Dawn of the Dead (2004)
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Ana wakes up one morning to find a neighbor’s kid in her hallway. The kid wants blood and Ana won’t be able to stop her. Soon she realizes the entire city has gone crazy and she’s gonna have to get out. Ana eventually catches up to about a around a dozen people and they hold up in the local mall pondering the end of times. Seems that when there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth.
Overall: The basic blueprint to this film is Romero’s original 1978 film but this one is without a doubt….better! This film is scarier, more intense and doesn’t suffer from the same problems that Romero’s film did. The original was all about social commentary about consumption and consumerism. This film is about survival and what to do about it. This film also works for the same reasons that “28 Days Later” did. It’s got quick zombies who are at least a bit more intelligent the original counterparts. Also, the nice touches with the news clips, the army trying to assemble order and frankly, it doesn’t bog down with stupid mall tricks like the original. This group is trying to survive but also recognizes they can’t stay there forever. The original was supposed to be good because of the characters and how much we learned about the 4 people…but that’s also what was so damn boring. After awhile you just wanted some action. This time a valid criticism could be the lack of character depth and that’s fine. You learned just enough to recognize their strengths and weaknesses. Plus the touches made it so much better. The graphic scenes of cars running people over, the nice aerial shots at the beginning, the camcorder stuff as the credits rolled, the plotline about the pregnant woman and what the daddy ended up doing, and the chess matches with the neighbor. I will admit a few holes appeared here and there but were not important enough to dull my enthusiasm towards this movie. Oh, and don’t leave once the credits roll…the movie keeps going and yes, you can miss something important. Bottom line, this film is fun, it’s enjoyable and a further reminder that Romero’s films although maybe good at the time were done better by everyone else. 11/22/04: So I purchased the unrated, director's-cut version that's "too scary for theatres." I'm not gonna agree it's "too scary" but has more character development and more blood. Not necessarily sure these scenes would have "made or broke" this film but I'm usually for inclusion for those and the other deleted scenes. It gave the viewers a little more cohesiveness of the story, which is always nice. Nice extras including "Andy's Video Diary" and the "News Reports" section. Also, I purchased this DVD from Best Buy so I got the special disc including the "spoof" documentary of what it's like to be a real zombie on a movie set. Amusing...but silly. Comparison: The Pied Piper meets Of Unknown Origin |
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