Survival of the Dead 2010

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: The hurtful truth is that others -- many others -- have co-opted Romero's whole living dead thing and have been doing it with more style than the Pittsburgh zombie auteur is capable of these days. Read more

Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times: Placidly photographed and lacking in urgency, Survival shows us the living flailing at fate and the dead just flailing. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Survival of the Dead almost never snaps into focus. Even its oxymoronic title doesn't work. It feels marginal, like an extended footnote. Read more

Jeff Shannon, Seattle Times: A lot of Survival seems stale, as if Romero were growing bored with his own redundancies. Now in the final years of an uneven career, Romero needs to get out of his comfort zone. Read more

Noel Murray, AV Club: As a Romero project, Survival Of The Dead is a frustrating disappointment, nowhere close to the director's classic '70s films -- though it is better than Romero's last "reboot" zombie effort, Diary Of The Dead. Read more

Tom Russo, Boston Globe: Romero's Hatfields-and-McCoys setup feels more random than creative, and the idea that they're all Irish -- or cowboys! -- is more desultory still. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: At long last, the Dead series may be ready for that final bullet between the eyes. Read more

Clark Collis, Entertainment Weekly: There are some memorable images, including the sight of a beautiful, horse-riding ''dead head.'' But for much of the movie, Van Sprang's zombie fatigue seems to be an echo of Romero's own. Read more

Michael Ordona, Los Angeles Times: Romero is using better actors than in the past, which helps. But they are hobbled by a sometimes nonsensical script with logical lapses even genre fans will find hard to swallow. Read more

Nick Pinkerton, L.A. Weekly: Big set pieces showing how atrophied Romero's cutting and tactical framing have become is depressing to anyone who has valued his films for more than just splatter. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: I suppose it's nice that Romero has a hobby, but he couldn't be more of a bore if he were showing off his pine cone collection. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Like the literary monster mash-ups that have invaded the best-seller lists, Survival of the Dead mixes genres and milieus with absurdist glee. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: There's little here that's new or interesting; the movie is for hard-core Romero devotees only, and even they should approach this picture with expectations kept in check. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: After you've seen, oh, I dunno, 20 or 30 zombie movies, you sort of stop caring very much, unless something new is going on, as in Zombieland. Read more

Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle: For the first time, a Romero zombie movie feels as if it was rushed out. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Shuffle, shuffle, limp, limp. That's not the shambling gait of the zombie hordes in George Romero's Survival of the Dead, but the draggy pace of the movie itself. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Survival of the Dead never comes alive. It feels constrained by a low budget, short running time and the outdated conceit of slow zombies trudging toward fresh victims. Read more

Stephen Cole, Globe and Mail: Even Romero's staunchest fans might conclude their hero is going through the motions here. Yes, almost like a zombie. Read more

Jason Anderson, Toronto Star: What we've got here is a just a B-movie western with buckets of gore, which might be fine coming from a Romero wannabe but not from the genuine article. Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: Another year, another George Romero Dead film. But wait, there's plenty to delight in his sixth zombie eat-'em-up, which follows a rogue group of soldiers who come between warring clans on an isolated island. Read more

Leslie Felperin, Variety: Steeped in fan-pleasing gore but woefully thin on ideas, originality (beyond new zombie-offing methods) or directorial flair. Read more

Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice: At best, Survival's ending, with a riff on "beating a dead horse," may be taken for evidence of self-awareness. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: It has been six days since the dead began to walk, and a powerful emotion is gripping the land. Boredom. Read more