*** Official DAWN OF THE DEAD Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[Romier S]

As a huge fan of the original my thoughts...

SPOILERS

Storyline was good and retained the spririt of the original IMHO while being very different. Forget the social commentaries here, very little of that is maintained in this remake and to be honest there is really no room (Or dare I say need?) for it in this quality horror/action film. The characters in the film were for the most part very interesting and I loved that they gave the movie more of a group dynamic than the original (many more people gather in the mall, in fact we're talking about 10-12 characters here if not more). There are of course several throwaway characters that are meant as meat for the zombies and others that are terribly under developed (such as the young security guard and his eventual red headed teen girlfriend) but the main cast is still uniformally excellent. One of the side characters, Andy, becomes a favorite early on. Ving Rhames is his usual bad ass self. The yuppie couple is a riot (especially Steve who you'll love to hate). CJ is someone who you will despise but will eventually shock you with his actions. The main characters of Michael and Ana are supposed to present the love interest. Thankfully its all very subdued and this part of the film was more of a backdrop (which I was glad about since I was afraid they would do some cheesy romance crap that had no place in the movie). I think many will be suprised most by Mekhi Phifers's character who really does a 180 from when you first meet him (and is part of the pregnancy payoff mentioned above). Theres also some great cameos by Tom Savini and a suprise cameo by one of the original cast members(I wont ruin it but make sure to keep an eye out for the TV evangelist in the movie )

The zombies were vicious and damn frightening. For those who enjoy the lumbering variety you'll find a few here and there but for the most part these things don't fuck around. They also have a very different feel than the infected found in 28 Days later so any worries of carbon copying were gone within the first 20 minutes for me. The movie is almost non-stop tension. The 10 minute preview is in fact the first 10 minutes of the movie (minus a few bits at the hospital) and its one of the maybe three/four points in the movie where you'll get some real downtime. The gore is through the roof thankfullyand any gore hound will be smiling almost the whole way through. Never is it overdone either but it will make any Dawn fan happy to see the remake lives up the original in this regard.(and man do brains splatter alot here.)

Some negatives: There are some leaps of logic here and there and at times the movie kind of throws its own rules out of the window (though the script writers did a decent good job in creating an explanation for a good number of events they fell a tad short in others). Either way by the time I got to thinking about some of these things I just didn't much care. I liked the film too much to try and dissect it it to death.

To be blunt, I loved it. It stomps all over Resident Evil (which is a movie I actually enjoyed) and while I think it falls short of 28 Days Later.. its right up there in quality. I don't like it more than the original, but I do like AS MUCH as the original. I will have this when it comes to DVD for sure and my wife and are going to see it again next week. Good to have a quality zombie flick back in rotation.

 

[Robert Anthony]

I just posted my review in the review thread (there IS a review thread. I just had to dig a little)

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...hreadid=189641

This was a really fun time at the theater. Better than I expected.

 

[Adam Portrais]

Sorry about that, I saw it on Tuesday. I really enjoyed it.

 

[Robert Anthony]

Yeah, I saw that review on Tuesday--I noticed AICN ran it as well. I don't know about your horror movie rules but it was a pretty cool review. Thanks for getting it out there, and congrats on getting it put on AICN. We trash AICN sometimes--but you can't deny a LOT of people read it.

 

[Adam Portrais]

Really? I never saw it. I looked for it but thought he just threw it away. You don't happen to have the link do you?

Edit: Nix that I found it. Pretty cool I didn't even know it was up.

 

[Alex Spindler]

In a bit of spoiler territory,
I think Anna's conclusion was a bit faulty that only bites caused it. To my recollection, the only person she saw turn was her husband, who could reasonably be concluded to have died due to blood loss. I'm fairly sure I wouldn't have assumed that those that die of non-bites wouldn't turn.

Not that it would have made much of a difference in the film, as they didn't have many people dying of gunshot wounds.

A very well done movie. I may have to come up with a review after I see it again.

 

[Chris Harvey]

Just got back from it and loved it -- a few minor quibbles but loads of fun.

Definitely not disturbing-frightening, but I enjoyed the gung-ho action and the fact that they only loosely adapted the original. After all, we've got Romero's version, perfect for its time -- why do a literal remake when you can do a kick-ass 21st century update?

I don't think it tarnishes Romero's version at all -- it's a different beast... and obviously the director was a fan, since you've got the Tom Savini, etc cameos
.

FWIW, I thought it was a better zombie flick than 28 DAYS LATER (which admittedly isn't really a zombie flick), and certainly one of the better genre movies I've seen in some time.

The audience at my theatre ate it up -- I hope it makes a pile of money. Surprisingly gory for a mainstream studio release too.

 

[Robert Anthony]

Yeah--the Chainsaw stuff especially. I actually thought it was worse than the stuff we saw in the Chainsaw remake, even, which is funny.

Anyone else catch the parallels with "ALIENS" that I saw? Or maybe that's just me. I kinda dig into it in my review, but I think this is more a remake of THAT movie than it really is "Dawn of the Dead." Even down to the leaps of logic the heroines take: Ana correctly guesses that it's the bites, and Ripley and Hudson seem to pull the Queen Bee theory out of thin air as well.

 

[Todd_B]

The one big thing that didn't sit well w/me was the whole sewer trip. Did CJ just have a big "Duh" moment and just remember that there was a sewer entrance that pretty much put them w/in 20 yards of the other building.

Duh!

Todd B

 

[Justin_S]

I've been working on a review for the film for a few days now, and I'll post it here when I finally get it completed. To put it shortly though, I thought the film was simply spectacular, definitely a new addition to the elite remakes list, and I would rate it a solid *****

 

[Matthew Chmiel]

Does anybody know what song plays when the end credits begin?

