Sunday, July 10, 2016

DAWN OF THE DEAD (2004)

Dawn of the Dead Movie Review

A virus has spread across the world, and it's bringing the dead back to life. A group of survivors take shelter in a shopping mall, but how long can they survive there? Find out in Dawn of the Dead, the 2004 remake of the 1978 George A. Romero classic. The early 2000s were an interesting time in the zombie horror subgenre--it witnessed a rebirth of sorts through a combination of fantastic originals (28 Days Later), side-splitting comedy/horror hybrids (Shaun of the Dead), and wonderful remakes, and when it comes to remakes, few can hold a candle to this film. The movie starts off with one of the most intense, fast-paced sequences you will see--we get tons of blood, gore, car crashes, explosions, our introduction to the zombies, and absolute hell breaking loose--all before the opening credits!

She likes her meat rare

The movie grabs you from the start and doesn't let go--the pace remains fast, the blood continues to fly, and the zombies continue to come. If you're a fan of the original (and other Romero work for that matter) you will delight in the multiple references to this movie's predecessors, not the least of which is cameos from both Tom Savini and Ken Foree. There are many characters in this film, and almost all are actually likable, making some of the deaths hard to handle.

You're welcome guys

The acting is surprisingly good as well--Sarah Polley is a sympathetic lead (though one may wonder why she got over her husband so quickly), Tim Roth doppelganger Jake Weber does a wonderful job as the brains of the outfit, the vastly underrated Michael Kelly steals the show as reluctant hero CJ, and Ving Rhames is...well, Ving Rhames, so he just naturally brings the awesomeness. Fans of the television show Modern Family will be excited and perhaps even stunned to see Ty Burrell make an appearance as Steve, arguably the biggest jerk in recent horror.

Phil Zomphy

Burrell does such a good job making you hate his character that for the longest time, while watching Modern Family, I couldn't see him as Phil--I could only see him as Steve and thought it weird he was playing such a goofball on this TV show. Unfortunately, this isn't a perfect film--after all, Mekhi Phifer is in it, so that costs the film at least one point right off the bat. There is a montage in the middle of the film set to some lounge version of Disturbed's Down With The Sickness that is painfully out of place, and the baby scene is as unnecessary as the bare asses scene in The Wiz. If not for these three things director Zack Snyder may have delivered a flawless horror film in his major motion picture debut--still, Dawn of the Dead sits near the top of its genre and is a must-see.

On A Scale Of One To Ten: 9

Dawn of the Dead Movie Trailer

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