Dawn of the Dead is a successful remake on most levels...

Rating: 7/10 (30 March 2004)

Dawn of the Dead is a remake of Romero's earlier work of the same title. The story basically revolves around a storyline of a zombie epidemic. Fighting for their lives, a group of survivors barricade themselves inside a mall in attempts to stay alive. The group consists of a tough cop (Rhames), a nurse (Polley), a couple (Phifer & Korobkina) expecting a child, a suburbanite (Weber), a mall security guard (Kelly), and a cast of other characters.
-POSSIBLE SPOILERS-
I felt that this movie worked on most levels. I've seen the Romero original before (although it has been a few years ago) and I thought that this was just as good as the original (if not better...). I thought that the characters portrayed by Rhames and Weber were both done very well as I felt bad for those guys and felt that both of them just wanted to do the right thing. Phifer's character also has a speech in which he tells Rhames his concerns regarding the birth of his child that is briefly moving. The action is intense, the zombies are very bloodthirsty, and the story flows well for the most part.
My few complaints are that I thought Polley's character was under-developed. I also felt that there were a few slow spots in the movie that seemed to be there just to waste time. Also, some of the characters (notably the girl with the dog, the young security guard, and the snobby guy with the boat) are extremely annoying and for the most part serve no real purpose in the film.
Overall, I was impressed. I typically hate most of the contemporary horror movies (from the last 10 years or so) that seem to have terrible storylines, horrible dialogue, etc. I was pleasantly surprised awhile back with the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake and I was pleasantly surprised with the new Dawn of the Dead. Hopefully, filmmakers will take a note from these two movies and make GOOD horror movies.
7 out of 10