DAWN OF THE DEAD (Remake)

Rating:

Year Released: 2004

Zombie Speed: Fast

Cause of Zombie Outbreak: Unknown

Best Zombie: Burt Reynolds (if you’ve seen it you’ll know what we’re talking about).

Most Creative Weapon: Croquet Mallet

Best Death: Ty’s death… there’s nothing really special about it but it’s just nice to see the guy who’s been a jerk for the entire movie finally getting his comeuppance.

Sub-Genre: Dystopian

Amanda Jean’s Review: The Dawn of the Dead remake might not seem like the great Romero film but its still pretty awesome. The only similarities are a mall environment and the undead lurking outside (fast ones!). BUT! This movie does have  zombie babies, a killing-celebrity-zombie-look-a-likes game, a cute dog (that survives) and Phil from Modern Family in living and undead form. Now go watch this movie and come up with an explanation on how the parking garage zombie can jump with no legs (you will understand soon enough).

Matt’s Review: Calling this movie a remake really undersells it. Apart from the fact that it involves zombies and a mall it has very little to do with the original Dawn of the Dead, which is a good thing. Dawn didn’t need a remake and I’m dissapointed that the studio behind this film felt the need to create a “remake” knowing that it would be more successful with an established fanbase rather than just allowing Zach Snyder to create his own fresh zombie mythos. Complaining aside, this new Dawn is a great zombie film in its own right and definitely one of the better non-comedy zombie films to be made in the last two decades, even better than some of Romero’s recent films. Also the “zombies that look like famous celebrities” scene is one of the my absolute favorite scenes in the history of zombie fiction. The scene is on YouTube, check it out here. Snyder has a new film, Sucker Punch, coming out in a few weeks, go see it!

Up next week(ish) is Raiders of the Living Dead! If this movie is completely devoid of fedoras we’ll be very upset… we’re prepared to be upset.

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