 

[Adam Portrais]

The Sickness by Disturbed.

 

[Robert Anthony]

That's what's playing at the end of the end--the first song--I'm not sure what that is. It wasn't Disturbed, though.

And the lounge-jazz version of "The Sickness" by Disturbed is eons better than the actual version. I don't like that band at all.

 

[Ray_Gootz]

Another complaint I have with the movie...the great thing about the orginal Dawn is it has an epic feel to it. It's one of the only horror films that feels like Raiders or Spartcus. It feels like it's a huge sweeping story and the charcters never have any down-time, they're always thinking, thinking. This Dawn just didn't have the epic feel of the orginal or Aliens.

Another gripe, Romero's films aren't about the zombies. The real enimies are the humans in his films. In fact if it wasn't for the human in-fighting there'd be no conflict! They'd beat the zombies in 5 minutes! But it's the humans that cause the humans to lose. That's what makes the film so great. Also the new Dawn never spends any time just with the zombies. Romero in all his films constantly lingers on the zombies chilling, walknig around aimlessly. The new film, if the humans don't see the zombies we don't either. It would have been nice during the downtime to show the Zombies wandering around the mall aimlessly.

Someone wrote they want the orginal Day script to be remade as the sequel and I agree. I want Raiders of the lost ark with zomibes. Something tells me that script could produce a zombie film that blows this and 28 days later straight to hell.

Oh and I have to add Dawn is so much better than 28 days later, it's not funny.

 

[Scott Weinberg]

Here's my review:

Dawn of the Dead

I was quite pleased with the movie, setting aside a few minor complaints here and there.

Example: Why wouldn't they have used the sewer tunnels a little earlier?

 

[AaronMan]

Ok, I can't keep quiet about this any longer. This is only my opinion, no one is right, no one is wrong.

I thought this movie was just plain awful. Romero has nothing to worry about. This is a blip on the radar. I can't believe Savini endorsed this thing. I think the makers of "28 Days Later" should be more pissed than Romero, actually.

First off, the actual film stock looked like it was developed in a bathtub. And the camera work wasn't much better. What a joke. I'm sure these tactics were done on purpose, but it just looked sloppy. I just wanted to see what was happening. There was so much quick cutting and editing, I thought I was watching a video on MTV.

What makes the Romero films so good is that the humans end up fighting each other and never face the real problem. they try to live their lives by ignoring what's going on around them.

Where was the gore? I also watch zombie movies to see the bad guys get eaten in slow unflinching graphic detail. I want to see the intestines getting pulled out, decapitations, and dismemberings. Sure, there were a few money shots, but nothing nearly as satisfying as the original.

I wanted to see more (heck, at least a few) zombies falling over, picking things up and with an empty expression on their face, bumping into each other. We see how completely useless they are. They are supposed dead, empty and lifeless; not full of energy running around all pissed off. They should only have enough motor skills to walk and eat. These "new" zombies didn't look dead to me, they looked infected, again like "28 Days Later".

Let me say there have been some good remakes. However, they are the exception, not the rule. I think Cronenberg's "The Fly" and Carpenter's "The Thing" are great. Heck, even Savini's remake of "Night of the Living Dead" as decent. At least it had Romero's involvement.

One thing I hate about remakes are the standard required cameos. Those take me right out of the movie. Ken Foree's was so obvious it was rediculous. Savini's was humorous, but I hate hearing people whisper in the theater, "Hey, its Tom Savini!"

Man, I really wanted to like this. When people tell me to quit comparing it to the original, that's silly. Here's an idea: Don't call it "Dawn of the Dead"! Your just setting yourself up for comparisons. Make different zombie movie! God forbid, be creative!

As for the ending, I don't dare reveal it, but I saw it coming from a mile away. The original's ending is great. Even though you see them get away, you know they aren't going to last much longer.

Oh yeah, good luck actually trying to read the credits at the end. I really wanted to know who did the effects, make ups, etc. If I had worked on this film, I'd be pretty depressed. If anyone can read credits that fast, he/she is a genius. I can't decide which end credits are worse: this one's, or Spawn's.

Ok, its off my chest. Back to your regularly scheduled program.

 

[Ryan Wishton]

A lot of gore was removed from this movie by the pesky MPAA...

An uncut DVD will be hitting our way in Sept. it looks like...

I still havent seen this movie yet and dont know if I will be able to... I might actually be waiting till DVD...

 

[Julie K]

I liked this one. A lot.

I'll even go right ahead and say the heretical - I liked this one better than the original. Is the remake a better film? No, but I enjoyed it more. While appreciating the statements that Romero was making in the original, the macho posturing and territorial feuding is sometimes a bit wearying to watch. Go ahead and burn me at the stake, but I really just want to enjoy zombies munching on helpless victims. I'll sit through social commentary and wry remarks on humanity, but I'm really there for the zombie feastings.

Some things I liked better about the remake:

I cared more about the characters in the remake, even though some of them do really stupid things. To my surprise, I really enjoyed the fast moving zombies. The DVD will hopefully have all the gore we little sickos want, but there were still some very nice moments in the screen version.

I also got more of an apocalyptic tone from the remake and I quite liked the during-the-credits ending.

My complaints are mainly with the speeded up action and editing. And, of course, some of the really stupid things some of the characters do.

 

[Evan Lee]

I saw this movie yesterday and thought it was easily the most entertaining movie I have seen in a theater this year. As for remakes vs. orginials, I have yet to see an orginal that I liked better than the remake. This case included. Also, I thought the celebrity shootout game scene was priceless.

 

[Jordan_E]

I'm not holding my breath. How many times have we heard a director say an uncut version will be on DVD and then we get the theatrical version come release date.