way more entertaining than original

Rating: 10/10 (21 March 2004)

Remakes. that word sometimes makes me cringe. we have a slew of them getting churned out of hollywood these days. some work, i.e. the ring and the texas chainsaw massacre and well, some don't. (shaft always comes to mind on this one.)
as i entered the theatre with my wife and brother, my expectations were high for this. after a few trailers we were off and running. i had already previewed the first ten minutes of this film on the USA network and i was already intrigued. From there, the movie never let's down. We are quickly met with a few survivors who, as anyone already knows, decides to take refuge in the mall. When they arrive in the mall, they meet up with a few security guards and decide to whole up there for a while. later on, a few more survivors show up and carnage ensues.
Now, what makes this one more different and better to me than the original are these few things:
1.)when they arrive at the mall, it's closed. hasn't even open for business yet so there are no zombies inside.
2.) the use of shuttle busses at the end was creative. i like that touch. use what you got.
3.) the humor was excellent
4.) the characters were great, especially cj and michael and ving rhames character. sarah polley was given a strong female character in ana. thank you for giving a strong actress a strong role.
this movie is far better than the original and if you don't sit through the credits, you may miss something special.
by the way, the whole baby thing almost lost me on this movie, that was the only one cheese factor.