Remakes of great movies are unnecessary, but this is a solid one.

Rating: Null/10 (16 June 2004)

The original "Dawn of the Dead" was a masterpiece, one of the greatest horror movies of all time. This remake of "Dawn" is not as good, but how could it ever be? I'm not familiar with director Zack Snyder, but no doubt he did his homework on 70's horror films and studied the Romero picture countless of times.
The saturated colors, camera speeds and bloody violence pay homage to those movies. There's also a rather inspired use of Johnny Cash's "The Man Comes Around" during the opening title sequence. Like the original film, a number of survivors find a safe haven in a huge shopping mall. They have their fun in it, but soon it becomes clear to leave the party behind.
There's a nasty sequence involving a pregnant zombie woman. The scene in which a survivor uses a sniper rifle to blow the heads off the undead is demented. And the climax in which the living attempt to escape in armored buses works well. In fact, the picture is a good exercise in style, visceral thrills, horror and pacing. Zombies don't just drag their feet and groan in this remake, they run in record speed.
As mentioned before, it's not a masterpiece, but this is a good horror movie for the MTV audience. Once the action gets going, it's fast-paced and intense. Grade: B
P.S. Why Universal Studios would release this film and yet axe the equally bloody "House of 1000 Corpses" from their lineup is far beyond me.