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September 14, 2006
NOTLD 3-D
Last weekend, I was invited to see NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD 3-D. I dig the 3-D movies, though not as much as a certain director friend of mine who incessantly chants "Is it in three dimension?" as a mantra, and when drunk, will yammer on and on about how "three-dimension" movies change your life.
I met said individual for the first time at a 3-D festival. It was also the first time he encountered Douglas Dunning, so I guess those movies really did change my life. But NOTLD 3-D was at the Egyptian, where Douglas is banned for threatening that when he gets through with it, there won't be a brick left standing in the place.
I had to wait outside in line for quite a long time. I'm not used to waiting in line for a movie. I noticed that horror movie fans tend to dress a lot like me. Either that or they're total nerds, like the guys behind me babbling about how Brian De Palma isn't the true director of his own movies because he doesn't know how to operate the camera.
Sid Haig walked around entertaining the crowd a bit, with references to fried chicken and such. After about 30 minutes, we got to go in.
I should note that this showing was in polarized 3-D, though in most of its release it will be in anaglyphic (red/green) 3-D. I'm not too fond of the latter, though it's not yet possible to do the polarized stuff on a mass-produced DVD and have it work properly. The screenwriter, Robert Valding, emailed me the next day to say that it looked better in anaglyphic, that the polarized showing was darker than it ought to have been, and some scenes went into 2-D that shouldn't have. I noticed the latter issue, but not the former; I am nonetheless glad I saw it in the polarized format.
Fist thing to note is that this is NOT the George Romero movie with enhancements. It's an unofficial remake, seeing as how the original is in the public domain and anyone can do anything they want with it (like that hideous version that had new footage inserted). The NOTLD name is this movie's biggest strength and greatest weakness -- from a marketing standpoint, it sells the film; but it suffers by comparison to both Romero's original and the 1990 remake by Tom Savini. It's more comedic than both -- most of the characters are potheads -- and has an actual evil villain (guess who...I mean, you don't put Sid Haig in your movie and have him play a sane, well-adjusted, morally upstanding type). Romero's social commentary is largely absent also -- Ben isn't a black guy this time around.
On the plus side of the additions, there's a naked sex scene featuring two completely irrelevant characters. It's awesome. And the nicest nod to the original is a text message on a cell phone that reads "coming 4 u barb."
But the reason to see the movie is the 3-D, bottom line. As a 2-D remake, it wouldn't pass muster. As an original flick with a different title (STONED DEAD, perhaps?), it would entertain on cable or video (it's way better than HOUSE OF THE DEAD II, also featuring Haig). As a 3-D zombie flick on the big screen, it offers you something new and fun. There's a spoileriffic 3-D bit at the end involving fire that is especially cool.
See this in a theater. It will lose at least 40% of the fun factor on DVD -- at home you may not appreciate, for example, just how important it is that all scene transitions are dissolves, dissolves in 3-D being particularly cool.
It's like seeing one of those 3-D movies at a theme park, except it's hard R, longer, and more fun. You won't wanna take it home, but you'll probably enjoy the ride while it lasts.
Posted by LYT at September 14, 2006 2:53 PM [Message Board]
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3D zombie movie sounds like fun
Posted by: David N. Scott at September 14, 2006 5:19 PM