Review by kaylakaze

I just watched this (I finished it like 5 minutes ago) and I agree. This movie could have been pretty decent (for a 1978 film with bright orange-red tempur paint looking blood) if it were around 90 minutes long. At 140 minutes, there's just way too much boring stuff. The characters are completely unlikable and barely smarter than the zombies. The first 20 minutes was decent enough because there was a lot of action. I'm not entirely sure what the action was about, but there was action, and heads exploding and cops. Then it was boring for a while. Then one of the main characters flails strangely at a zombie that wasn't bothering him. Then it's boring for a very long time and the characters have time to show you how annoying and stupid they are. I'm starting to think at this time that I was supposed to be cheering for the zombies. Then, with about 25 minutes left, something interesting happens and the movie gets watchable. People say the movie is full of social commentary (hopefully they're not referring to the "der, shoppers are like zombies" crap), but the only time I saw it was in this end part, and it was far from subtle. And this is the only part of the movie (apart from the couple of minutes in the beginning) where there's any halfway decent gore.

Not funny. Not scary. Not creepy. Not very exciting. If there was any useful "social commentary" value or interesting dramatic irony in it, as there was in Night of, I sure didn't see it. I'm willing to give it the benefit of a doubt and say maybe back in its day it was good, but it certainly doesn't hold up. This is why they make remakes, and give me the remake over this original any day.