Hey folks, Harry here... We've got a pair of fairly negative reviews and one kinda liking it review. The two negatives have a strong love for Romero's original (as I'm sure we all do) and it seems the part that everybody loves is the opening 10-15 minutes. Then they really like a rooftop relationship between two characters. And they like the gore, but the lack of character development and the over-fixation upon the zombies, rather than the non-zombies seems to be an issue. I'm anxious to check it out, if for no other reason than to support zombie cinema, in all its forms. Here ya go...
Harry-
Just saw a screening of "DAWN OF THE DEAD" last night, and I've got to say, for fans of the original, you will be dissappointed. For those who have not seen Romero's original masterpiece, shame on you, however, you will probably appreciate the movie much more. The movie opens very well, the first ten minutes are amazing. The horror as Anne (Sarah Polley) witnesses the slaughter of her husband by a young girl (daughter? neighbor kid? it is never clearly explained) is executed marvelously, and the movie only gets better when Anne leaves home, and then she crashes her car. The movie only goes down hill from there. We are rapidly introduces several characters, Kenneth (Ving Rhames), Andre (Mekhi Phifer), his pregnant girlfriend Luta, and Michael (Jake Weber). They join up and gain entrance to the mall. Upon entrance to the mall they happen upon security guards holding up inside, the guards are very similar to the soldiers in 28 Days Later. Eventually Anne and the others gain control of the situation, and then the movie really kicks in.
Unlike the original the film is not about the characters, and their relationships in a time of struggle. This film is about a group of people in a mall who are trying to find a way to escape from the zombies. The best scenes in the film involve the interaction between the survivors in the mall and a Ted Nugent look-a-like named Andy who is holed up in the gun store across the way. The characters are weak, and unlike the original you don't care much about the characters, they all seem to be disposable cliches.
On the positive side, these are not your parents zombies, these zombies are mean mother f*ckers. they scream, run fast as hell, and will tear into you like fat guy tearing into a turkey leg at Thanksgiving dinner. The film does not pull any punches where gore is concerned letting blood flow freely.
Anyhow, I didn't particularly like the film. Though it's not a horrible piece of crap, it is sub-par, comapred to the original. Hopefully Romero will soon return full force to reclaim the throne as King of Zombie Movies.
Beluga James
Ok, well that was a very mixed review, this one is a bit better...
Hey Harry,
Saw the movie last night at the Universal Citywalk - it played to a full house.
*SPOILERS you plant assumin' bitches!*
I won't bother going into the basic plot, seeing how that's already been reported.
Very gory - plenty of zombie brains being blown apart. There's even a scene where the character ANDY, who's a survivor on a nearby roof - who communicates with the mall party via a whiteboard and binoc's (who happens to be on the roof of a gunshop) - starts sniping heads of zombies down below in the mall parking lot. The scene begins with the target reticle of the sniper rifle, aimed at the head of a gray streaked long haired zombie. Chiggapow- zombie brains emit from the other end of the target area, zombie falls, scene cuts to Kenneth (Ving) writin' on a whiteboard, "Nice Shot" - above the text, as he holds up the board for Andy to see, is the name JAY LENO, crossed out. They then vote on the next contestant to the little game, a zombie lookalike of Burt Reynolds. Funny stuff, though I was forced to spoil it for you. Heh, someone in the crowd even cried out, "Shoot Bruce Campbell!" (Meaning they wanted the asswipe character - Steve - to be next.)
Everyone for the most part, even the 'zawmbees' acted good enough. Though it's true - there really wasn't enough character developement to go around. The only characters you really get enough insight into (just barely) are Mike, Anna, Steve, Andre and CJ are just barely rounded out. Though there are just too many people in the 'mall party' that exist mainly as fodder. That lessens the original film's power of suspense noticably. (so i'm told, and can safely assume - since a few other audience members voiced similar complaints) I was surprised that Ving's character, was not as fleshed out as you'd assume he would be. He was flat, and the only purpose he seems to have, is to 'find his brother', who's supposedly waiting for him at a haven. Through the movie, he's just a hardass that seems to have lost all hope, and is almost mechanical in his actions until the end of the film, where everyone decides it be best to leave the mall, and head for an offshore island. (Which they assume will have the least amount of zombies.) I noticed a tatoo on his arm, during one scene, that was lead those willing enough to try to make out the words on an otherwise neglected character design, that lead me to beleive Ken was an ex-navy seal, though they never touched on it once in the film. Too much rode on character assumptions. Though you cared when some characters die, the feeling doesn't last very long.
The film is also directed in such a way, where deep in the mind, one knows there won't be a happy ending. Sort of steals a bit of fun from the film - though if you plan on watching the movie and don't care, or have heard/seen the original film, and expect blood, guts, guns, zawmbees, mayhem, and a few scenes of mind scarring disturbing ookiness (severed zombie head, still active in found beverage cooler - pregnant zombie and zombie baby - with twisted human daddy to boot, etc) then you'll get yer fill. I'd see it again anyhow. Better than Resident Evil, that's fer sure.
If this gets posted, call me NoZakuBoy
See, that was a bit better... Now this one is back negative...
Hey Harry,
I caught a screening of Universal's remake or "reimagning" of Dawn of the Dead. Ever since I first heard of this I had been dreading it enormously. I'm a gigantic fan of Romero's work and the original Dawn of the Dead has a place on my favorite 5 horror films of all time. After seeing Nispel ruin my favorite, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, I wasn't exactly rooting for horror remakes. So I was going into this with extremely low expectations wanting to hate it. It was better then I expected, but it wasn't really that good either. Beware, there culd be some potential SPOILERS below too.
The opening scene is probably the best part of the movie, The main character Anne(played by the annoying Sarah Polley) comes home, wakes up to find zombies attacking, you've probably gathered all this from the trailer. This scene I found to be probably the most intense of the movie, but it steadily goes downhill from there.
Of course Ving Rhames kicks all kinds of ass as Kenneth, which is probably his main reason for being in the movie. His character doesn't have much depth though, as do any of the characters. There's just too many to keep a grip on in the film, but this isn't a movie where you need character development.
Even though the opening scene was good, I really didn't dig Sarah Polley's character in this film. I also really hated Mekhi Phiefer's character, him and Sarah Polley were very, very annoying. Mostly all the other characters just seemed to be..there..doing nothing. Waiting for these zombies to eat there fucking brains out.
On the subject of the zombies, much internet debate has been brewing ever since it was found out that they run. And yes they run fast. I expected not to like this aspect of it at all..and I was right. This probably got on my nerves the most. It was extremely fucking annoying. How the fuck do you run when your body is decomposing and stiff from riggamortis?
This is Zack Snyder's debut, and I think it's safe to say I find him very comparable to Paul Anderson. I could just be saying this because Anderson directed the equally shitty Resident Evil. Though I actually though this would be worse then that Although I was expecting it to be even worse.
I'm also a big gore hound. I wasn't expecting there to be much gore in this as I remember hearing somewhere that this was going to be PG-13, but this will definitely be a hard R. There is brains, bone, organs, skin, shit flying all over the place. Though gore doesn't mean a good movie. I also find it hard to believe they aren't going to cut this at all for an R rating.
So in closing- I'd wait for rental. It was better then the average Romero fan would think, there's a lot of gore, but like I said earlier, that doesn't equal a good movie. but still wouldn't be worth plunking down 10 bucks to see.
Also, THE KEN FOREE CAMEO OWNED EVERYTHING ELSE IN THE MOVIE!
Figured I'd also plug my own site if there's a small chance of this getting used ReluctantProductions.Com
morbidodyssey
