Product: Night of the Living Dead (1990)
Rating: 5.0
Amazingly, even better than the original classic!
If the internet had been nearly as popular in 1990 as it is now, I'll bet the IMDB message boards would be filled with protests from outraged fans of the original (the way the message boards on Dawn of the Dead are now). I'm pretty sure that when this came out, there were plenty of people screaming blasphemy. But, I'm almost ashamed to say this, I found this remake even better than the original, and the original is a classic! It launched the zombie genre of to incredible popularity, and it's a just plain amazing movie. I rented this earlier the other day, not really sure what to expect. What I found was that this movie was much more entertaining and exciting and suspenseful than the original. It moves faster, has better effects, better acting, the works. Also, it throws in plenty of little plot-twists so a scholar of the original could still be surpried. From the get-go, things aren't as they seem. We think we know what's going to happen, but then it's totally different and unexpected.The biggest change in this flick is the Barbara character. No longer is she a whiny little pansy who just sits around and cries. Now, she shoots zombies, she stabs zombies, she fights zombies, and she finally points out what I'm sure many fans of the Dead trilogy have known for a long time. "They're so slow!" she observes. "We could just walk right past 'em. We wouldn't even have to run."The acting is very impressive. Tony Todd is outstanding as Ben, improving on Duane Jones' excellent performance from the '68 version. Patricia Tallman is probably the best in the movie. Stong, capable and determined. Tom Towles is great as the scumbag, and his wife performs admirably. William Butler is pretty good as Tom, but his girlfriend is definately the worst performer in the movie.Tom Savini, as well as being an amazing make-up man, proves himself to be a capable director. The movie has plenty of style, and the action scenes are exciting. The make-up in the film is appropriatly gross (though nothing compared to Dawn or Day) and the zombies are a big improvement over the ones in the original.Roger Ebert and other critics may have hated this movie, but trust me when I say that it not only lives up to the original, but also improves on it. The two movies are also different enough to warrant owning both (Millenium Edition for the original).5/5