Cracks of Dawn: The original has nothing to worry about..

Rating: Null/10 (20 March 2004)

I enjoy zombie-plague apocalypse movies, I don't know why. Maybe my therapist could tell me. I'll see just about anything that features the walking dead, or in this case, sprinting dead. The gold standard for this genre is obviously the Romero trilogy. While I enjoyed aspects of the DOTD update, it was pretty clear that this was a studio cash grab. Why even use the DAWN title when this would have been more aptly titled Resident Evil Goes Shopping? Because they know we'll show up to the theaters like the mindless flesh-eaters to the mall. Possible spoilers ahead. There is interesting new cemetery ground broken here; Re-animated fetus storyline, different escape/rescue scenarios, Chilling CGI enhanced scenes of what appear to be thousands of the undead in the streets. On the plus side: Cool Johnny Cash song about death over credit montage of chaotic news clips builds a sense of dread. Strong opening, it grabs you. It certainly doesn't waste any time getting the characters to the mall. The acting is strong among the main cast. Zombie make-up very impressive. Negatives include fancy MTV/Private Ryan camera work that makes the action hard to decipher at crucial times. Too many characters/weak characterization. Running zombies? Pretty co-ordinated for something just revived from the dead. I prefer my zombies retarded and limping across the parking lot. Gore is rather subdued, nothing's shocking. An insulting storyline involving a dog named "Chips" (groan). Cliched hero sacrifices himself for the greater good bit. "You go on, I'll catch up...arghhh!!" Blechhh. 6 out of 10. It can be entertaining at times and while I do recommend it to zombie fans, it will just make you appreciate the original more and hey, that's not a bad thing. "We whupped 'em and we got it all!!!"