense of boredom to be played outin the characters, who spend almost no time thinking about why what has happened has happened, or what they might do about it, or what will happen generally.
The cgi gore looked cheap a lot of the time, but that would have mattered so much less if I had cared at all about the characters or been engaged by the situation. I've read a lot of criticism of the actors, but frankly if it had been stuffed with Oscar-winners they'd all have been stymied by the crummy script.
The dvd I bought comes with no extras whatsoever.
Very entertaining - By: A. Maffei, 07 Aug 2010 
It's always nice to recognize the touch of Romero.
I know that people usually are expecting more but,
after all what's been written & shot, I guess
it's quite difficult to find something new to please
people.
Allin all this was a good effort & 90 entertaining
minutes to spendin front of tv.
survival of the dead - By: Mr. T. J. Brooks, 09 Jun 2010 not up to george`s original films, but good all the same. excellent make up & photography
it does what it says on the tin - By: Mr. T. S. Cowell, 07 Jun 2010 
Don't expect any Oscar winning performances, but it is exactly what you'd expect from the legend that is Romero. It has an interesting story & the death scenes are quite good. If you like zombie movies then this is well worth it, considering the rubbish that is made by Romero imitators. Get this or die...
Better than most - By: M. Franklin, 01 Jun 2010 Firstly I am a huge fan of Romero's work. The original Dawn of the Dead is one of my most favourite films & Day of the Dead is another masterpiece too. The new films "Land" & "Diaries" were still pretty good, although they did not live up to the claustrophobia & ability to engage the audience like the previous films. I've read the other reviews of "Survival" & seen it myself . . . & you know what, I think it's pretty good.
It's not a large budget movie, but it's handled well & effectivein the way it promotes a sense of a world at war. Also one of the fundamental ideas behind Romero's work (which is missing from many other zombie movies, such as the Dawn of the Dead remake) is that the charactersin the film could have survived (well, most of them) & done well if they had all just worked together -soin other words, the zombies are a threat for sure, but the real undoing of the group is the group's inability to set aside differences & work as a team. You definitely see thisin the original Dawn of the Dead with the character Roger not respecting the threat of the zombies & as a result getting bitten, & then later the biker invasion (if the human survivors had worked together then what a team they would have made), &in Day of the Dead with the high hostilities between the military & the scientists, & alsoin the new films as well. So, what I think Survival of the Dead does really well is underline that the real threatin the zombie crisis is not the zombies themselves but the way humans interact with each other. The films conveys a sense of tragedy with every human death because there are so few humans left. So while the zombies are definitely a threat, the real danger is human nature & the way people behavein an emergency.
For sure, the effects aren't even as good as Day of the Dead (Tom Savini, where are you?!) but they are certainly adequate. I thought the first three quarters of the film was quite involving -you become immersedin the tragedy (as well as the real tragedy, which is people killing people) & actually care about the characters. For me it was just the final onslaught that lost it -the end wasn't terrible, it's just that Romero has set such high standards before that he didn't live up to what I know he can achieve.
Having said, it is still well worth your time & very enjoyable.
