johnrezas

I wanted to rate this film higher for it's Kung-Fu fighting action. The story is good, except (as other reviewers may have noted) that the subplots and supporting characters get confusing and/or forgotten. A character early in the film gets introduced, and then never reappears despite becoming a plot focus of several other characters. A lot of time in this movie is spent on the training, which is good. But, often, this is at the sacrifice of telling the story. I struggled to keep in mind that this is a film from the 1970s, and so storytelling was different. I would have preferred that the training be condensed down in a montage in order to save time on film for the more important storytelling. This is the primary reason that I rated it a six-star film rather then rating it higher.

I really loved this movie. I just want to get that out there right up front. This is the third in the George A. Romero zombie movie trilogy that began with NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968), continued with DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978), and came to an end with DAY OF THE DEAD (1985). Each movie featured different characters in different situations, but all of them felt as though they told a continuing story within the same story world. NIGHT took place at the start of the zombie apocalypse. DAWN took place during and after the fall of civilization. DAY took place years after that. The progression worked and made perfect sense. Romero went on to make more zombie films, but they all seemed to be more contemporary, and, as such, felt like a different story world from his 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s zombie films. What I loved about DAY OF THE DEAD (1985) is the characters and the dialogue. "Sarah" (Lori Cardille) is the main character, a female lead in a time when that was fairly rare. The supporting characters of "John" (Terry Alexander) and "McDermott" (Jarlath Conroy) provide a lot of insight into the world. "John" has some very good lines regarding the zombie apocalypse. And, of course, "Captain Rhodes" (Joe Pilato) has many of the most entertaining lines of dialogue in the film, and as the antagonist, he really pushed the story forward with his actions and his dialogue.