Search - Return of the Living Dead Part II on DVD

Wanted this to be better

Ron | Jersey | 02/20/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I really enjoyed the first Return of the Living Dead. It was silly in some places, but it had some nice zombie effects, and a killer dark ending. The second picture is a little too over the top for me with the silliness. Just the bad 80's hair and music is enough to make you cringe. Thom Mathews and James Karen reprise (sort of) their roles from the first film. The ending leaves a bit to be desired. The third installment of the series is much darker and better than this one. But to be fair, part 2 is light years ahead of the recent direct to dvd sequels 4 and 5."

Good campy Evil Dead-ish zombie movie, BAD new audio track.

Jason M. Stephens | Mount Morris, MI | 10/07/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Return of the Living Dead 2: This was a childhood favorite of mine (I lived off of horror movies). As far as the realism scale, it's not quite as believable as the black and white of things in Night of the Living Dead. It's more campy and comic book-ish, but that's not a bad thing neccassaringly.

The "tar zombie" as fans affectionately call him is one of the most memorable and creepy zombies ever to grace (ooze?) across the screen.

The picture quality is very well done, I swear I see all the grossness of the tar zombie in all it's glory as I've never seen before. No, it's not digitally remastered like say the Star Wars DVD set, but it looks way better than any VHS copy out there. Colors are good, rich and the most vibrant I've ever seen of this movie, however there is some graininess to the dots. Yes, the soundtrack is changed, and yes, I did notice it even though it's been about 3 years since I last saw the movie.

I have to admit, the new soundtrack utterly blows. Theres some pounding intense synthesizer music during the tar zombie scene, and the movie quickly edits to Jessie running away in the graveyard. The music doesn't have any flow from one pace to the other in this time; it goes from this suspenseful music to slow and eerie like the music was cut in midbeat. It's like getting about 3/4 the way through the Jaws theme and in the middle of the note it goes to the Halloween music theme. There were at least 3 instances that I saw where either the dialogue was not in synce with the actors mouths or the actors mouths were moving and nothing was heard at all. Good movie, BAD new audio track. Seriously, we need the old one back.

Ultimately, it doesn't ruin the movie but it's a big dent on the side of car."