Smartorhypo
Highly Overrated But Still Good
ChampDavSlim
The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.
Tyreece Hulme
One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.
gclites
Watched this with some friends. Found it most useful for ridicule, a la MST 3K.A teenage student (who appears to be 30) and a teacher for whatever reason agree to participate in a drug trial locked into a clinic with a confused doctor (Flight of the Concords' Bret McKenzie), an insane nurse, and, as it turns out, a family of ghosts looking for revenge. They experience hallucinations and explore the mystery of how the ghosts died.The movie is laugh out loud hilarious with the three main cast member of Flight of the Concords popping in and out randomly. The mystery makes no sense. The sexual relationship between the girl and the teacher would be creepy were she not clearly about as old as he is. The climax is ridiculously artificial.Basically, grab a beer and make fun of Diagnosis Death and you can have a good time. Take it seriously, and you'll be lost.
John Seal
Being of pensionable age (well, not quite, but I'm over 30), I didn't come to Diagnosis: Death because of comedy team Flights of the Conchords. Though I had heard of FOTC before reading the other reviews for the film, I wouldn't recognize them if they walked past me on the street. No, I came to Diagnosis: Death because I like horror films and films from New Zealand. Consequently, the relative dearth of Conchords did not disturb me in the least, and I really enjoyed the proceedings--in fact I'd go so far as to say this is the best hospital-based chiller since Lars von Trier's The Kingdom. This is a smartly written, amusing, and occasionally spooky little film with an excellent cast, most notably Suze Tye as Nurse Ratched--er, Nurse Bates. As long as you don't tune in expecting an extended FOTC routine, you'll be well pleased with Diagnosis: Death.
Paul Andrews
Diagnosis: Death is set in New Zealand where English teacher Andre Chang (Raybon Kan) is diagnosed with a rare & terminal form of cancer, Chang is told he has less than three months to live but there is hope as experimental drug trials are currently being held. Chang volunteers to be a guinea pig & test the new cancer drugs, while in hospital he meets schoolgirl Juliet Reid (Jessica Grace Smith) who also has terminal cancer & is there for the trials. The two quickly form a close relationship but start experiencing strange hallucinations as they become convinced that the ghost's of previous patients are trying to tell them something...This New Zealand production was edited, co-written, produced & directed by Jason Stutter & I presume Diagnosis: Death was meant to be some sort of hip modern horror comedy full of references to pop culture, one-liners, medical gags & scary ghostly images. Well, it isn't. In fact I thought it wasn't funny at all & the entire concept of a straight comedy about terminally ill cancer patients just seemed wrong to me & I honestly do not believe cancer is a laughing matter but I guess we all have different senses of humour. I will say right now that I did not find one single scene in Diagnosis: Death funny or amusing or even slightly witty but I am sure some will. I guess Diagnosis: Death is also a slow moving drama as the friendship between two terminally ill cancer patients grow until Chang breaks the law & has sex with a schoolgirl, again not funny or clever & ever so slightly repulsive. Between the romantic interludes & unfunny gags there's also a ghost story here which is never really explained to any great degree, why did Nurse Bates kill her sister & her son again? Why did they get to come back as ghost's while no-one else did? Surely lots of people had died in that hospital so why wasn't the place overrun with ghost's? What significance did the mirror have? The final ten minutes tries to tie up loose ends as quickly as it can but it just felt empty. At 82 minutes long with the end credits taking up a couple of minutes Diagnosis: Death probably runs less than 80 minutes & even then it felt slow at times & the happy ending where Chang suddenly & miraculously recovers from cancer says it all. Keep watch as the end credits roll as after there's a brief extra scene at Bates funeral.The whole hook of Diagnosis: Death is that it stars the guy's from the comedy show The Flight of the Choncords but they have nothing more than cameo's so don't be fooled by the DVD packaging. The whole film has a competent but bland look, there's no real gore except a cut hand, a mouldy skeleton & a head impalement on a stool leg. The entire film takes place in virtually the same location & only features about three main character's that have anything more than a cameo.Filmed in New Zealand the production values are decent enough I suppose but it's still not funny or scary enough. The acting is mixed, Raybon Kan is just wooden & speaks with the same tone all the time while Suze Tye is quite good as the villain.Diagnosis: Death is a horror comedy drama that is neither scary, funny or heartfelt enough. That says it all really, while some will stick up for it I doubt many viewers out there will get much entertainment value out of this.
Samuel Stevens
Don't listen to what everyone else says this film is actually really good. Firstly everyone get over the fact that Flight OF The Conchords aren't actually in it that much. Bret has quite a big role, say the 4th biggest in the film. Rhys is in 2 scenes and Jemaine is only in it for about 2 minutes. After you realise this you can sit back and watch this movie with an open mind. The plot is rather solid and good and the acting is done in a way which is suspenseful and comedic. Overall really enjoyed it. 8/10 Most will enjoy.:D
