Brikar

"Dawn of the Dead" (2004)
Starring: Ving Rhames, Sarah Polley
Written by: James Gunn
Directed by: Zach Snyder

"When there's no more room in Hell, the Dead will walk the Earth."

Possibly the best tagline for any movie. Ever.

George A. Romero's original "Dawn of the Dead" was a cheesy, silly horror flick filled with over-the-top gore and ridiculous stereotypes to make a bit of social commentary. Zach Snyder's "Dawn of the Dead" is a gruesome, fun horror flick with very little social commentary.

But we won't hold that against it.

The only thing that has been kept from Romero's original (aside from cameos by several cast members) is the idea of survivors of the zombie infestation in a large shopping mall. This time, the cast has increased from four people to nearly a dozen, but each of them is unique enough that we never get lost on who is who. Sarah Polley plays Anna, a young nurse, who goes to bed one night with her lover, and wakes up in Hell the next morning.

After barely escaping her home and neighborhood, Anna falls in with Ken (Rhames), a police officer. Soon, they locate another group of survivors who are headed for the local mall. Once there, they quickly find that the zombies have surrounded the mall, and there is no way out.

The movie sets itself up rather quickly, with the zombies first attacking and Anna and Ken making it to the mall in under 15 minutes. After that, the movie adds a few new characters with the mall's surviving night security force, who have decided to make the mall their new home, a group from a nearby church, and a gunshop owner from across the street named Andy.

Slowly, we learn more about the characters, and they grow together, but don't expect too much. "Dawn of the Dead" is slick and fun, but hardly deep. The zombies are no longer slow, shuffling, dumb creatures who stand idly by while people hit them in the face with pies. In 2004, if you don't have a gun or sharp or heavy blunt object, you will likely not survive.

The direction is solid - action sequences are visceral and well-shot. CG special effects are rare, and when they do show up, they hardly intrude. The most CG-heavy this flick gets is when a truck runs over zombies, and the bodies get crunched underneath.

Overall, "Dawn of the Dead" is a pretty fun flick. It's gruesome, although not nearly as much as some parts of the original. But it's loud, and fun, and never boring.

SCORE:
"Dawn of the Dead" - B+

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Stag

More scary or more gruesome???

It looks like it would be more scary then the original.

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Brikar

Since any scariness in the original was killed by it's near-comedic tone, yes, I'd consider this new one scarier than the old.

__________________
"A million monkeys typing until the end of time will produce the complete works of William Shakespeare. Ten thousand monkeys typing for ten thousand years will write a Hemingway. Ten monkeys typing over Columbus Day weekend will give you a Dan Brown."

http://olympusmans.blogspot.com
http://benforrealz.blogspot.com

Stag

Yeah, the original was sort of campy gore, if i remember correctly.

__________________
"I want to do a motorboat on Shatner's manboobs" - Sam Cogley